Pédanterie gallopante ahead.

[enyka]

Things to buy when I'm rich (or like whatsisface said : Next year, when I'm emperor)in no particular order:

A)Hugo Pratt, Périples Imaginaires : Hugo Pratt's amazing aquarelles. That's how I like my Corto Maltese!

B)Jean Cocteau, Oeuvres Romanesques complètes : If only for Persicaire's reply to "L'album des Eugènes". The rest is fine too. And if

Comments

still at work, eh?

[sarisa]

There's bound to be Agrippina somewhere in my near vicinity-- if not our actual music library, then surely some acquaintance. I'll keep an eye out for it, if you're not too picky about any specific recording or performer. (... like, ahaha, scooting my chair over by a metre and looking at the CD wall.)

I KNEW THERE WAS ANOTHER GOOD REASON I SHOULD BE READING EDUARDO MENDOZA. Th-- that's it. Give me a top three list, and I'm going to go throw money at a bookstore tomorrow, stat.

Re: still at work, eh?

[enyka]

Yes please!! Handel cravings must be remedied afor I go into withdrawal. In your CD wall, i trust!

As for Mendoza, FINALLY! Go for the trilogy:
*La crypte ensorcellée
*Le labyrinthe aux olives
*L'artiste des dames

or if you want something a bit more dignified :

La ville des prodiges

Or more eccentric:

Le dernier voyage d'Horatio II

Or you can always wait until august when I'll bring you the whole lot.

Re: still at work, eh?

[sarisa]

MY CD WALL IS FAILING ME. I will await the return of my father, and trust the query to him. D:

... urgh, Chapters doesn't seem to have any of the books in French. I wonder if the translation work is decent in English? I suppose I could just go by the librarie tomorrow and take a gander. THANK GOODNESS FOR BEING ONLY ONE BLOCK APART! And, ahaha, I don't mind buying the books; if they are as fantastic and lovely as you make them to be, I would rather! ("Picaresque"? I AM SO THERE.)

Re: still at work, eh?

[enyka]

The CD wall did no live up to expectations... We feel cheated....

About translation, I really can't say because, for one, I haven't read the original so I can't juge the french translation's worth in regards to it's faithfulness to the text and secondly, I've never read an english translation. However, as far as I'm concerned, François Maspero's translations are Tha Bomb. Mendoza uses colorful flourished speech which's wit and humour is best brought out by a grandiloquent vocabulary and I find European French expressions and lingo suits it perfectly and also, adds a bit of European flavor. I'm having trouble imagining it's equivalent in English... I know the trilogy used to be part of Librairie du Soleil's base stock (? stock de base, fond...) so you may be able to find them there in Seuil's "Points" collection.

At it's base, the trilogy is some sort of "roman policier" hybrid that does qualify as picaresque, I suppose, but also as burlesque, parodique, somewhat absurd and darn fantabulous. :D

P.S. Key words in bold