Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: L'Abbe C by Georges Bataille, Philip A. Facey ISBN: 0-7145-2848-X Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers, Ltd. Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (2 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Morally candid, but overdone.
Comment: "L'Abbe C" is the story of Robert, a priest who is so upstanding he is called "L'Abbe" ("the abbot"), and his twin brother Charles, a "libertine" (i.e., a playboy, or man of loose morals). Charles has a sexual relationship with Eponine, a woman whose morals approach his, but Eponine is attracted to Robert, making for sexual tension. Worse, Robert is secretly attracted to Eponine, making for psychological tension. We learn early in the book that the story will turn out badly for all parties involved, each suffering in their own way, so it is not revealing a secret to say the tensions in this multi-faceted relationship do not lead to a healthy outcome. The story is told mostly from Charles's point of view.
Robert breaks down psychologically, fainting at a church service he is attempting to deliver with Eponine in the congregation. Robert begins drinking heavily, and begins stalking Eponine's home in the dead of night, leaving behind sick signs of his presence. He can no longer discern good from evil, nor morality from immorality, and eventually cracks altogether, leaving town for a hotel on the outskirts, where he stays with two semi-professional ladies of looser morals than Eponine's. The novel twists a few more times from there, then resolves itself tragically.
The book is essentially a reflection on morality and cowardice, the latter being the human element required for maintaining morality, but also for being true to one's self, which can sometimes oppose what we believe to be moral. While it has an interesting theme, it is written almost entirely for shock value (or at least what passes for shock value for an author born in 1897, and writing in 1950), but does not convincingly expound upon or communicate its theme to the reader. For one instance, we are never convinced Robert was so pious to begin with. He does not earn his title "L'Abbe" in our eyes, so we are not affected by his supposed turning away from piety during the book.
Bataille has written this book in an old-fashioned style, almost Victorian, using wrenching emotional adjectives, and over-romanticized means of communicating inner thoughts. It is a bit overdone for the "been there, done that" reader of today, and not handsome enough for the admirer of 19th-century literature. (Also, there is some reference to Nazis near the end of the story. Judging from another Bataille book, "Blue of Noon", Bataille seems to throw Nazis into the bargain when he can no longer figure out where to go, and when he needs to show someone else as depraved as his other characters. The reference to Nazis is unecessary and superficial.)
This is a very short work, 158 pages, written in a halting diarized style in most parts. It's almost a pamphlet, hardly a full book. In the final analysis, this is a sexually frank and morally candid tale, but one that is philosophical and even memorable. It may not be great literature, the ending may be a bit incongruous, and it may read as though it is fifty years older than it really is, but it was an interesting little volume nonetheless. I subtract a star, however, because it is a tiny little book at a full-size price.
Rating: 4
Summary: .
Comment: Bataille's L'Abbe C provides you with a reading atmosphere of unsettling density akin to that of the more famous Story of the Eye, while lacking the flood of relentless pornographic imagery that can be witnessed in that novel. The book can be tedious and pretentious at times (as with anything by Bataille), but it remains a rather fascinating literary diversion. The story, which seems to concern the muddled web of feelings existing between a pair of brothers who are in love with the same mysterious woman, is presented in too surreal a fashion to be particularly coherent; however, the most immediately accessible merits of Bataille's literature have less to do with understanding specifically what is happening, and more to do with the dream-like sense (or rather nightmare-like sense) of profundity provoked. Think of one of David Lynch's better films in the form of a french novel from the early part of the century, and you'll be on the right track. L'abbe C isn't as compulsively readable as the disturbing pornographic masterpiece Story of the Eye, but will still provide the patient reader with numerous rewards. The mad priest's diary, at the end of the novel, is of particular interest.
 |
Title: Blue of Noon by Georges Bataille, Harry Mathews, Ken Hollings ISBN: 0714530735 Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers, Ltd. Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: My Mother, Madame Edwarda and the Dead Man by Georges Bataille, Austryn Wainhouse, Yukio Mishima, Ken Hollings ISBN: 0714530042 Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers, Ltd. List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: The Tears of Eros by Georges Bataille, Peter Connor ISBN: 0872862224 Publisher: City Lights Books Pub. Date: December, 1989 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
 |
Title: Georges Bataille: An Intellectual Biography by Michel Surya, Krzysztof Kijalkowski, Michael Richardson, Krzysztof Fijalkowski ISBN: 1859848222 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: 02 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
 |
Title: Maldoror and the Complete Works by Lautreamont, Alexis Lykiard, Comte De Lautreamont, Lautreamont Chants De Maldoror, Lautreamont Poesies, Conte de Lautreamont, Comte De Lautreamont ISBN: 187897212X Publisher: Exact Change Pub. Date: July, 1994 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
