Death Sentence (Paperback)

by Maurice Blanchot (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Blanchot's famous fictive recit, tr Lydia Davis

Language Notes
Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 86 pages
• Publisher: Barrytown/Station Hill Press, Inc. (June 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886449414
• ISBN-13: 978-1886449411
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #468,391 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AStonishing example of the 'recit' literary form, January 5, 1999

By	[e-mail] (london) - See all my reviews

This lost classic of French literature is thankfully back in print, translated by Paul Auster's first wife, the excellent detail-led writer Lydia Davis. Death Sentence recounts the horrific drawn out death of writer Colette Laure Peignot whose posthumously gathered writings are now available as The Collected Writings of Laure on City Lights. See also on Amazon. The prose here sticks like a dart in your memory. Its the stuff of ticking clocks and sleepless nights. Gripping yet troubling. A vital part of the Georges bataille-Laure story. Highly recommended both as a translation and as a compelling piece of prose.

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Novel of the 20th Century, March 1, 2008

By	Edmond Ayres (Wellfleet, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been a fan of Maurice Blanchot for years, and this novel is probably his masterpiece. I've read it now three times, and I'm looking forward to my fourth reading. It's that kind of book. You can't read it too often. It's relatively short, but extremely intense. When I finished reading the last page yesterday,even though I was in a public place, I had to shout out loud---so stunning was the ending.

This is a love story about a young man and woman. The woman dies early in the story, but their love is so strong she's not really dead. She keeps reappearing to her lover in other personae. Almost unceasing ecstasy.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blanchot the artist..., January 19, 2001

By	"chaungeaux" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

L'arret de mort (Death Sentence)is a beautifully crafted piece of literary art...and one which starkly draws the boundary line between what is perceived as 'The Art of the Novel' in France and its dumbed-down American counterpart. Blanchot (along with Bataille, Robbe-Grillet and countless others; certainly not all from France) is a writer who dares to ask what fiction is, dares to redefine the form, re-examine his new definitions...he dares to make his novels about ideas, not mere bedtime stories (or worse, Hollywood film-treatments). From the first sentence to the last this novel draws the reader into considerations of our mortality, of the haunting trajectory of our experience, and most daring of all, it questions the very nature of literary endeavor. Magnificent.