The Georgics [Paperback]

Claude Simon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0714538973 | ISBN-13: 978-0714538976 | Publication Date: February 1991

novel, tr Beryl & Jo

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As Simon's experimental anti-war novel begins, a prominent Jacobin and French general, identified only as "L.S.M.," writes home from the front, giving the caretaker of his estate elaborate instructions on how to tend to hedges and horses. This aristocrat cuts a rather ridiculous figure, but that is the point: war turns soldiers into pawns. Patriotism, God, revolution, ideals--all stand mocked before the senseless destruction and evil of state-sanctioned mass murder. Simon intercuts epochs and wars; he makes History a chief character, personified as a fiendish trickster. War's random brutality is viewed from the trenches--we see the Spanish Civil War through the eyes of a young English writer ostensibly modeled on George Orwell; leapfrogging to the French rout of 1940, Simon, who was himself captured by the Germans, thrusts the reader into the midst of blunders and carnage. This difficult novel, for which Simon won the 1985 Nobel Prize for Literature, is encumbered by extremely long and complex sentences, endless paragraphs and a hyper-associative style. A slashing satire on the modern condition, it lets one see the violence and depredation of war as extensions of "peacetime."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

First published in France in 1981, this is Simon's longest work of fiction. Its complex narrative is tough reading: three different plots are woven together, each featuring a main character: a soldier/diplomat in 18th-century France, a French cavalry soldier in World War II, and a foreigner in (and around) Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War. War, the book's principal theme, is evoked in the battlefield imagery of the title, which is derived from Virgil's Georgicon , itself derived from the Greek georgikos ( ge , "earth" and ergon , "work," hence, "labor in the fields"). Also implied is the labor of both author and reader, who must plough through an extremely dense text laced with italics delineating the various plots' chronology. The translation remains faithful to the original, now accessible in all its complexity to an English-reading public.
- Danielle Mihram, Univ. of Southern California Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 322 pages
• Publisher: Riverrun Pr (February 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714538973
• ISBN-13: 978-0714538976
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,489,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable descriptions of war in a barely-read masterpiece, April 8, 2009

By 

J. Steffen "jsteffe25" (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Georgics (Paperback)

To me, this is Simon's greatest novel alongside "The Flanders Road." It's been almost twenty years since I read it, but I still remember the powerful way in which he describes war. The other aspect that stands out is the way he spans across generations, including even a character obviously inspired by George Orwell, during his years fighting in the Spanish Civil war. But the part I loved the most was the general's letters to his servant Batti. They provided the perfect emotional counterpoint to the war scenes. Simon's style is challenging, as always, and it may take you more than one attempt to get "into" the book. It usually does for me when I read Simon, but I almost always feel deeply gratified by the end. The implications of his endings can leave you reeling.

He's never really caught on with literate English-language readers the way he should. It's a shame, because he was one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, but..., December 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Georgics (Paperback)

Simon's style takes some getting used to and a great deal of patience and concentration by the reader. Persistence pays off with insights into the waste and uselessness of war, not a book for those interested in a just a good read.