Impressions of Africa

Présentation de l'éditeur The long-awaited new translation of the most dazzling and unclassifiable work of fiction in any language. In a mythical African land, some shipwrecked and uniquely talented passengers stage a grand gala to entertain themselves and their captor, the great chieftain Talou. In performance after bizarre performance starring, among others, a zither-playing worm, a marksman who can peel an egg at fifty yards, a railway car that rolls on calves lungs, and fabulous machines that paint, weave, and compose music Raymond Roussel demonstrates why it is that André Breton termed him the greatest mesmerizer of modern times. But even more remarkable than the mind-bending events Roussel details as well as their outlandish, touching, or tawdry backstories is the principle behind the novel s genesis, a complex system of puns and double-entendres that anticipated (and helped inspire) such movements as Surrealism and Oulipo. Newly translated and with an introduction by Mark Polizzotti, this edition of Impressions of Africa vividly restores the humor, linguistic legerdemain, and conceptual wonder of Raymond Roussel s magnum opus. Revue de presse It is true that there is hidden in Roussel something so strong, so ominous and so pregnant with the darkness of the infinite spaces . . . that one feels the need for some sort of protective equipment when one reads him. --John Ashbery I have kept my love for Roussel as something gratuitous, and I prefer it that way. . . . it s my secret affair. You know, [Roussel s work] was my love for several summers . . . no one knew it. --Michel Foucault [P]resident of the republic of dreams. --Louis Aragon Biographie de l'auteur Raymond Roussel was born in Paris in 1877. His writings, including the novels Impressions of Africa and LocusSolus and volumes of poetry and drama, were largely ignored in his lifetime, but have since been championed by the likes of Raymond Queneau, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Georges Perec, Harry Mathews, and John Ashbery. Roussel died under mysterious circumstances in 1933, decades before his work began receiving the popular acceptance he craved. Mark Polizzotti is a prize-winning translator, and the author of eight books, including Revolution of the Mind: A Life of André Breton. His translations include works by Jean Echenoz, Paul Virilio, Jean Baudrillard, Raymond Roussel, Maurice Roche, Gustave Flaubert, Jen Senac, and the Surrealists.