Axel

by Auguste de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam

English, French (translation)

Genres: Drama, France, Plays, Fiction, French Literature, Romanticism

175 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1890

About the author

Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (7 November 1838 – 19 August 1889) was a French symbolist writer.

Reviews

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sorrows of Young Werther meets Romeo and Juliet with a dash of Springs Awakening and The Sound of Music?

Some really powerful scenes. Some really interesting dialog. Some incredibly tedious scenes.

Quite interesting altogether. Villier was friends with Mallarme, Huysmans, Baudelaire and so many others. A Symbolist feast.

[valen ۶ৎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

me habría encantado que se tratase más sobre sara que axel !!

[quim · Rating 4 out of 5]

¿Qué serían, mañana, todas las realidades comparadas con los espejismos que acabamos de vivir?

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

the MOST Symboliste thing I think I've ever read. Wow.

[David Sterritt]

“Axel,” the long and windy drama by Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, made a huge impression on W.B. Yeats when he saw a five-hour production in the late 19th century, but the great poet didn’t understand much French, so it’s unclear how much of the verbiage he actually took in. Today the play is largely forgotten, and for me it’s far less interesting than Villiers’s earlier “L’Ève future,” but parts of it carry the sort of mystical charge that make it an important work in the history of Symbolist lit, even if Marilyn Gaddis Rose, whose translation I read, calls its second act “perhaps the most tedious…in modern drama,” an amusing and possibly accurate assessment. The drama may never get onto the stage again, but its best portions have a sort of Wagerian weightiness that’s worth encountering on the page. Unenthusiastically recommended.

[Vinícius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahhh não, não foi isso que eu pedi!


Eu definitivamente não tava no pique pra essa leitura. Muita política e relações históricas francesas que eu não tava fazendo nem questão de entender.
Ainda assim, a primeira e a última parte, principalmente a última, salvam demais esse livro. Sara apenas a maior que temos.
Digo mais, esse livro só não suscitou uma taxa de suicídio maior que Werther pq não viralizou na época. Caso contrário… argumentação pra morte muito mais bem trabalhada que naquele do Goethe (com todo respeito ok).

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

What the fuck did I just read lol

[EJ Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving and esoteric example of French Decadentism that can rightfully be considered the culmination of the ideals of the movement; also, one of the best usages of the closet drama forma.