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The Adventuress
by
Audrey Niffenegger (Goodreads Author)
The author of the New York Times bestseller The Time Traveler’s Wife returns with another evocative “novel in pictures,” the much-anticipated follow-up to 2005’s The Three Incestuous Sisters. The Adventuress follows the dreamlike journey of an alchemist’s daughter. After she is kidnapped by a lascivious baron, she turns herself into a moth and flees to the garden of a char...more
Hardcover, 144 pages
Published
September 1st 2006
by Abrams
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Audrey Niffenegger totally won me over with The Time Traveler's Wife:, and I've since been digging around for more work of hers that I can fall in love with. Her other picture book, The Three Incestuous Sisters:, did little for me. This, on the other hand, I thought was wonderful.
Stark and strange and nearly incomplete, this series of images is stitched together with the briefest thread of a story, at once haunting and oddly warm. The afterword explains that the book dates back to...more
Stark and strange and nearly incomplete, this series of images is stitched together with the briefest thread of a story, at once haunting and oddly warm. The afterword explains that the book dates back to...more
Ok, so I’ve read this graphic novel probably more than ten times but I re-read it to my friend who was in town in January and it’s one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors so thought I would include it on this blog.
This graphic novel is strange and wonderful and the only tattoo I have is actually from this book; a picture of two women embracing who are topless but wearing long black skirts and long opera gloves. The tattoo represents self love, my astrological sign, Gemi...more
This graphic novel is strange and wonderful and the only tattoo I have is actually from this book; a picture of two women embracing who are topless but wearing long black skirts and long opera gloves. The tattoo represents self love, my astrological sign, Gemi...more
Strange book.
At best I can describe it as a fairy tale for adults. Reading it restores that feeling of "wtf" I would get while attempting to read way ahead of my ability as a child, into a strange world of monsters and unfathomable sadness... way beyond Jack and Jill.
But other that that sense of dislocation, I didn't bring anything forth with me when the book was finished. I even had to re-read it when someone asked how it ended; I couldn't remember. I susp...more
At best I can describe it as a fairy tale for adults. Reading it restores that feeling of "wtf" I would get while attempting to read way ahead of my ability as a child, into a strange world of monsters and unfathomable sadness... way beyond Jack and Jill.
But other that that sense of dislocation, I didn't bring anything forth with me when the book was finished. I even had to re-read it when someone asked how it ended; I couldn't remember. I susp...more
So I checked this book out of the library at the same as Niffenegger's other illustrated novel The Three Incestuous Sisters. I read The Adventuress second, and I found myself flipping through it much faster than I had with the other visual novel. As Niffenegger explains in what amounts to The Afterword, she created this book in two years while she was studying art in Chicago. In comparison, it is clear that The Three Incestuous Sisters was a labor of love over the course of many, many years. The
...more
The Adventuress - Audrey Niffenegger
Absolutely haunting. The 'novel in pictures' (not to be confused with a 'graphic novel') is a really interesting and emotionally moving form, an adult 'children's picture book' (my description). I came to this book after 'reading' The Three Incestuous Sisters.
[Serendipity for me again after the image/text amalgam "Nadja" by André Breton which i just read and reviewed.:]
The discussion at the end of the book is infor...more
Absolutely haunting. The 'novel in pictures' (not to be confused with a 'graphic novel') is a really interesting and emotionally moving form, an adult 'children's picture book' (my description). I came to this book after 'reading' The Three Incestuous Sisters.
[Serendipity for me again after the image/text amalgam "Nadja" by André Breton which i just read and reviewed.:]
The discussion at the end of the book is infor...more
After reading two novels by Niffenegger (Time Traveler's Wife which I loved at the end of my teens and Her Fearful Symmetry which amused and disturbed me in my 20s) I decided to see Niffenegger's art. I should also say that I saw an interview with Niffenegger and Steven King where Niffenegger was awkward and aloof while Steven King charmed the sun from the sky. I think the personality of the author matters, whether or not you like their writing...
Overall a choppy, odd graphic novel l...more
Overall a choppy, odd graphic novel l...more
Nine times out of ten I think graphic novels are entirely forgettable, but this one made me want to buy it. Spare, poetic, haunting. I love it.
I also loved Niffenegger's comments on the book's process of creation, which were included at the end. It surprised me that the whole thing was originally completed between 1983 and 1985, when the author was in art school. The style of The Adventuress feels entirely postmodern, and fits right in with the current taste. So...way ahead of its ti...more
I also loved Niffenegger's comments on the book's process of creation, which were included at the end. It surprised me that the whole thing was originally completed between 1983 and 1985, when the author was in art school. The style of The Adventuress feels entirely postmodern, and fits right in with the current taste. So...way ahead of its ti...more
Beautifully illustrated. She gives birth to a cat! How cool is that?!
I purchased this in NYC while attending Audrey's reading of Her Fearful Symmetry. Audrey is a visual artist as well as a fantastic author, and here we see the two mediums come together.
Illustrating the story with a unique art technique called Aquatints, Audrey introduces us to a woman created through Alchemy, and the trials and tribulations she endures.
Sometimes creepy and disturbing, always beautiful, her artwork grows in detail as the written words begin to diminish....more
Illustrating the story with a unique art technique called Aquatints, Audrey introduces us to a woman created through Alchemy, and the trials and tribulations she endures.
Sometimes creepy and disturbing, always beautiful, her artwork grows in detail as the written words begin to diminish....more
A woman captured by an avaricious lord. A metamorphosis into a moth. A union with Napoleon. A cat born from a woman. A betrayal. A death. Spirit travelling.
This is basically the story of Audrey Niffenegger's picture story The Adventuress. Fascinating artwork strung together with single sentences or labels to construct something of a mystical fairy tale.
The story is second after the art as Niffenegger says in the afterword. She created the pictures as they came to her in...more
This is basically the story of Audrey Niffenegger's picture story The Adventuress. Fascinating artwork strung together with single sentences or labels to construct something of a mystical fairy tale.
The story is second after the art as Niffenegger says in the afterword. She created the pictures as they came to her in...more
This is again a graphic by Miss Niffenegger. This was her first first book,it was written in 1980's she was a visual artist and just maade an amzingly incredible novel called the Time traveller's wife.
This graphic novel is a girl's adventure, she was a creation of the alchemist and she was taken away by the powerful Baron Von K and forced her to marry him, and she fled from the house and met the horesemen and the Napoleon bonaparte (yes indeed that was "the napoleon Bonaparte"...more
This graphic novel is a girl's adventure, she was a creation of the alchemist and she was taken away by the powerful Baron Von K and forced her to marry him, and she fled from the house and met the horesemen and the Napoleon bonaparte (yes indeed that was "the napoleon Bonaparte"...more
Tracy
rated it
The edition I read (Abrams, ISBN 081097052X) is physically lush. The spine is done up in something resembling green suede and the pages are thick like good cheese. I can see where some people might be turned off. I won't be sharing this story with kids under 14 because of the ambiguous "wedding night" scene. But, I liked the bizarre, dreamy, and inexplicable twists the story took (It reminded me of Robert Altman's "Three Women."). I don't know how she just up and left Mau...more
It offended my delicate sensibilities, but I still thought it was interesting. I really liked some of the pictures. Some of them didn't quite manage to be interesting to me, though. I appreciate the effort, anyway. I think it's an enjoyable enough read/skim/gander, but it's probably not worth actually spending money on. Or maybe it is, just so it can sit around your house and you can flip through it every now and again...Maybe it'd be a better gift (to receive) than something to actually buy (bu...more
I originally checked this out for Readathon but never got around to it. It would have made a great, easy read for the late hours, since it reads like you're having a dream. While I didn't end up loving this as I do The Night Bookmobile (which I did read during Readathon), The Adventuress has some wonderful images- I especially like the cocoon and moth drawings. I still need to read a novel by Niffenegger and I look forward to more of her works.
As with The Three Incestuous Sisters, this book was mainly artwork and not your typical book with a plot. But I am glad I read it, and along with 3IS it helped me to understand Niffenegger's macabre sensibilities that really didn't come through in Time Traveler's Wife, and so I wasn't taken by surprise at the tone and ending of Her Fearful Symmetry. Worth a read: order both of Niffenegger's illustrated novels from your library via Inter-Library Loan.
The story, if there is one, revolves around an unnamed "she" who is created by a scientist and wears only a skirt. Not a book for little kids, here. Her adventures include a foiled marriage, a relationship with Napoleon, giving birth to a cat, and going to a nunnery. These are all supposedly interrelated.
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Hol
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This is another almost wordless “graphic novel” of aquatints published after Niffenegger became a bestselling writer. She made this one in art school in the early 1980s, and it “reads” like an idiosyncratic project you might hope to browse at an artist’s studio, yet here it is as a coffee-table book, a very public format.
This is Audrey Niffenegger's first book -- she skteched the illustrations in the early-mid 1980s. I thought the combination of the illustrations and a small smattering of words were powerful. You know when you read a picture book the illustrations almost tell you the story more than the words? This is what happens here.
This is more of a picture book by Audrey Niffenegger (Time Traveler's Wife), who did the illustrations for it before writing the story. She learned letterpress printing and bookbinding to create the book. Weird, but interesting drawings basically depicting the life of a woman who gives birth to a cat.
Audrey Niffenegger's first book, created between 1983-5, when she was a student at the Art Institute of Chicago. The original was a hand made edition of ten copies. Today we might call this a graphic novel. My favorite drawing: They played together, which has a strikingly Japanese feel.
Evan told me to read this book; it is an adult book categorized as a "novel in pictures." It's even more interesting to me now that I am taking a printmaking class (the illustrations are aquatints and I'm learning that technique!).
The story itself is bizarre and surreal (woman gives birth to a cat) -- yet another interesting twist on visual storytelling (see also: The Arrival; Principles of Uncertainty; The Invention of Hugo Cabret). I haven't yet read "The Time Trave...more
The story itself is bizarre and surreal (woman gives birth to a cat) -- yet another interesting twist on visual storytelling (see also: The Arrival; Principles of Uncertainty; The Invention of Hugo Cabret). I haven't yet read "The Time Trave...more
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An odd an interesting book. The original book with the letterpress pages, original prints and hand-bound cover that I saw in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at UIUC when Audrey Niffenegger was visiting was beautiful. It's really a work of art more than a story book.
An odd an interesting book. The original book with the letterpress pages, original prints and hand-bound cover that I saw in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at UIUC when Audrey Niffenegger was visiting was beautiful. It's really a work of art more than a story book.
another strange and interesting visual novel by niffenegger. i liked the strangeness of this story a bit more than 'the three incestuous sisters', though truly still very odd. regardless, niffenegger is a very talented author and artist.
Not a huge fan of her picture books. But you can tell they mean a lot to her. Interesting to see someone's sketch book going into an actual bound book. I would never buy one of these but I enjoy them as a quick read from the library.
Yes, this and The Three Incestuous Sisters are pretty and odd, and goth-y and strange (very Gorey) but all I could think when I had finished this was WHEN is Niffenegger going to write another novel already?
Flipped through this really fast at the bookstore. Like she says in the intro, this makes about as much sense as a dream. But the writing has a great rhythm, and it's weird in a non-boring way. I recommend it!
A very bizarre book, the unusual story and artwork make it feel like the retelling of a dream. But, like a dream, it was able to evoke strong emotion.
Okay, so it only takes ten minutes to read this book, but it contains a lifetime of enjoyment in the beautiful etchings on every page. I love this book!
Rather odd story told in pictures - the artwork was compared somewhere to Edward Gorey's, but, while I love his work, this didn't do much for me.
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Audrey Niffenegger (born June 13, 1963 in South Haven, Michigan) is a writer and artist. She is also a professor in the Interdisciplinary Book Arts MFA Program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts.
Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife (2003), was a national bestseller. The Time Traveler's Wife is an unconventional love story that centers on a man...more
More about Audrey Niffenegger...
Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife (2003), was a national bestseller. The Time Traveler's Wife is an unconventional love story that centers on a man...more
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“Her spirit flew out into the night
And the sky reached down
And drew her up,
And she was filled with light...
And she is happy.”
—
4 people liked it
More quotes…
And the sky reached down
And drew her up,
And she was filled with light...
And she is happy.”
