Moravagine (New York Review Books Classics) [Paperback]

Blaise Cendrars (Author), Paul LaFarge (Author), Alan Brown (Author), Paul La Farge (Introduction)

Book Description

Release date: August 31, 2004 | Series: New York Review Books Classics

At once truly appalling and appallingly funny, Blaise Cendrars's Moravagine bears comparison with Naked Lunch—except that it's a lot more entertaining to read. Heir to an immense aristocratic fortune, mental and physical mutant Moravagine is a monster, a man in pursuit of a theorem that will justify his every desire. Released from a hospital for the criminally insane by his starstruck psychiatrist (the narrator of the book), who foresees a companionship in crime that will also be an unprecedented scientific collaboration, Moravagine travels from Moscow to San Antonio to deepest Amazonia, engaged in schemes and scams as, among other things, terrorist, speculator, gold prospector, and pilot. He also enjoys a busy sideline in rape and murder. At last, the two friends return to Europe—just in time for World War I, when "the whole world was doing a Moravagine."

This new edition of Cendrars's underground classic is the first in English to include the author's afterword, "How I Wrote Moravagine."

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

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

About the Author

BLAISE CENDRARS (1887–1961) was the pseudonym of Frédéric Sauser, the Swiss son of a French Anabaptist father and a Scottish mother. As a young man he traveled widely, from St. Petersburg to New York and beyond, and these wanderings proved the inspiration of much of his later poetry and prose. Settled in Paris in 1912, Cendrars published two long poems, "Easter in New York" and "The Transsiberian," which made him a major figure in the poetic avant-garde. At the outset of World War I, he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, losing an arm in the battle of the Marnes. A prolific poet, Cendrars was also an exceptional novelist, the author of Moravagine, Gold, Rhum, and The Confessions of Dan Yack, among many other books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: NYRB Classics (August 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590170636
• ISBN-13: 978-1590170632
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #320,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisitely depraved travelogue December 25, 2007

By mostserene1 VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This may be described as an exquisitely depraved travelogue of regions both geographic and psychological. Other reviewers have more than adequately laid out the storyline and in that regard I have nothing to add. I will simply admonish readers that this is not a book for the queasy, the timid, or those of a markedly nervous disposition. That said, if you took pleasure from Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray, J.K. Huysmans' A Rebours (Against Nature), or, stretching a bit, even the fantastical satire of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, then this decadent, entertaining romp may be just what the "doctor" ordered. But you have been warned: I accept no responsibility for psychotic breaks triggered by this gruesome literary morsel.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Lying Beauty Within the Deep Ugliness of Human Perception September 20, 2009

By Christopher Strang

Format:Paperback

It is obvious that this book is one of Cendrars most ambtious novels. It is so well written that each minor and major shock create a seamless flow within a paradox of uncontrolled energies on one level - yet controlled energies on other levels - coupled with an almost invisible hatred of the human for the entire human condition. To me, it is the most frightening book I have every read. ALso, it is in the realm of the greatest of classics. I cannot help but wonder where or not Blaise Cendrars was or had been an avid reader of Balzac (This is based upon some of his structuring of the story).

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An underappreciated masterpiece for writers to enjoy May 11, 1998

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

This is a depraved and beautiful book that should be read by everyone. It is the literary equivalent of the best meal you've ever eaten to the point of sickness--you wouldn't want to do it every night but you don't want to die without ever having done it once. Everyone who cares about literature, especially the decadent literature of this century, should check this out.