The Woman Watching [Paperback]

Paola Capriolo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

Vulpius, a much-admired young actor in a provincial theatre company, develops an obsession with an unknown spectator whose gaze seems only for him, at first kindling fresh fervour in his mastery of each role, then chilling his heart in the search for artistic perfection.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The second of the acclaimed Milanese writer's novels to be translated into English, this witty, psychologically astute gothic tale chronicles the ruin of two young actors in a provincial Italian theater troupe at the beginning of the century. Playing the comic role of Don Juan's valet, Sgnarelle, the great Vulpius notices a mysterious woman watching him from one of the boxes "as if there was no one but him in the entire theater." Jarred by this experience from his effortless naturalism (what a later generation of actors would call his "public solitude"), Vulpius becomes obsessed with the woman and with the theatricality of his craft; he first neglects his lover, the adoring, beautiful ingenue Dora, then uses her in private rehearsals as a stand-in for himself, until the strain of his monomania destroys them both. At once a complex reworking of the Narcissus myth and an allegory of the fate of theater under modernism, the novel is strongly reminiscent of the work of Thomas Mann, which Capriolo (Floria Tosca) has translated; the chief influence on Heron's impressive translation, however, seems to be Nathaniel Hawthorne (or else a stylist very much like him). For this reason, Heron's few slips into late-20th-century vernacular appear in regrettably high relief, although they distract only briefly from this intriguing, highly wrought account of artistic decadence.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852425202
• ISBN-13: 978-1852425203
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,638,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A study in reality, July 12, 1999

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Woman Watching (Paperback)

This book is written in a poast-modern style with an explicit narrator and a sense of one possible reconstruction of events rather than a revealing of actual events. Paola Capriolo has a few minor missteps in the development of the plot but it is a riveting study on the boundaries of theater and reality. Another must read from an author I expect to see go far.