Four Novels: The Square / Moderato Cantabile / 10:30 on a Summer Night / The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas [Paperback]

Marguerite Duras (Author), Richard Seaver (Translator), Germaine Bree (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Duras, Marguerite | Publication Date: January 13, 1994

Long acknowledged as one of the most important literary figures in France, Marguerite Duras has garnered worldwide praise for her work, from the acclaimed screenplay Hiroshima Mon Amour to the best-selling novel The Lover. In this volume of four short novels, Duras demonstrates her remarkable ability to create an emotional intensity and unity by focusing on the intimate details of the relationships among only a few central characters: from the park bench couple in The Square (1955) to the double love triangle in Ten-thirty on a Summer Night (1960), each novel probes the depths of human emotion, of love and of despair. Exceptional for their range in mood and situation, these four novels are unparalleled exhibitions of a poetic beauty that is uniquely Duras.

Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (January 13, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802151116
• ISBN-13: 978-0802151117
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Save The Lover for later; start with the novellas., April 14, 2006

By 

Jillian Marie Weise (Provincetown, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Four Novels: The Square / Moderato Cantabile / 10:30 on a Summer Night / The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas (Paperback)

Duras seems like the Simone Weil of fiction: her characters philosophize while they get undressed and into bed. While Duras covers the same material (man, woman, love, deceit) at least these are fine subjects in the hands of a master crafter. I don't think we can hold it against her for writing them over and over.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Introduction to Duras, February 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Four Novels: The Square / Moderato Cantabile / 10:30 on a Summer Night / The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas (Paperback)

"10:30 on a Summer Night" is by far the best of the four novels in this book, focusing on murder and infidelity during a vacation outside Madrid. "Moderato Cantible" is good but not as intriguing as "10:30 on a Summer Night" and is about an alcoholic mother developing an odd relationship with a stranger in a café on the way home from her son's piano lesson. "The Square" has some good lines but is generally slow, focusing solely on a salesman and a servant talking in the park.

7 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I don't get it, May 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Four Novels: The Square / Moderato Cantabile / 10:30 on a Summer Night / The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas (Paperback)

Two of my closest, most intellectual/cultural-elite type friends have raved about Marguerite Duras. So I read "The Lover." Great story. Okay...they tell me "Moderato Cantabile" is her masterpiece. I search for an English translation, find this foursome. Terrific, I think, I can explore even more. I must ask the reviewers of this work...Have you read it all together???? Every story is the same, folks! This woman had one, maybe two stories (okay, Hiroshima Mon Amour makes three) in her blood. Take an alcoholic woman with a hidden sexual agenda, throw in an unfaithful (substitute uptight/unattentive, etc) husband...or father (oh yeah, don't forget the incest angle), then place them all in some tedious, drawn-out situation (aftermath of a murder investigation, waiting for a construction contracter, a storm, an afternoon on a park bench), then let them TALK. And talk. And talk. Get it? I may not be the super intellectual, cultural elite type, but I know pretension when I read it. Skip Duras. Or...better...read "The Lover," pretend you know all about her, and watch the others at a party try to impress you.