Raymond Roussel and the Republic of Dreams

by Mark Ford, John Ashbery (Foreword by)

Raymond Roussel, one of the most outlandishly compelling literary figures of modern times, died in mysterious circumstances at the age of fifty-six in 1933. The story Mark Ford tells about Roussel's life and work is at once captivating, heartbreaking, and almost beyond belief. Could even Proust or Nabokov have invented a character as strange and memorable as the exquisite dandy and graphomaniac this book brings to life?Roussel's poetry, novels, and plays influenced the work of many well-known writers and artists: Jean Cocteau found in him "genius in its pure state," while Salvador Dalí, who died with a copy of Roussel's Impressions d'Afrique on his bedside table, believed him to be one of France's greatest writers ever. Edmond Rostand, Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Michel Foucault, and Alain Robbe-Grillet all testified to the power of his unique imagination.By any standards, Roussel led an extraordinary life. Tremendously wealthy, he took two world tours during which he hardly left his hotel rooms. He never wore his clothes more than twice, and generally avoided conversation because he dreaded that it might turn morbid. Ford, himself a poet, traces the evolution of Roussel's bizarre compositional methods and describes the idiosyncrasies of a life structured as obsessively as Roussel structured his writing.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, France

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can be more fascinatng than a very rich man who traveled around the world without leaving his room on a ship, and built the first luxury car for himself, that had a toilet. Which by the way, Boris Vian owned much later. Also he self-published his novels, and when that failed - he produced a big budget play based on that novel. Of course that failed as well. But Duchamp and Breton was in that audience and it changed both lives for the better. Yet ironically Roussel could care less for the avant-garde. He thought he was producing 'popular' entertainment pieces.

Impressions of Africa - the first work by a 20th Century "outsider."

[Joseph Sales]

As they say, I would sacrifice my left lung to have more time to read the books I want to read.

[Ian Durant · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an odd cove Raymond Rousell was! This lit biog is the best interpretation of his life and work that exists. I only came to it through the work of John Ashbery for whom he was a lightening rod in his European literary explorations, and thereby influenced in one way or another a generation of writers in the 1950’s and 60’s. He provided a bridge from the earlier surrealists but was himself a one off - brilliant, idiosyncratic and way out eccentric. He is the sort of character you might find in a Peter Carey novel, a man who invented and reinvented himself multiple times.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as a companion to Locus Solus and mighty helpful on that front. Such an intriguing man and heartbreakingly ignored literary figure. Ford's book rides the line between lit crit and biography without being bogged in either. More of us need to read Roussel.

[Eric Byrd]

This guy sounds awesome.