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Marshlands

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( 970 ratings, 109 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Marshlands by André Gide, with translation by Damion Searls, is a clever exploration of the creative process and the tension between artistic integrity and societal expectations. The story focuses on an author writing a book about a fictional marshland, while simultaneously dealing with the pressures and absurdities of literary life. The narrative offers a satirical and introspective look at the art of writing and the contradictions inherent in being a writer.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy exploring philosophical narratives with a satirical edge. Set in a mystical landscape, it offers a reflective examination of human nature and society, blending wit and intellect. Ideal for readers who appreciate classic literature with a modern translation, it stimulates both contemplation and laughter.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A slim but powerful work of metafiction by a Nobel Prize-winning French writer and intellectual.

André Gide is the inventor of modern metafiction and autofiction, and his short novel Marshlands shows him handling both forms with a deft and delightful touch. The protagonist of Marshlands is a writer who is writing a book called Marshlands, which is about a reclusive character who lives all alone in a stone tower.

The narrator, by contrast, is anything but a recluse. He is an indefatigable social butterfly, flitting about the Paris literary world and always talking about, what else, the wonderful book he is writing, Marshlands. He tells his friends about the book, and they tell him what they think, which is not exactly flattering, and of course those responses become part of the book in the reader's hand.

Marshlands is both a poised satire of literary pretension and a superb literary invention, and Damion Searls's new translation of this early masterwork by one of the key figures of twentieth-century literature brings out all the sparkle of the original.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Marshlands by André Gide, translated by Damion Searls, receives diverse reviews highlighting its quirky, genre-defying nature. Critics praise it as a clever and funny work that explores themes of writing and ambition with a sense of playful irreverence. It's noted as being compelling and prophetic, challenging readers with its experimental style and a blurring of reality and fiction.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781681374727

Publisher: New York Review Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 January 2021

Country: United States

Imprint: New York Review Books

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 127.0mm

Height: 203.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 96

About the Author

Andre Gide (1869-1951) was a prolific author of novels, short stories, poetry, plays, travel writing, and autobiography. Though he entered the world of letters as a prominent figure in the symbolist movement, Gide later turned toward a more confessional and exploratory form, ruminating on questions of morality, sexuality, desire, religion, and the nature of the self in his work. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947. Damion Searls has translated eleven books for NYRB Classics, including Uwe Johnson's four-book novel Anniversaries (published in two volumes). This is his second translation of Gide's Marshlands; he also rewrote it as "56 Water Street," the first short story in his collection What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going. Dubravka Ugresic is the author of seven works of fiction, including The Museum of Unconditional Surrender and Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, and six collections of essays. Her most recent book is The Age of Skin- Essays. In 2016 she received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature for her body of work.

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