The Origin of the World (The Margellos World Republic of Letters) (Paperback)

The Origin of the World (The Margellos World Republic of Letters) By Pierre Michon, Wyatt Mason (Translated by), Roger Shattuck (Afterword by) Cover Image
By Pierre Michon, Wyatt Mason (Translated by), Roger Shattuck (Afterword by)
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Description


An exploration of desire by the French master Pierre Michon
 
“A haunting, imagistic book, somehow both lush and spare.”—Martin Riker, Wall Street Journal
 

This spare, unforgettable novel is Pierre Michon’s luminous exploration of the mysteries of desire. A young teacher takes his first job in a sleepy French town. Lost in a succession of rainy days and sleepless nights, he falls under the spell of a town resident, a woman of seductive beauty and singular charm.  
Yvonne. Yvonne. “Everything about her screamed desire . . . setting something in motion while settling a fingertip to the counter, turning her head slightly, gold earrings brushing her cheek while she watched you or watched nothing at all; this desire was open, like a wound; and she knew it, wore it with valor, with passion.” Michon probes the destructive powers of passion and the consuming need for love in this heartbreaking novel.

About the Author


Pierre Michon is an author of high acclaim in France and Europe. He was winner of the Prix France Culture in 1984 for his first book, Small Lives, and of the 1996 Prix de la Ville de Paris for his body of work. He lives in France. Wyatt Mason, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a contributing editor at Harper’s, has translated writing by Pierre Michon, Eric Chevillard, Michel de Montaigne, and Arthur Rimbaud. He teaches at Bard College.

Praise For…


“While in part an ode to the obsessive absorption unrequited love can impose on one’s psyche, The Origin of the World more importantly stands as a meditation on love, life, sex, and death, and the hidden violence that lies in wait at the intersections of each. With poetic concision, Pierre Michon has created a story that is simultaneously a fabulistic, archetypal, and concrete expression of physical and emotional survival, steeped in need, the imaginary, and blood’s life force.”—Tom Bowden, Education Digest

“Michon’s The Origin of the World is an astonishingly rich, mythic new direction in modern French narrative.”—Guy Davenport



Product Details
ISBN: 9780300180701
ISBN-10: 0300180705
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication Date: October 22nd, 2013
Pages: 112
Language: English
Series: The Margellos World Republic of Letters