La Jalousie (French Edition) [Paperback]

Alain Robbe-Grillet (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0881334758 | ISBN-13: 978-0881334753 | Publication Date: October 1989

PUBLISHED IN FRENCH. Jealousy, the old standby in fiction and drama, is the subject of this short French novel set on a banana plantation in the West Indies. Robbe-Grillet's La Jalousie treats a traditional situation (husband, wife, outsider) in a fascinating, detective-story-like way. Readers discover as they read what is happening and speculate on how to interpret the incidents related. The whole fascination of the novel lies in the question: What really happened? It can be raised almost at every page. No two critics ever agree on the answer. Questions, given in French, as notes, serve to alert readers to the significance of certain facts and give them a grasp of the techniques Robbe-Grillet uses. The general introduction, in English, briefly discusses the significance of the "new novel," Robbe-Grillet's particular theories, and attempts to place La Jalousie in perspective without giving away clues to the solution of the story, which readers will want to find for themselves.

Editorial Reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 129 pages
• Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc (October 1989)
• Language: French
• ISBN-10: 0881334758
• ISBN-13: 978-0881334753
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,004,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peeking through the blinds, May 23, 2003

By 

Francis F. Mand (Plymouth, Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: La Jalousie (French Edition) (Paperback)

I read Jalousie in college, over 20 years ago, and still think of it with great affection. It is a novel of obsession by an author equally obsessed with technique and perspective, and if you submit to it it is hypnotizing. We pretend, in our 'real lives' to see in three dimensions, and to understand the people around us as well, but jalousie makes the case that we are really very limited in what we actually know -we are like a paranoid man peering at the world through the slats of the blinds that cover our windows: we can only guess the true shape of the world, the actual motivations of people. From this perspective everyone's motives are suspect, and paranoia blooms in the heat of this banana plantation, into madness. My favorite image, recalled 20 years since I have read the work, is the monstrous centipede on the wall: first there, then smashed into the wallpaper, then the stain of its presence, and over and over again. Robbe-Grillet, given your willingness to submit, crawls into your consciousness like this luscious, preposterously large, poisonous insect.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Something totally different, May 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: La Jalousie (French Edition) (Paperback)

This novel goes in a direction very different from other novels that I've read in the past. The characters are never really defined, the narrator never acknowledges his own identity, and there is no linear plot at all. Although it may be interesting to figure out "what really happened," that doesn't seem to be a concern as you're reading. The portrait of jealousy itself is what makes the novel fascinating, and the special connection between the word for "blinds" in French and the word for, well, "jealousy" adds some interesting levels of meaning.

This edition is particularly useful for non-native French readers, as it explains the novel in the introduction and also provides a glossary in the back pages.

5.0 out of 5 stars Peeking through the blinds, May 23, 2003

By 

Francis F. Mand (Plymouth, Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: La Jalousie (French Edition) (Paperback)

I read Jalousie in college, over 20 years ago, and still think of it with great affection. It is a novel of obsession by an author equally obsessed with technique and perspective, and if you submit to it it is hypnotizing. We pretend, in our 'real lives' to see in three dimensions, and to understand the people around us as well, but jalousie makes the case that we are really very limited in what we actually know -we are like a paranoid man peering at the world through the slats of the blinds that cover our windows: we can only guess the true shape of the world, the actual motivations of people. From this perspective everyone's motives are suspect, and paranoia blooms in the heat of this banana plantation, into madness. My favorite image, recalled 20 years since I have read the work, is the monstrous centipede on the wall: first there, then smashed into the wallpaper, then the stain of its presence, and over and over again. Robbe-Grillet, given your willingness to submit, crawls into your consciousness like this luscious, preposterously large, poisonous insect.