Antagonist
Jean-Pierre Attal author K E Gormley translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Dalkey Archive Press
Published:18th Jan '24
£10.99
Supplier delay - available to order, but may take longer than usual.
•PROMOTIONAL COPIES: over 300 copies will be sent to booksellers and reviewers across the country •STRONG MEDIA CAMPAIGN: Dalkey will promote on all social media channels •EBOOK AVAILABLE: Ebook will be mentioned on all press release materials, Dalkey website, etc.
"We find ourselves in the presence of a secret, always manifest but never revealed for the entire length of this screenplay, [which is] as riveting as Jules Verne, as disturbing as Melville." -Yvon BelavalA covert war has begun in which two adversaries of the current regime, Lauménès and Gonamména, have pitted themselves against double agent Karl Résa; woman of mystery Athena Sansadarc; Inspector Loriot and his second-in-command, Hector; and Pierre, the secretary of a revolutionary party out to avenge the murder of Salomon, a childhood friend cut down in his prime by the enemy. This screenplay-novel resembles a classical tragedy less in its division into five acts than in its hidden, internal structure. Be warned, however, that the unities of time and space are not respected, and even the principle of identity, according to which one cannot be simultaneously self and other, is often violated. In this world, every word spoken seems to echo words spoken long ago, each new event brings an eerie sense of déjà vu, and a shape-shifting opponent always seems to be one step ahead. A surreal, fast-paced thriller on the surface, a brilliant recombination of literary classics underneath, The Antagonist was one of the first (and best) hybrids of its kind, still unrivaled for its freshness and invention.
"As much poetry as fiction . . . The really keen reader of The Antagonist could spend happy weeks elucidating all its disguises and transitions, but even read once it has great charm and comic elegance." --The Times Literary Supplement, 1967 "We find ourselves in the presence of a secret, always manifest but never revealed for the entire length of this screenplay, [which is] as riveting as Jules Verne, as disturbing as Melville."--Yvon Belaval "By dint of its rigorous economy, the imagination of its formal structure, and the interplay of languages at its heart (which beats as that of the most novelistic of novels cannot), The Antagonist, pure fiction, critical fiction, is unquestionably one of the most fascinating fables—in any case, the most richly enigmatic—available today."--Henri Ronce
ISBN: 9781628973747
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
240 pages