The Supermale [Paperback]

Alfred Jarry (Author), Ralph Gladstone (Translator), Barbara Wright (Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2009

Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) was the original transgressive author; the first word of his famous play Ubu Roi - "Shittr!" - changed the course of art and drama forever. Jarry's novels are equally outrageous, and the best of them are now again available in English. Where Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician is philosophical, The Supermale is carnal. Andre Marcueil, gentleman and scientist, has the ability to make love an infinite number of times in succession. Like a mock Jules Verne, Jarry describes the manner in which this Supermale proves his claim; after 82 times with a woman, attending doctors finally hook him up to a machine instead, with whom he merges in the book's - and the Supermale's - final climax. Barbara Wright's excellent translation, first published by New Directions, has been long out of print.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

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

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Exact Change (September 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878972251
• ISBN-13: 978-1878972255
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #297,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars surprisingly compelling; seriously surreal, September 3, 1999

By 

Dan Mohr - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Supermale (Paperback)

One often takes French proto-surrealist literature with a grain (or spoonful) of salt, perhaps due to the hollow stigma which Breton and others rendered the word 'surrealism.' This novel by the maniac Jarry was a helpful reminder that he and Apollinaire and a few others were really getting at something compelling. Jarry's Supermale is an hyperbolic monster of masculinity, riding 10000 miles on a bicycle at the speed of a locomotive to proclaim his desire for a certain woman, with which woman he proceeds, in order to prove a point, to copulate a total of 82 times in 24 hours. However, Andre Marceuil is clearly a self-portrait; descriptions of him read uncannily closely to Jarry's own physiognomy. Marceuil is a man intent on living his art, without pretentions or assistance. The sex that occupies the latter 40 pages of this rather short novel (80 pages total) is surprisingly sensitive and crazy, especially during a launch into a poetic hymn to Helen of Troy. Altogether a touching and inspirational nugget of strange virtuosity. Read it and regain your faith in the true surrealism. (if you have lost it.)

4.0 out of 5 stars prodigious feats of sexual stamina, October 21, 2011

By 

LitCritChick1 "LitCritChick1" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Supermale (Paperback)

I was so grateful to finally find Alfred Jarry's last novel "The Supermale" back in print in English! Less famous than his just-as-obnoxious and just-as-hilarious dramatic work UBO ROI, this phallic obsessed dark little tale is chock full of obscenities, mechanized eroticism, and touches of compassion for a world sorely lacking in true love.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvel and Laugh at the Patriarchy, December 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Supermale (Paperback)

From the turn of the last century comes this surrealistic novel that will make you laugh at the Patriarchy and its obsessions with Technology and Phallocracy. The great Poet and Pataphysician Alfred Jarry could see, using hallucinogenic insight, the foibles and evils of his own enculturated hyper-masculinity. What a vision. Not to be missed !!