- Paperback: 656 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classic; Reprint edition (Oct 31 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140445803
- ISBN-13: 978-0140445800
- Product Dimensions: 13.3 x 2.8 x 19.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 440 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #343,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
Alphonse, a young Walloon officer, is travelling to join his regiment in Madrid in 1739. But he soon finds himself mysteriously detained at a highway inn in the strange and varied company of thieves, brigands, cabbalists, noblemen, coquettes and gypsies, whose stories he records over sixty-six days. The resulting manuscript is discovered some forty years later in a sealed casket, from which tales of characters transformed through disguise, magic and illusion, of honour and cowardice, of hauntings and seductions, leap forth to create a vibrant polyphony of human voices. Jan Potocki (1761-1812) used a range of literary styles - gothic, picaresque, adventure, pastoral, erotica - in his novel of stories-within-stories, which, like the "Decameron" and "Tales from the Thousand and One Nights", provides entertainment on an epic scale.
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First Sentence
At the time of which I speak, the Count of Olivarez had not yet established new settlements in the lowering mountain range of the Sierra Morena, which separates the provinces of Andalusia and La Mancha. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
At the time of which I speak, the Count of Olivarez had not yet established new settlements in the lowering mountain range of the Sierra Morena, which separates the provinces of Andalusia and La Mancha. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fine book, sub-standard translation,
By A Customer
This review is from: Penguin Classics Manuscript Found In Saragossa (Paperback)
Some previous editions of Jan Potocki's great saga have been severely edited, or else divided over several volumes. One great strength of the present version is its completeness. And while it reads satisfactorily, no version has yet surpassed Elizabeth Abbott's pioneering English translation from the early 60s. Published in two volumes (The Saragossa Manuscript & The New Decameron), Abbott's is the only version that captures the humor of the original -- and let it be said, this is a hilarious novel, full of educated wit and irony (though you wouldn't guess it after reading the somber editions that have come out lately). On one hand, it courts Enlightenment ideas as they meld into what we know as science; on the other, it skewers superstition and religion. Elizabeth Abbott's version may only be available in used or antiquarian book stores, but it's really the only way to enjoy the book as it was intended to be read. Newer fans of this wonderful decameron will discover additional pleasures, and will drawn into the tale all over again. You also may want to rent or purchase the DVD of the great film version. Director Wojeich Has, noted for his meticulous adaptations, captures all the droll humor and twists in narrative in a way that makes the film a cult classic.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A convoluted classic,
By Georges Dodds (Montreal, QC, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Penguin Classics Manuscript Found In Saragossa (Paperback)
I won't get into the book itself except to say that I concur that the Elizabeth Abbott translation from the 1960s much more closely matches the spirit of the original:The Saragossa Manuscript. New York: Orion Press, 1960 (LC 60-8360), 233 pp. The New Decameron. New York: Orion Press, 1966 (LC 66-26538), 433 pp. As for the anonymous comment May 23 1998 -- The Saragossa Manuscript was translated from French, not Polish -- French was the language of the Russian Court, where Potocki was a counselor to the Czar.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Traveler's Tales,
By
This review is from: Penguin Classics Manuscript Found In Saragossa (Paperback)
This is a huge, creaking, Spanish galleon of a book. Centered on tales told by travelers during a sixty-six day mule trip through the mountains of 18th century Spain, it begins to wear on the reader rather like such an arduous journey might. Still, you stick with it, for the scenery if not the destination. It is broken up into reasonably sized chapters, and the chapters are often broken down further into "tales", so you can readily find places to lay it down. The problem is, that the tales are divided and interwoven so intricately, that if you lay it down too many times, then you have to backtrack to refamiliarize yourself with the story and the characters.You have a little of everything in this book, it is really a rather amazing assemblage. You have stories dealing with adventure, romance, the supernatural, history, humor, philosophy, moral instruction, etc. Not only that, but the stories are related by a wide variety of characters in their own words- men and women; Christian, Moslem, and Jew. Yet it is all at least loosely tied into the overall frame work of the story of a young officer of the Walloon Guards, Alphonse van Worden, traveling to Madrid to take up his command- and his relation to the mysterious Gomelez family, and to two hanged brothers- and the remarkable way that characters tend to awaken beneath their common gallows. Even one of the characters in the story, a mathematician, repeatedly states that he has to use mathematical notation to keep all the different storylines straight. I personally believe that the author, Jan Potocki, used this book as a framework to tell the tales that he heard during a lifetime as an adventurer. He was famed for his travels from Siberia to Egypt. Moreover, the late 18th century and early 19th century were a time of story telling. Travelers entertained each other nightly with tales told around an inn or campfire. Story telling was an extremely valuable and respected skill in those days. Potocki here seems to use this book to as a place to hang every remarkable tale that he has ever heard in a remarkable life.
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