Days And Nights

by Alfred Jarry

Translated by Alexis Lykiard, illustrated by Peter Blegvad Jarry's first, visionar, novel written when he was only 24. Often considered his masterpiece, it follows the desertion of everyday life of an army conscript who escapes his intolerable existence through dreams, hallucinations, drug orgies, a pursuit of his double and finally madness.

Genres: Fiction, France, Literature

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Alfred Jarry was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side.
Best known for his play Ubu Roi (1896), which is often cited as a forerunner to the surrealist theatre of the 1920s and 1930s, Jarry wrote in a variety of genres and styles. He wrote plays, novels, poetry, essays and speculative journalism. His texts present some pioneering work in the field of absurdist literature. Sometimes grotesque or misunderstood (i.e. the opening line in his play Ubu Roi, "Merdre!", has been translated into English as "Pshit!", "Shitteth!", "Shittr!", "Shikt!", "Shrit!" and "Pschitt!"), he invented a pseudoscience called 'Pataphysics.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jarry’s Pataphysical autobiography, Part I. While Jarry really did get drafted and ‘fucked around’ his way out of the army, the story is secondary to the interstitial, barely disguised sermonizing upon the Ténet Pataphysic. They’re disarmingly beautiful; pure and absurd transmissions of a cosmology so idiosyncratic to Jarry that they strike away the breath. Symbolists, Absurdists, Surrealists, and little old me owe a significant part of our identities to his oblique genius. And Soft Machine. Second record, Volume 2: fucking love letter to Jarry, stretched across one of the best LP’s of the late-60’s and gorgeously sung by another of his immortal, exquisite heirs, Robert Wyatt.

Everybody: “ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP…”

[lisa_emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book a few years ago, but I decided to read again to see if I could make any more sense of it this time around. If it was any longer than its slim 130+ pages, it would've have taken me a month to read it. This contradicts one's intuition, since, on the surface it appears easy to read. The book is broken into a number of very short chapters, but one must be aware of the style which can slacken the reader. Days and Nights is a satiristic autobiography of Jarry's Sisphyean military stint. But acquiring a linear story would be near impossible, since the novel weaves in and out of hallucination and interior streams. The point of reading it, would be to immerse yourself in Jarry's strange, word-ordered universe. It's a work that presages the non-linear, stream-of-consciouness often found in modernist writers: Joyce, Faulker, Burroughs, and etc.


“Who can say whether the dead pass their time-or Time- in remembering, retrogressing into organic dissolution back to their primordial soul of stone; and whether it is not highly disagreeable for them to be awoken (nocturnal oblivion being above all yet another memory) when the day of Eternity dawns.” - Alfred Jarry Days and Nights

[Sinem A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Georges Perec, Boris Vian gibi isimleri etkilemiş, patafizik kuramının bildiğim kadarıyla isim babası, dadaizm, gerçeküstü ve fütürizm akımlarının önemli ismi, Übü nün yazarı...
Absürd edebiyatı sevenlere edebiyattan farklı tatlar almak isteyenlere şiddetle tavsiye ederim.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jarry's "Days and Nights" is a hallucinatory novel about a deserter in the French military named Sengle, who artfully and comically invents numerous schemes to escape his intolerable service. "Days and Nights" was Jarry's first novel written at 24. I really did enjoy this one...the endless poetic and exploratory language is without parallel. It is easy to see how Jarry was an influence on the Surrealists!

[Stanley Gemmell · Rating 5 out of 5]

ATLAS PRESS FIRST EDITION WITH THE SHINY COVER IS THE WAY TO GO - THIS BOOK IS LIFE CHANGINGLY BEAUTIFUL - DARK, PROMISCUOUS ABSURDITY - GENIUS

[Lukáš Palán · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bom dia.

Opět se ukázalo, že nemám v krvi dost heroinu na to, aby plně docenil šílenství, které tento génius valí na papyrus. Což je pravděpodobně jedině dobře, páč kdybych heroin bral, pravděpodobně bych měl tik tok a poslouchal mili vanili. V týhle knížce jde tedy o vojnu a o tom já vím hodně, protože jsem právě dohrál Sniper Elite 4: Rome na plajstašonu. Člověk na vojně musí pořád čekat, až někdo přejde ze svýho stanoviště, a nebo hodit kamen do rohu, aby tam odlákal nácka, takže není divu, že to leze lidem na palici. Já ovšem preferuji lést na starou. Takže 6/10.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

This hallucinating novel follows a man of many schemes and attempts at the escaping his insanity.
“Book III: The Cyanic Dreams” & “Book IV: The Book of Dricarpe” stood out, as the rest of the novel dragged a little for me. Still, Alfred Jarry is a master of the surrealist movement.

[Zafer Yalçınpınar · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Alfred Jarry’den “Günler ve Geceler” Ötesi Tinsellik” (Zafer Yalçınpınar)
Aydınlık Kitap, Sayı: 202, 4 Mart 2016, s.4
bkz: http://bit.ly/alfredjarrygunlergeceler

[Jakub Kr]

coping mechanismy rok trvající vojenské služby Alfreda Jarryho: schizofrenie a hašiš