Private Life - Brossura

De Sagarra, Josep Maria

Brossura

ISBN 10: 091467126X ISBN 13: 9780914671268

Casa editrice: Archipelago, 2015

Riassunto

Private Life holds up a mirror to the moral corruption in the interstices of the Barcelona high society Sagarra was born into. Boudoirs of demimonde tramps, card games dilapidating the fortunes of milquetoast aristocrats - and how they scheme to conceal them - fading manors of selfish scions, and back rooms provided by social-climbing seamstresses are portrayed in vivid, sordid, and literary detail.
The novel, practically a roman-à-clef for its contemporaries, was a scandal in 1932. The 1960's edition was bowdlerized by Franco's censors. Part Lampedusa, part Genet, this translation will bring an essential piece of 20th-century European literature to the English-speaking public.

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Recensione

"[A] human comedy in the style of Balzac... far racier than Dickens, although Sagarra certainly has the Victorian's flair for creating characters... Private Life is a sprawling soap opera writ large. It has a contemporary feel which translator Mary Ann Newman appears to have capitalised on.

[It is] very readable, slightly chaotic yet seductively atmospheric. A reader may well wish that Sagarra's very long novel could have continued for, at the very least, another 200 pages of mischief." --Irish Times

"As intriguing as the lives of these characters and their connections to each other are, though, what really makes Private Life a compelling read are Sagarra's vivid details of this crumbling society and his keen observations about it." --Three Percent

"First published to great scandal in 1932, this surprisingly readable novel about Barcelona high society is a sensual and also psychologically acute representation of mismatched couples, tragic widows, blackmailing cowards and cheating husbands." --Herald Scotland

L'autore

Josep Maria de Sagarra (1894-1961) -- Catalan Balzac, journalist, theater critic, translator, poet, and novelist -- was a force of nature who produced volumes of poetry, drama, essays, and three major novels, which have made him one of the most popular and loved voices of Catalan literature. After winning his first poetry prize in the Juegos Florales, he decided to devote his life to literature. His translated works include Dante's Divine Comedy and plays by Shakepespeare, Molière, and Gogol. He was a member of the Institute of Catalan Studies, the Academy of Letters, the General Council of Authors of Spain, and the council of the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise.
Mary Ann Newman is the former Director of the Catalan Center at New York University, which was an affiliate of the Institut Ramon Llull, and a member of the board of The Catalan Institute of America. She is a translator, editor, and occasional writer on Catalan culture. In addition to Sagarra, she has translated works by Quim Monzó, Xavier Rubert de Ventós, Joan Maragall, and Narcis Comadira, among others.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Archipelago
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• ISBN 10: 091467126X
• ISBN 13: 9780914671268
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 496