Alice au pays des lettres

by Roland Topor

Pełna uroku książeczka o tym, co Alicja odkryła po drugiej stronie kartki, świetnie oddaje ducha Topora jako pisarza i rysownika. Przenosząc przygody Alicji do Krainy Liter, autor dał wyraz swojej fascynacji grami językowymi oraz dziełem Lewisa Carrolla, któremu książka jest dedykowana. Zarówno jej przewrotna treść, jak i znakomite ilustracje są hołdem dla angielskiego pisarza. Pełna poezji, nostalgii za dzieciństwem i wcale nie czarnego humoru, Alicja w Krainie Liter będzie wymarzoną lekturą dla miłośników twórczości Rolanda Topora: wrażliwych literacko dzieci i tych dorosłych, którzy lubią poetykę nonsensu.

29 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

A French illustrator, painter, writer and filmmaker, known for the surreal nature of his work. He was of Polish Jewish origin and spent the early years of his life in Savoy where his family hid him from the Nazi peril.

Roland Topor wrote the novel The Tenant (Le Locataire chimérique, 1964), which was adapted to film by Roman Polanski in 1976. The Tenant is the story of a Parisian of Polish descent, who develops an obsession regarding what has happened to his apartment's previous tenant. It is a chilling exploration of alienation and identity, asking disturbing questions about how we define ourselves. The later novel Joko's Anniversary (1969), another fable about loss of identity, is a vicious satire on social conformity. Themes Topor returned to in his later novel Head-to-Toe Portrait of Suzanne (1978).

A new presentation of The Tenant by Roland Topor was released in October 2006. The book has Topor's original novel, a new introduction by Thomas Ligotti, a selection of short stories by Topor, a representation of Topor's artwork and an essay on the famous Roman Polanski film version. There is a working possibility of having Mr. Polanski write a new foreword to this edition.

In 2018, Atlas Press published Topor's Head-to-Toe Portrait of Suzanne, translated and introduced by Andrew Hodgson. It was the first of Topor's novels to enter English in nearly 50 years.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roland Topor’s Alice au pays des lettres, is a wonderful, short fantasy read, reimagining Lewis Carroll’s classic. On a rainy day, Alice falls asleep with her face in a book. Within the dream, she awakens to find the page of her book blank. The letters have scurried off the page. They are being cast in a production. Letters like J, E, and S are cast in leading roles. The little Z is left crying and feeling left out and unimportant, not even cast as a tree. The letters are ruled by two tyrants called syntax and grammar. When the letters overthrow their tyrants, anarchy rules. It is a world of vivid imagination and filled at the end with words that look like the sounds of thunder in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Delightfully surreal.

[Lethe Persephone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forse il testo meno inquietante di Topor, adatto alla lettura anche dei bambini. Fortemente ispirato a Carroll.

[Ellis ♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finito il mio primo libro del 2017.
Un racconto breve che consta di 32 pagine (16 delle quali sono illustrazioni), il tema del corretto utilizzo della grammatica e della sintassi è sviluppato bene tanto da rendere la lettura ancora più piacevole e scorrevole. Un grazioso omaggio ad "Alice nel paese delle meraviglie" di Lewis Carroll.