Ce vice Impuni, la lecture: Domaine anglais. Suivi de pages retrouvées

by Valery Larbaud, Béatrice Mousli (Editor)

Incomparable «passeur» qui s'est employé à faire connaître en France les écrivains de langue anglaise, espagnole, portugaise, italienne, et réciproquement, à l'étranger, les nouveaux auteurs français, Valery Larbaud avait regroupé ses études sur la littérature de langue anglaise en 1925 pour La Phalange. Il reprit et compléta le volume en 1936 pour les éditions Galimard. Enfin, Domaine anglais figure en 1951 dans ses Œuvres complètes, avec, en appendice, plusieurs études supplémentaires. L'édition de 1998, préparée et présentée par Béatrice Mousli, reprend le volume tel qu'il existe dans l'édition de 1936, l'augmente, et dans une seconde partie, d'autres études écrites par Valery Larbaud sur la littérature anglophone qui n'avaient pas encore été rassemblées. L'ensemble constitue un monument à la littérature anglaise et américaine. Larbaud y célèbre Samuel Butler, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, William Faulkner, Thomas Hardy, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Joyce, George Meredith, Edgar Poe, H.G. Wells, Walt Whitmann et beaucoup d'autres.

688 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

He was born in Vichy, Allier, the only child of a pharmacist. His father died when he was 8, and he was brought up by his mother and aunt. His father had been owner of the Vichy Saint-Yorre mineral water springs, and the family fortune assured him an easy life. He travelled Europe in style. On luxury liners and the Orient Express he carried off the dandy role, with spa visits to nurse fragile health.
Poèmes par un riche amateur, published in 1908, received Octave Mirbeau's vote for Prix Goncourt. Three years later, his novel Fermina Márquez, inspired by his days as a boarder at Sainte-Barbe-des-Champs at Fontenay-aux-Roses, had some Prix Goncourt votes in 1911.
He spoke six languages including English, Italian and Spanish. In France he helped translate and popularise Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Walt Whitman, Samuel Butler, and James Joyce, whose Ulysses was translated by Auguste Morel (1924-1929) under Larbaud's supervision.
At home in Vichy, he saw as friends Charles-Louis Philippe, André Gide, Léon-Paul Fargue and Jean Aubry, his future biographer. An attack of hemiplegia and aphasia in 1935 left him paralysed. Having spent his fortune, he had to sell his property and 15,000 book library. Despite his illness, he continued to receive many honorary titles, and in 1952 he was awarded the Prix National des Lettres.
The Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud was created in 1957 by L'Association Internationale des Amis de Valery Larbaud, a group created to promote the author's work. Past winners of this yearly award include J.M.G. Le Clézio, Jacques Réda, Emmanuel Carrère, and Jean Rolin.
Georges Perec's character Bartlebooth is a cross between Melville's Bartleby and Larbaud's Barnabooth.

Reviews

[Maurizio Manco · Rating 3 out of 5]

"People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading." - Logan Pearsal Smith (cit. a p. 59)

"Sappiamo bene che non diventeremo eruditi a forza di leggere qualunque cosa, ma nutriamo la speranza, piuttosto confusa, di diventare, a forza di leggere, più saggi e più felici. Forse è solo un falso pretesto: un numero immenso di uomini che sono stati perfettamente saggi e felici, nonché un certo numero di Santi, non sapevano leggere." (p. 60)

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lettura interessante e molto scorrevole, si legge velocemente!