false 2033025 8 With four elegant and beautifully crafted novels Julien Gracq has established himself as one of France's premier postwar novelists. A mysterious and retiring figure, Gracq characteristically refused the Goncourt, France's most distinguished literary prize, when it was awarded to him in 1951 for this book. As the latest work in the Twentieth-Century Continental Fiction Series, Gracq'a masterpiece is now available for the first time in English. Set in a fictitious Mediterranean port city, <I>The Opposing Shore</I> is the first-person account of a young aristocrat sent to observe the activities of a naval base. The fort lies at the country's border; at its feet is the bay of Syrtes. Across the bay is territory of the enemy who has, for three hundred years, been at war with the narrator's countrymen; the battle has become a complex, tacit game in which no actions are taken and no peace declared. As the narrator comes to understand, everything depends upon a boundary, unseen but certain, separating the two sides. Besides the narrator there are two other main characters, the dark and laconic captain of the base and a woman whose compex relations to both sides of the war brings the narator deeper into the story's web. For many French readers </I>The Opposing Shore</I> (published as <I>Le rivage des Syrtes</I> ), with its theme of transgressions and boundaries, spoke to the issue of defeat and the desire to fail: a paticularly sensitive motif in postwar French literature. But there is nothing about the novel tying it either to France or to the 1950s; in fact, Gracq's novel, with its elaborate, richly detailed prose, will be of greater interest now than at any point in the last twenty years. 2037725 1986 Opposing Shore total:27|5:17|4:5|3:3|2:1|1:1| 27 117 113 3 1319521 2714303595 9782714303592 15 2 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1218620834m/1319521.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1319521.Le_Rivage_des_Syrtes 5 0 false Mon Jan 21 06:18:17 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 28 20:34:40 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 28 20:34:46 -0800 2007 more...]]> 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 4 0 false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 10:24:31 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 18:50:09 -0800 2009 1319521 2714303595 9782714303592 15 2 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1218620834m/1319521.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1319521.Le_Rivage_des_Syrtes 5 0 false Sat Feb 23 04:59:45 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 23 05:01:13 -0800 2008 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Tue Dec 08 03:26:47 -0800 2009 Tue Dec 08 03:26:47 -0800 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Fri Nov 27 06:33:53 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 27 06:33:53 -0800 2009 1319521 2714303595 9782714303592 15 2 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1218620834m/1319521.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1319521.Le_Rivage_des_Syrtes 0 0 false Mon Nov 23 10:03:10 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 24 04:00:41 -0800 2009 1319521 2714303595 9782714303592 15 2 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1218620834m/1319521.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1319521.Le_Rivage_des_Syrtes 4 0 false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 1998 Tue Nov 17 08:16:14 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 17 08:16:14 -0800 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Fri Nov 13 21:03:44 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 13 21:03:48 -0800 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Sun Oct 25 08:58:43 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 08:58:43 -0700 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Mon Oct 19 06:49:18 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 06:49:18 -0700 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Sun Oct 18 12:28:25 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 12:28:25 -0700 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Wed Oct 14 21:43:57 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 21:43:57 -0700 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 5 0 false Sat Oct 10 10:09:01 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 10:09:01 -0700 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Wed Oct 07 06:49:55 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 06:49:55 -0700 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Tue Sep 29 03:55:24 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 03:55:24 -0700 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Sun Sep 27 09:30:01 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 09:30:04 -0700 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Mon Sep 21 06:14:02 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 06:14:07 -0700 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Fri Sep 18 19:45:52 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 19:45:52 -0700 2009 2033025 0002712245 9780002712248 9 1 4.33 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2033025.Opposing_Shore 0 0 false Sun Sep 13 08:55:56 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 08:55:56 -0700 2009 1319521 2714303595 9782714303592 15 2 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1218620834m/1319521.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1319521.Le_Rivage_des_Syrtes 0 0 false Fri Sep 11 12:28:39 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 11:46:30 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2033025