Imaginary Lives
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Author: Schwob, Marcel
Imaginary Lives remains, over 120 years since its original publication in French, one of the secret keys to modern literature: under-recognised, yet a decisive influence on such writers as Apollinaire, Borges, Jarry, Artaud, Bolano and Echenoz. 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. 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.
ISBN 9781939663344. Wakefield Press. pb. 192 pages. 11.4 x 17.8 cm.
reprinting
Imaginary Lives remains, over 120 years since its original publication in French, one of the secret keys to modern literature: under-recognised, yet a decisive influence on such writers as Apollinaire, Borges, Jarry, Artaud, Bolano and Echenoz. 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. 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.
ISBN 9781939663344. Wakefield Press. pb. 192 pages. 11.4 x 17.8 cm.
reprinting