fb pixcode

NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES BY AUTHOR

PUBLISHER
Wakefield Press

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 4.5 x 7 in. / 192 pgs.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2018 p. 83   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781939663344 TRADE
List Price: $14.95 CDN $21.00 GBP £12.99

AVAILABILITY
In stock

DOWNLOAD THE SPRING 2023 CATALOG

Artbook | D.A.P. Catalog Cover Link
Preview our Spring 2023 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
  

WAKEFIELD PRESS

Imaginary Lives

By Marcel Schwob. Introduction and translation by Chris Clarke.

“The art of the biographer consists specifically in choice. He is not meant to worry about speaking truth; he must create human characteristics amidst the chaos.”—Marcel Schwob

Imaginary Lives remains, over 120 years since its original publication in French, one of the secret keys to modern literature: under-recognized, yet a decisive influence on such writers as Apollinaire, Borges, Jarry and Artaud, and more contemporary authors such as Roberto Bolaño and Jean Echenoz. Drawing from historical influences such as Plutarch and Diogenes Laërtius, and authors more contemporary to him such as Thomas De Quincey and Walter Pater, Schwob established the genre of fictional biography with this collection: a form of narrative that championed the specificity of the individual over the generality of history, and the memorable detail of a vice over the forgettable banality of a virtue.

These 22 portraits present figures drawn from the margins of history, from Empedocles the “Supposed God” and Clodia the “Licentious Matron” to the pirate Captain Kidd and the Scottish murderers Messrs. Burke and Hare. In his quest for unique lives, Schwob also formulated an early conception of the anti-hero, and discarded historical figures in favor of their shadows. These “imaginary lives” thus acquaint us with the “Hateful Poet” Cecco Angiolieri instead of his lifelong rival, Dante Alighieri; the would-be romantic pirate Major Stede Bonnet instead of the infamous Blackbeard who would lead him to the gallows; the false confessor Nicolas Loyseleur rather than Joan of Arc whom he cruelly deceived; or the actor Gabriel Spenser in place of the better-remembered Ben Jonson who ran a sword through his lung.

Marcel Schwob (1867–1905) was a scholar of startling breadth and an incomparable storyteller. The secret influence on generations of writers, Schwob was as versed in the street slang of medieval thieves as he was in the poetry of Walt Whitman (whom he translated into French).


PRAISE AND REVIEWS

American Conservative

The chapters are taut and coiled with poetic energy. The characters themselves glow on the page, furiously rendered in opposition against their better-known historical counterparts.

Imaginary Lives

in stock  $14.95


Free Shipping

UPS GROUND IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S.
FOR CONSUMER ONLINE ORDERS

FORTHCOMING AND NEW: FICTION AND POETRY

The Black Flame of Paradise (A Novel)

THE BLACK FLAME OF PARADISE (A NOVEL)

MOUSSE PUBLISHING

ISBN: 9788867493395
USD $19.00
| CAN $29.95

Pub Date: 2/19/2019
Active | In stock


Blue in Green

BLUE IN GREEN

BLANK FORMS EDITIONS

ISBN: 9781953691149
USD $15.00
| CAN $22

Pub Date: 9/26/2023
Forthcoming


Tractatus Logico-Suicidalis

TRACTATUS LOGICO-SUICIDALIS

WAKEFIELD PRESS

ISBN: 9781939663887
USD $19.95
| CAN $26.95 UK £ 16.95

Pub Date: 11/22/2022
Active | In stock


Spicilege

SPICILEGE

WAKEFIELD PRESS

ISBN: 9781939663870
USD $16.95
| CAN $29.95 UK £ 13.95

Pub Date: 11/22/2022
Active | In stock


Requiem for a Manual Typewriter

REQUIEM FOR A MANUAL TYPEWRITER

SPECTOR BOOKS

ISBN: 9783959055215
USD $20.00
| CAN $28

Pub Date: 12/13/2022
Active | In stock


The Girl Before Her

THE GIRL BEFORE HER

KAYA PRESS

ISBN: 9781885030832
USD $18.95
| CAN $25.95 UK £ 15.95

Pub Date: 7/4/2023
Forthcoming


The House of the Seven Gables

THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES

KARMA BOOKS, NEW YORK

ISBN: 9781949172720
USD $35.00
| CAN $49 UK £ 25

Pub Date: 7/19/2022
Active | In stock


Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars

SILENT WEAPONS FOR QUIET WARS

ERRANT BODIES PRESS

ISBN: 9783982316628
USD $24.00
| CAN $33.5

Pub Date: 6/20/2023
Forthcoming


Blue in Green

BLUE IN GREEN

BLANK FORMS EDITIONS

ISBN: 9781953691118
USD $20.00
| CAN $28

Pub Date: 11/15/2022
Active | In stock


Confidences / Majority

CONFIDENCES / MAJORITY

AFTER 8 BOOKS

ISBN: 9782492650055
USD $16.00
| CAN $22

Pub Date: 7/26/2022
Active | In stock


Pisti, 80 rue de Belleville

PISTI, 80 RUE DE BELLEVILLE

AFTER 8 BOOKS

ISBN: 9782955948644
USD $16.00
| CAN $22

Pub Date: 6/21/2022
Active | Out of stock


Tuesday or September or The End

TUESDAY OR SEPTEMBER OR THE END

CAPRICIOUS PUBLISHING

ISBN: 9781734656237
USD $25.00
| CAN $35

Pub Date: 5/10/2022
Active | In stock