Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ape: A Caprice [Paperback]

Michel Butor (Author), Dominic Di Bernardi (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1995

tr Dominic Di Bernardi, a gothic "caprice"

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The ape of the title is (at least in part) Thoth, the Egyptian god of magic, the inventor of writing and the record-keeper of the dead. Magic, writing, death, Egypt and apes all come into play in Butor's experimental 1967 novel, now available in English for the first time. The narrator describes a life of study in Paris that is interrupted when a Hungarian professor commands him to speed to Germany to deliver a book to a mysterious poet (here think Jonathan Harker). Once there, he stays in the castle of H?with the Count W?. During the day, he peruses the collection of minerals and an impressive private library (including books on theosophy, alchemy and records of executions); in the evening, he plays bizarre, complicated variations on solitaire with the Count; and at night, he dreams. There is "no way of detecting a lie or an error in the story of a dream," says the narrator, "I prefer to deliberately reconstruct them." His dreams of a beautiful student murdered by a vampire who then transforms the narrator into an ape eventually mingle with stones, alchemy, executions and solitaire, all of them whirling around each other until dreams and reality spin out of control. Given the narrative chaos of the novel, it should come as no surprise that Butor is inevitably mentioned with the likes of Sarraute, Robbe-Grillet, Claude Simon and other practitioners of the nouveau roman. Although his experiments with structure and blurring the boundaries of reality are admirable, their novelty has worn thin and, unfortunately, what's left doesn't really compensate.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A champion of the French nouveau roman, Butor here describes his development as a writer, but this novel does not resemble Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In post-World War II Germany, a young man visiting a castle's large private library finds much to stimulate his imagination: mineral collections, rooms decorated with mythological themes, a list of the executions that took place there, and a count who plays card games like role-playing games. Characters appear and disappear in dramatic ways, and at night the young man dreams he is an ape. The reader gets a surreal vision of everything and everyone in the colors of the mineral collection. This novel is entertaining, but it may be hard for the casual reader to follow. For literary collections.?Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 121 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; 1 edition (May 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564780899
• ISBN-13: 978-1564780898
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,630,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't be lured in by the "cool" title, March 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ape: A Caprice (Paperback)

This book draws its title from rites associated with Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing. Despite the fact that at one point the author dreams he becomes an ape, there is next to nothing interesting or even amusing about Butor's book. The book is essentially a caprice about authorship, creativity, and autobiography; and almost every element of it is trite and very French, i.e. humorless name-dropping and kindergarten level abstractions. Read Olive Moore's "Spleen" instead.