The Castle of Argol
First edition
AuthorJulien Gracq
Original titleAu château d'Argol
TranslatorLouise Varèse
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
PublisherJosé Corti
Publication date
1938
Published in English
1951
Pages182

The Castle of Argol (French: Au château d'Argol) is a 1938 novel by the French writer Julien Gracq. The narrative is set at a castle in Brittany, where a man has invited a friend, who also has brought a young woman. The novel is loaded with symbols and uses narrative modes from Gothic horror literature, which it blends with Hegelian thinking and stylistic traits close to the surrealist movement, including a highly abstract plot. In his "Notice to the reader", Gracq describes the book as a "demonic version" of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal.[1]

Publication

The novel, which was the author's first, was rejected by éditions Gallimard but accepted and published by José Corti, which was associated with the surrealists. It was praised by the surrealist leader André Breton.[1] An English translation by Louise Varèse was published in 1951.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Taylor, Karen L. (2006). The Facts on File Companion to the French Novel. New York City: Infobase Publishing. p. 60. ISBN 9780816074990.
  2. ^ The Castle of Argol. WorldCat. OCLC 1109429. Retrieved 2015-03-09.


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