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A Sentimental Novel (French Literature) Paperback – May 6, 2014

by Alain Robbe-Grillet (Author), D.E. Brooke (Translator)

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In France, Alain Robbe-Grillet's final novel was sold in shrink-wrap, labeled with a sticker warning readers that this perverse fairy tale might offend certain sensibilities. It tells the story of Gigi, also known as Djinn, who is being schooled by her father to be a perfect slave and mistress. Running the gamut of unacceptable subject matter from incest to torture, this book abounds with vignettes that explore taboos and their representation in fiction, from the Brothers Grimm to the Marquis de Sade. It is titillating and disgusting, the work of a dirty old man or brilliant agent provocateur--or both.

Print length

150 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Dalkey Archive Press
Publication date

May 6, 2014
Dimensions

5.4 x 0.5 x 8.4 inches
ISBN-10

1628970065
ISBN-13

978-1628970067
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Editorial Reviews

Review

What constitutes pornography is very much in the eye of the beholder, but there is little doubt that this is an openly and joyfully pornographic book, in that it turns into an unbound celebration of deviancy at its most explicit and imaginative.

(The Guardian)

This isn't literature, this is masturbation!

(Alain Robbe-Grillet)

There is some superb writing here -- an effective, unsettling contrast to the awful subject-matter, and the aspect of the book that is most intriguing..

(Complete Review)

The power of the novel and Robbe-Grillet's mastery is impressive, but the novel itself is disturbing. Whether one judges this novel art, pornography or a fusion of the two, it will trouble readers.

(Spiked)

This artful translation pays homage to the book's aesthetic refinement.

(The New Yorker)

About the Author

Nee en 1930, Catherine Robbe-Grillet est ecrivain. Elle est l'auteur de plusieurs ouvrages, sous differents pseudonymes, notamment"Jean de Berg" pour"L'Image" (Minuit, 1956) et"Jeanne de Berg" pour"Ceremonies de femmes" (Grasset, 1985) et "Le Petit carnet perdu" (Fayard, 2007).

Sous son propre nom, Catherine Robbe-Grillet est l'auteur de"Entretien avec Jeanne de Berg" (Les Impressions Nouvelles, 2002) et"Jeune mariee: Journal, 1957-1962" (Fayard, 2004).

photo: (c) Ulf Andersen / Gamma

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dalkey Archive Press; Reprint edition (May 6, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 150 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1628970065
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1628970067
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 0.5 x 8.4 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,991,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,972 in European Literature (Books)
- #12,888 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #80,480 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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Tom

If you like the works of the Marquis de Sade, you may like this book. Caveat lector.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2020

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I can best describe A Sentimental Novel by three quotes from the Translator’s Preface.

“The novel purports to transform into a work of literary fiction the authors own avowed catalog of perverse fantasies, which he claimed had remained unchanged since the age of twelve, and that he had been making notes of over the years, every one consisting of transgressions perpetrated against young girls. In the course of 239 numbered paragraphs, and in a series of theatrical set pieces evoked in sumptuous detail, we read about fourteen-year-old Gigi and her education by her father (also her lover) in matters erotic, more specifically sado-masochistic, with the assistance and participation of a chorus of female children who are submitted to progressively more excruciating, savage and brutal acts of torture and rape — the reader is spared no detail of organs lacerated, blood spilled, fluids propagated. There are also digressions in the form of flashbacks and asides that fill in the story of this or that sundry character, each producing its own mini hair-raising fable within the story.”

“The close-up descriptions of the machinery of torture — the pulleys and winches and their operation, the materiality of the gruesome dildos, seats of nails, the multiple suspended parallel blades that penetrate flesh, the virgins strung up in a circle by their feet, or the redheads fed to rabid dogs — all in polished, almost scientific language, with no hint of a moral dimension, produce an unholy kind of terror and pity and firmly relegate these scenes to the realm of the unreal from which they came. This feeling of unreality is furthered by the relentless mounting intensity of the cruelties.”

“In case the reader might imagine that the book is a one note tale of grim horror, it is important to mention that, odd though it may appear, lighter touches do abound. There is tenderness between the girls, as well as in the development of the father-daughter relationship, even as Gigi submits to, or with her father's collusion delivers, gruesome punishments.”

I did not like the numbered paragraphs structure of the book. Stories continued over paragraphs and bled (no pun intended) into following stories. For books that have no study guide such as Cliff’s Notes available, I like to create my own summary document that summarizes each chapter. I found it awkward to do that with this book. I grouped the numbered paragraphs in a way that I thought was logical and summarized each grouping, quoting some portions along with my notes.

This is not a book for everyone. If you like to read the works of Marquis de Sade, you might want to read this book. On the other hand, there is no philosophy mixed in with the acts of sexual torture and perversity, as there is in de Sade’s writings.

This was Alain Robbe-Grillet’s last novel. He died less than six months after its publication. Interpret the meaning of that, if there is any, as you wish.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2014

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I ordered this book as a challenge, a challenge I am totally unable to fulfill. Like many other college students of my generation, I revered Robbe-Grillet for the enigmatic precision of his script for Alain Resnais' 1961 film LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD , a mysterious sexual dance played out with the formal elegance of a chess game on an iceberg. Inspired by this, my friends and I read several novels in the "nouveau roman" style that he virtually invented, books by him, Nathalie Sarraute, and others. I soon grew tired of such extreme abstraction, but Robbe-Grillet's name has remained in my mind almost synonymous with the French avant-garde. So, when I read that his last novella, rejected by his American publishers in 2007 on grounds of obscenity, had finally found a translator and publisher, I was eager to read it. I would find out what the fuss was about, and mount a defense on the basis of some literary or philosophical goal that would transcend pornography. Now having taken as much of it as I can stomach, I have to admit failure. I see no defense.

But it is not pornography either. Pornography is surely meant to titillate, to indulge sexual fantasies, but this goes so far beyond the realm of fantasy as to emerge the other side into a realm of excess so total that I do not even have a name for it. It starts gently enough. The writer, waking in a bed in a sterile room, has a vision of a lightly clad pubescent girl by a fountain. Called in to a library, she must read libertine literature to an older man, perhaps her father, who canes her naked buttocks if she slips up. After this, she serves him food and drink, then comes to his bed. It becomes hard to tell what is dream, what fantasy, what read from a book. Soon flagellation and incest are the least of it as the number of very young girls multiplies, the tortures get more sexual and elaborate, and an increasing number end in dismemberment and death. Any titillation I myself might have felt was gone by 20 or so of the numbered paragraphs. It is simply impossible to imagine anyone making his way through to paragraph 239 without switching off completely. Could it be that the emetic effect of such overdose was precisely the point?

The French have long had a fascination with literary sadism, especially among intellectual authors. For example, take the very similar STORY OF THE EYE , the 1928 novella by no less than Georges Battaille, the Surrealist and major philosopher. For a long time, "Pauline Réage," the pseudonymous author of THE STORY OF O , was suspected of being a member of the Académie Française, perhaps Henri de Montherlant or André Malraux. Robbe-Grillet's book, like de Sade's own and most of their successors, is characterized by a cool refinement at odds with its subject-matter. These horrors do not take place in suburban basements, but in country mansions, private libraries, chateaux whose torture chambers have historical precedents and Latin names. They presuppose an international trade among connoisseurs for condemned criminals (young and female, naturally), vagrant girls, and even unwanted daughters. Everything is described in much the way you would discuss the exotic foods at an ultra-exclusive restaurant. "The close-up descriptions of the machinery of torture, [...] all in polished, almost scientific language, with no hint of a moral dimension, produce an unholy kind of terror and pity and firmly relegate these scenes to the realm of the unreal from which they came," says the translator D. E. Brooke. I have to say I experienced neither the terror nor the pity, and the unreality did not make the result more palatable. "Such a transformation of haunting horrors into a work of literature is an act of existential alchemy," Brooke concludes. I cannot see it; my one-star rating is a fair description of my feelings. Yet, though I shall probably never open it again, I shall keep this book on my shelves in sheer amazement at its existence.

18 people found this helpful

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dave jones

I love his writing (so different from mine)

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 8, 2014

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The restrictive prose contained is intentional... ( a parody of Sade?)... Alain was in his eighties (I think) when he wrote this... and I believe he died six months later... what a swan song! I love his writing (so different from mine)... its very meticulous and observant...tech writing for prudes. If you ever read another novel... read this... if you've read it... read it again...and again and again...then read another novel of his--- "Jealousy"--- and I believe you'll understand why he's so great. Robbe-Grillet also wrote the script for "Last Year At Marienbad" (did I get it right? I hope!)... this is a film that proves CINEMA IS FILM!... buy the movie...read all of Alain Robbe-Grillet's books... and finish them off with "A Sentimental Novel". I'm so jealous... O if I were this good... then I could die too.

One person found this helpful

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AlwaysBeReading

Deeply weird and not fun

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 15, 2014

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I am hard-pressed to understand the words of praise for this book. I'm no prude and have read and enjoyed many pornographic novels, but this one really is beyond the pale. I don't know which is the more distasteful notion -- knowing that the author got off on these cruel and murderous fantasies, or imagining the readers who, perhaps never having envisioned this kind of thing before, will now develop a taste for it. On just about every page, girls are painfully tortured into death. Based on good reviews, I tried to go with it for a while but finally became overwhelmingly disgusted. I have never before thrown a book into the trash, but this one takes that dubious honor. If I could give it no stars at all, I would.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Nlck

Two Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 2, 2014

Verified Purchase

It's a shame Robbe-Grillet went out with such prurient nonsense.

foldart

who can know or care?

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 20, 2022

Verified Purchase

This is either an example, if not an explanation, of what Edward Said brilliantly identified as 'late style' by which old-age artists alarm their fans accustomed to a certain kind of art from them with an all-over-the-place summing-up or inventorial undermining of their usual themes and obsessions - OR it's a splash of indulgent diarrhoea tidied up into numbered paragraphs to it look deliberately disrespectable. Here's MR Objective Choisisme himself tossing off (pun intended) one purple-prose adjectival burp after another as a parody of pornography which already bears its self-parody built-in. OR it's M. Robbe-Grillet at death's door (he died not long after the book was published in appropriate dirty-old-man wrapping) having fun with this translatory extension of what he only partly got to do in his films. He might say: well, it's all of those things and none, no joke!

natalia

Interesting

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on August 9, 2021

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