The History of the King of Bohemia and His Seven Castles. In 2 volumes – Nodier Charles – Ladomir – 2026 – ISBN 978-5-86218-702-1
The History of the King of Bohemia and His Seven Castles. In 2 volumes
69.99 €
In stock
The History of the King of Bohemia and His Seven Castles. In 2 volumes
69.99 €
Charles Nodier (1780–1844), a French novelist, poet, playwright, entomologist, linguist, and bibliophile, an influential literary critic, and host of a salon at the Arsenal—one of the centers of French Romanticism—left behind an exceptionally rich and diverse legacy. Russian readers are familiar with some aspects of his work: a collection of sentimental stories was published in 1960, a two-volume collection of bibliophile articles in 1989, the novel The Breadcrumb Fairy in 1996, and satirical short stories in 2015. But Nodier's most astonishing work, The History of the King of Bohemia and His Seven Castles (1830), remains untranslated into Russian. It contains two title pages with the same title but different designs. It juxtaposes interpolated works of a wide variety of genres: from a sentimental novella to a folk tale, from the author's (abusive!) self-review to a parody of academic meetings. All sixty chapters have titles ending in "-tion"; one chapter consists entirely of onomatopoeia, another is printed upside down, and a third lists two hundred insects. There's no single protagonist, but the narrator is divided into three personas, who occasionally bicker with each other. Finally, chains of synonyms are scattered throughout the text, the longest of which consists of fifty-three epithets.
Nodier's "avant-garde" novel was far ahead of its time and was only truly appreciated in France in the second half of the 20th century.
The original edition was accompanied by engravings based on drawings by Tony Joanno, which not only illustrated the text but also entered into dialogue with it. This layout, which transformed "The History of the King of Bohemia..." into an outstanding monument of book art, has been preserved in the Russian edition.
The "Supplements" section includes fourteen essays and short stories in which Nodier emerges as a theorist and practitioner of fantastic literature, as well as a utopian thinker. All but three of these texts are also being translated into Russian for the first time. The "Appendices" feature an extensive review, "The Work of Charles Nodier in Russian Print." The book was prepared by Vera Arkadyevna Milchina, a long-time scholar of Nodier's work, translator of his bibliophilic and satirical works, and leading researcher at the Institute of Historical and Cultural Studies of the Russian State University for the Humanities and the Stepan Institute of Historical and Cultural Studies of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
Nodier's "avant-garde" novel was far ahead of its time and was only truly appreciated in France in the second half of the 20th century.
The original edition was accompanied by engravings based on drawings by Tony Joanno, which not only illustrated the text but also entered into dialogue with it. This layout, which transformed "The History of the King of Bohemia..." into an outstanding monument of book art, has been preserved in the Russian edition.
The "Supplements" section includes fourteen essays and short stories in which Nodier emerges as a theorist and practitioner of fantastic literature, as well as a utopian thinker. All but three of these texts are also being translated into Russian for the first time. The "Appendices" feature an extensive review, "The Work of Charles Nodier in Russian Print." The book was prepared by Vera Arkadyevna Milchina, a long-time scholar of Nodier's work, translator of his bibliophilic and satirical works, and leading researcher at the Institute of Historical and Cultural Studies of the Russian State University for the Humanities and the Stepan Institute of Historical and Cultural Studies of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series Literary monuments