Here is an excerpt from the introduction:
It is fairly certain that there is no pure invention in it, but we must remember that Sylvie is a poet's presentment of the episodes of hi's youth, and that the intervening years may.have, confused the outlines of the silhouettes cast by these events upon his memory. One of his biographers, Aristide Marie, says It is all done with miraculous art, in the purest and most musical language-an unrestrained revelation of I his divine soul. The melody flows smoothly, undisturbed by sharp accents, and one is only conscious of an imperceptible note of sorrow, saddening here and there this swansong, and tinging with ineffable melancholy the poet's last smile at the beauty of this world."
Sylvie and Octavie are both in great part autobiographical, and they are both examples of Gerard's finest manner. Emilie makes quite a different appeal and proves him to be a story-teller as well as a composer of word music. In all three stories we are conscious of a slight chronological confusion ; Gerard often seems to have difficulty in dealing with time and place, but it must be borne in mind that his eyes were almost continually fixed upon the unknown ; the past and the future were always with him, and it was only through contact with normal people that he was able to lay hold upon the present. During his moments of sanity he was always peering out of the real world into the darkness which so frequently enveloped him. Sleep was possible only during the day, and at night he wandered the lie streets, his restless feet in constant motion. Perhaps he thought the wanderings of his mind could be checked in this fashion.
Le Reve et la Vie, his last work, was written when he was considered by the world in general to be actually mad, and it is a narrative of madness from the pen of the madman himself The concluding fragments of it were found in his pockets after his death, written upon crumpled bits of paper, and interspersed with cabalistic signs and strange geometrical designs.
| Price | $24.00 |
|---|---|
| Shipping & Handling | $3.00 |
| Total | SOLD |
