7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful., January 10, 2005
This review is from: Impressions of Africa (French Surrealism) (Paperback)
A precurser to Surrealism, this gem of French literature is not to be overlooked despite it's "out of print" status. The imagery in this book is nothing short of amazing and the oddly structured "plot" easily holds your attention throughout the book. In fact, the imagery alone is worth the price you may have to pay tracking this book down.
When I started reading the book my attention was immediatly drawn into the bizzare descriptions of absurd machines and circus-like performances that made little sense at the time. It was hard to stop laughing at some of the off the wall images my mind conjured while reading and when the pangs of laughter finally alleviated I couldn't put the book down. The second half is full of explainations about what you just read and introduces the characters and setting from the first part of the book.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Surrealism or experimental literature. It really doesn't get much better.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic book, questionable translation, August 21, 2009
This review is from: Impressions of Africa (French Surrealism) (Paperback)
Unfortunately, this is the only English translation available of Impressions d'Afrique. Alexis Lykiard, one translator of Lautréamont's Maldoror, spends five pages and many footnotes mercilessly rebuking previous translators of that work; you do not, however, need to be a masterful translator, or even know any French at all, to see the problems with this translation of Roussel's Impressions. At first these errors and typos are confusing, then irritating, and eventually you just regret spending money on the book (sometimes though, to be fair, it looks as if it were actually the fault of the proofreader(s).) There are awkward literalisms (on page 65 the English is "A head without a body...standing on a large red disc, fitted with an iron frame to prevent it from toppling over. This way was Philippo." The French is nothing stranger than "tel était Philippo." Then on 202, "Talu...had just precipitated himself into Sirdah's hut" translates the French "se précipiter," which just means to hurry or rush); weird attempts at colloquialisms (an animal's tongue is in French like "une platine humaine"---which in English becomes "like those which gabble in the human gob"); weirder typos (on 88, "...quickly detaching the scales, which dropped into leucoma the current and soon disappeared..."--- or nonce words like "divurgent" and "frabrics"); and things that are just plain bizarre, like on 223, on preparations for a theatrical performance, "the procedure did not obviate all need for suppers" (translating "...n'excluait pas toute figuration.") There are also unfortunate approximations (an African child carried off by a large bird becomes "the little monkey," translating "espiègle," which my dictionary defines as mischievous, prankish, roguish).
Here are two others, just a few of many more:
177, "...because of a legend that peopled its darkness and maleficent spirits" (for "qui peuplait ses ombrages de génies malfaisants")-- "and" should be "with."
206, "...Juillard then put up the idea of founding, about a picked body of us, a curious sort of club" (for "Juillard émit alors la pensée de fonder, au moyen d'un groupement d'élite, une sorte de club étrange.")
About a picked body of us?!?
You don't have to be a pedantic nit-picker to see that something is very wrong here. All you have to be is a first-time reader of Roussel, with no other options to choose from. Hopefully somebody will come out with something better soon.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A sadly out of print classic of experimental literature., August 28, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Impressions of Africa (French Surrealism) (Paperback)
Shipwrecked European travelers are held for ransom in an imaginary African kingdom. While they wait for the payment they set up a series of entertainments to keep their spirits up. These performances are the main focus of Roussel's book, an often neglected classic of experimental literature. The first half comprises objective descriptions of bizarre individual talents and strange "technological" demonstrations. The second half explains to the reader what he has just read: the background of the participants and the origins of their skills.
Trying to describe Roussel's enigmatic novel in 1000 words is impossible. While the book is currently not available, readers can check out an extract in Roussel's "How I Wrote Certain of My Books," an excellent volume itself, which contains sections form some of Roussel's other works and John Ashbery's translation of Roussel's essay explaining his fascinating methods of composition.
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