My New Bookcase

Bibliography / Psychogeography Bookcase
[photographs by Bronwyn Lloyd (1/6/22)]

Bronwyn and I are inveterate vintage shoppers. The other day we were looking through the Hospice shop at Wairau Park (located just up the street from Hoyts Cinemas, enabling one to combine browsing with moviegoing in a very civilised fashion). In the past she's been a bit scornful of my tendency to return from such expeditions with a pile of scruffy old ex-library books, so I was quite surprised when she pointed out a handsome wooden bookcase in the middle of the shop.

Wairau Park Hospice Shop (2020)

Or, rather, there were two bookcases. One was so large and imposing that it was hard to imagine fitting it into our remaining free wallspace. However the other, smaller one had tall, wide, wooden shelves, and looked tailor-made to hold some exciting new category of books.

The last time an event of this type happened, I used the new space to centralise my previously disparate collection of ghost stories. This time I decided to tackle the tricky topic of psychogeography.

But what exactly is psychogeography? I suppose, in the final analysis, it mainly depends on the list of authors you choose to attach to the concept. I wrote some notes about it for one of our Massey postgraduate creative writing courses a few years ago, which I'll refer you to if you want to explore the theme in more depth. I'll content myself here with a brief précis:

Richard Edkins: The Flâneur, Psychogeography and Drift Photography (2015)

Not to find one’s way in a city may well be uninteresting and banal. It requires ignorance — nothing more. But to lose oneself in a city — as one loses oneself in a forest — that calls for a quite different schooling. Then, signboard and street names, passers-by, roofs, kiosks, or bars must speak to the wanderer like a cracking twig under his feet in the forest.

- Walter Benjamin, A Berlin Chronicle (1932)

In many ways, psychogeography could be seen as a revival of French poet Charles Baudelaire's idea of the flâneur, the perambulating dandy, whose apparently aimless wanderings offer vital clues to the deeper meaning of modern urban environments.

Psychogeography continues to be associated principally with urban explorations - Peter Ackroyd's double-focus historical novel Hawksmoor (1985); Mike Davis's City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (1990); Alan Moore's graphic novel From Hell (1989-99), which postulates a Masonic "secret history" behind the Jack the Ripper murders; and Iain Sinclair's explorations of London's mythic past and present in such works as Lights out for the Territory: 9 Excursions in the Secret History of London (1997) - even Chris Trotter's chapter about an idealised dream Auckland in his alternative history of New Zealand No Left Turn (2007).

However, in his more recent book the Edge of the Orison (2005), Sinclair has extended his methodology to cover the rural haunts of nineteenth-century English nature poet John Clare, setting out to retrace the poet's famous 'Journey out of Essex' - Clare's own prose account of his 1841 escape from the asylum in which he had been incarcerated to find his lost love, Mary Joyce (unfortunately already three years dead).

Psychogeography, then, deals principally with boundary-crossings: whether those boundaries are those of genre (verse, fiction, non-fictional prose) or discipline (history, geography, travel, memoir and biography).

I suppose, in essence, that it consists of imposing a theory (generally of an occult or abstruse nature) on a landscape, more or less arbitrarily. The landscape is then interrogated to see whether or not it matches up with or confirms the theory, no matter how - intentionally - absurd it may be.

Creative NZ grants (2020)

The list of notable psychogeographers included in Wikipedia's article on the subject includes the following names:

• Peter Ackroyd
• Michèle Bernstein
• Pat Barker
• Paul Conneally
• Guy Debord
• Stewart Home
• Jacqueline de Jong
• Robert Macfarlane
• Geoff Nicholson
• Iain Sinclair
• Laura Oldfield Ford
• Nick Papadimitriou
• Will Self
• Cathy Turner (artist)
• Jean Rolin
• Philippe Vasset

My own set of favourite psychogeographers is far shorter, though it does include a few of the same suspects:

1. Geoffrey Ashe (1923-2022)
2. John Clare (1793-1864)
3. Tim Powers (1952- )
4. W. G. Sebald (1944-2001)
5. Iain Sinclair (1943- )

•

Geoffrey Ashe (2009)

Geoffrey Ashe
& the Arthurian Legend

Geoffrey Ashe actually died just a couple of months ago, on the 30th January 2022, at his home in Glastonbury. On my one and only visit there, in 1981, I was hugely impressed by the intense atmosphere projected by both the town and its environs. I had, admittedly, been reading John Cowper Powys' mammoth novel A Glastonbury Romance, and a combination of that and Geoffrey Ashe's King Arthur's Avalon made it seem like holy ground to me.

I remember dashing up Glastonbury Tor, and feeling as though the ghosts were springing out of the grass all around me. Until my father turned to make some banal remark, that is - God knows how he put up with such a sullen and pretentious teen! All I can say is that my siblings weren't much better. "Thanks for the interruption," as one of my older brothers remarked on a not dissimilar occasion.

The Arthurian legend could certainly be described as England's Dreaming (the title of Jon Savage's classic book about the Sex Pistols). There are rivals, of course: Robin Hood and his Merry Men, Langland's peasant hero Piers Plowman - but only King Arthur's aristocratic mythos combines all the different strands of Celtic, Roman, Saxon, and Norman culture into one bizarre cauldron of stories.

Here's a selection of some of the literature on the topic I've collected over the years. First, from Geoffrey Ashe's own eclectic bibliography (you can find out more about him from my blogpost on the subject):

1. King Arthur’s Avalon: The Story of Glastonbury. 1957. Fontana Books. London: Collins, 1973.
2. From Caesar to Arthur. London: Collins, 1960.
3. Land to the West: St Brendan’s Voyage to America. London: Collins, 1962.
4. All About King Arthur. 1969. London: Carousel Books, 1973.
5. Camelot and the Vision of Albion. 1971. St. Albans, Herts: Panther, 1975.
6. The Finger and the Moon. 1973. St. Albans, Herts: Panther, 1975.
7. The Virgin. 1976. Paladin. Frogmore, St Albans, Herts: Granada Publishing Limited, 1977.
8. The Ancient Wisdom. 1977. Abacus. London: Sphere Books, 1979.
9. Avalonian Quest. 1982. London: Fontana Paperbacks, 1984.
10. The Discovery of King Arthur. With Debrett’s Peerage. London: Guild Publishing, 1985.
11. The Landscape of King Arthur. With Photographs by Simon McBride. London: Webb & Bower (Publishers) Limited, in association with Michael Joseph Limited, 1987.
12. Mythology of the British Isles. 1990. London: Methuen London, 1992.

I've added a few other books to the bookcase to contextualise Ashe's curious imaginings. He was a strange combination of scholar and visionary, and - at least until the 'psychogeographer' label came along - it was hard to work out which of these aspects was the most dominant:

1. Alcock, Leslie. Arthur’s Britain: History and Archaeology, AD 367-634. 1971. A Pelican Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.
2. Ashe, Geoffrey, ed. The Quest for Arthur’s Britain. With Leslie Alcock, C. A Ralegh Radford, & Philip Rahtz. 1968. London: Paladin, 1973.
3. Barber, Richard. Legends of King Arthur. The Boydell Press. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer Ltd., 2001.
4. Barber, Richard. The Holy Grail: The History of a Legend. 2004. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2005.
5. Bord, Janet & Colin. Mysterious Britain. 1972. A Paladin Book. Frogmore, St Albans: Granada Publishing Ltd., 1975.
6. Chambers, E. K. Arthur of Britain. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., 1927.
7. Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain. Trans. Lewis Thorpe. 1966. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.
8. Gerald of Wales. The History and Topography of Ireland. Trans. John J. O’Meara. 1951. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.
9. Cambrensis, Giraldus. The Itinerary through Wales and The Description of Wales. Trans. Sir Richard Colt Hoare. 1806. Introduction by W. Llewellyn Williams. 1908. Everyman’s Library. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. / New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc., n.d.
10. Treharne, R. F. The Glastonbury Legends. 1967. Abacus. London: Sphere Books, Ltd., 1975.
11. Watkins, Alfred. The Old Straight Track. 1925. London: Abacus, 1976.
12. Weston, Jessie L. From Ritual to Romance. 1920. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957.

Joanna Gillan: Glastonbury Tor (2022)

•

William Henry Hunt: Unknown Man (perhaps John Clare?) (1820s)

John Clare
& the Power of Pastoral

I've written a couple of posts about John Clare already. The first was an attempt to parallel his poetic practice with that of his near-contemporary Charles Baudelaire. The second was more narrowly focussed on the peculiarities of his bibliography.

He's one of those poets you either get or you don't. His 'madness' (i.e. inability to conform) has made him a troublesome figure for readers and literary scholars alike. In his lifetime his poems were normalised and repunctuated for him by his publisher. After his death the same service has been performed by a series of editors.

But then, the same could be said of almost all the poets of his era. Wordsworth himself punctuated oddly and sporadically, expecting his printers to deal with such accidentals. Even W. B. Yeats was notoriously vague about both spelling and 'stops'.

But Clare is in a class of his own. His output was vast and disorderly - especially the later poems from the asylum years. What makes him an appropriate figure to include here is the immense precision of his observation and knowledge of natural history. His landscapes and creatures are not the symbolic nightingales and skylarks of a Keats or a Shelley, but genuine living beings for whom he had both compassion and empathy.

Clare and Clare-iana have therefore become one of the touchstones of modern pastoral writing. And the story of his posthumous rediscovery and influence is almost as fascinating as the events of his own life:

1. The Works of John Clare. Ed. Arthur Symons. 1908. Introduction by John Goodridge. The Wordsworth Poetry Library. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd., 1995.
2. The Poems of John Clare. Ed. J. W. Tibble. 2 vols. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. / New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc., 1935.
3. Poems of John Clare’s Madness. Ed. Geoffrey Grigson. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1949.
4. The Prose. Ed. J. W. & Anne Tibble. 1951. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970.
5. The Letters. Ed. J. W. & Anne Tibble. 1951. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970.
6. The Shepherd’s Calendar. Ed. Eric Robinson & Geoffrey Summerfield. Wood Engravings by David Gentleman. 1964. London: Oxford University Press, 1974.
7. The Later Poems. Ed. Eric Robinson & Geoffrey Summerfield. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1964.
8. Selected Poems. Ed. J. W. & Anne Tibble. Everyman’s Library, 563. London: J. M. Dent, 1965.
9. The Wood is Sweet. Ed. David Powell. Introduction by Edmund Blunden. Illustrated by John O'Connor. Poems for Young Readers. London: The Bodley Head Ltd., 1966.
10. Bird Poems. Introduction by Peter Levi. Wood-Engravings by Thomas Bewick. London: The Folio Society, 1980.
11. John Clare’s Birds. Ed. Eric Robinson & Richard Fitter. Illustrated by Robert Gillmor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
12. John Clare: The Oxford Authors. Ed. Eric Robinson & David Powell. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
13. The Parish: A Satire. Ed. Eric Robinson. Notes by David Powell. 1985. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.
14. Selected Letters. Ed. Mark Storey. Oxford Letters & Memoirs. 1988. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
15. Selected Poems. Ed. Geoffrey Summerfield. 1990. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2000.
16. John Clare By Himself. Ed. Eric Robinson & David Powell. Wood Engravings by Jon Lawrence. 1996. Fyfield Books. Manchester: Carcanet Press, 2002.

For more on the subject, here are a few selections from the burgeoning library of books about him. I'd recommend, in particular, Jonathan Bate's groundbreaking biography:

1. Tibble, J. W. & Anne. John Clare: A Life. 1932. Rev. Anne Tibble. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1972.
2. Storey, Edward. A Right to Song: The Life of John Clare. London: Methuen, 1982.
3. Bate, Jonathan. John Clare: A Biography. 2003. Picador. London: Pan Macmillan, 2004.
4. Foulds, Adam. The Quickening Maze. 2009. Vintage Books. London: Random House, 2010.
5. Felstiner, John. Can Poetry Save the Earth? A Field Guide to Nature Poems. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2009.

Rob Chapman: On the Trail of John Clare (2017)

•

Tim Powers (2013)

Tim Powers
& the Time to Cast Away Stones

Tim Powers' novels and stories are definitely an enthusiasm of mine. They have their limitations, but their strengths are equally obvious. You'll have to take my word for it that it's not as easy as it might seem to concoct complex and believable secret histories, mixing occult and quotidian phenomena in approximately equal measure. I am, after all, the author of a number of them (my 'REM' trilogy, for instance). Powers is a master of the art.

I've discussed my favourites among his books in my blogpost here, though a few more have appeared since I wrote it: notably the Vickery and Castine trilogy, which does a great job of mythologising the Los Angeles Freeway system, among other strange and arcane matters.

Here's a list of his major works to date (give or take a few limited-edition novellas):

1. Powers of Two: The Skies Discrowned & An Epitaph in Rust. 1976, 1986, 1989. Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2004.
2. The Drawing of the Dark. 1979. London: Granada, 1981.
3. The Anubis Gates. 1983. London: Triad Grafton Books, 1986.
4. Dinner at Deviant's Palace. 1985. London: Grafton Books, 1987.
5. On Stranger Tides. 1987. New York: Ace Books, 1988.
6. The Stress of Her Regard. 1989. London: HarperCollins, 1991.
7. Last Call. Fault Lines, 1. 1993. New York: Avon Books, 1996.
8. Expiration Date. Fault Lines, 2. London: HarperCollins, 1995.
9. Earthquake Weather. Fault Lines, 3. 1997. London: Orbit, 1998.
10. Declare. 2001. New York: HarperTorch, 2002.
11. Strange Itineraries and Other Stories. San Francisco: Tachyon Publications, 2005.
12. Three Days to Never. 2006. William Morrow. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013.
13. The Bible Repairman and Other Stories. San Francisco: Tachyon Publications, 2011.
14. Hide Me Among the Graves. 2012. Corvus. London: Atlantic Books Ltd., 2013.
15. Medusa's Web. 2015. Corvus. London: Atlantic Books Ltd., 2016.
16. Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers. Preface by David Drake. Introduction by Tony Daniel. 2017. Riverdale, NY: Baen, 2019.
17. Alternate Routes. Vickery & Castine, 1. A Baen Books Original. Riverdale, NY: Baen, 2018.
18. Forced Perspectives. Vickery & Castine, 2. A Baen Books Original. Riverdale, NY: Baen, 2020.
19. Stolen Skies. Vickery & Castine, 3. A Baen Books Original. Riverdale, NY: Baen, 2022.

The critical literature on him is limited, consisting mainly of interviews and reviews in various journals. He isn't discussed directly in the K. K. Ruthven book cited below, but many of its contentions bear interestingly on his work:

1. [Katz, Brad. “An Interview with Tim Powers (21/2/96).” Brow Magazine 1996.
   http://www.mcs.net/~brow/powers.html]
2. Ruthven, K. K. Faking Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Karen Robinson: Los Angeles Freeway System Map (2013)

•

Basso Cannarsa: W. G. Sebald (2019)

W. G. Sebald
& the Natural History of Destruction

W. G. Sebald is another one of those writers who seems unfairly singled out by fate for a brief flowering and then eternal night ("cum semel occidit brevis lux, / nox est perpetua una dormienda", [when once the brief light has set, / an eternal night must be slept], as Catullus put it in his much-quoted Elegy V). Hence, perhaps, the succession of books which has appeared since his death - perhaps in the hope of continuing his writing career from beyond the grave.

I've written more about this in my blogpost here, along with a few notes in a more recent post on The Imaginary Museum.

Is he a psychogeographer? It seems as good a description as any for his genre-defying works, part fiction, part non-fiction, part travel literature, part history lesson: in particular Vertigo and The Rings of Saturn, but also such eclectic essay collections as the recently translated A Place in the Country.

That's how I choose to regard him, at any rate, though I'm happy to hear all the reasons why I'm wrong from some more earnest commentator.

1. After Nature. 1988. Trans. Michael Hamburger. 2002. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2003.
2. Vertigo. 1990. Trans. Michael Hulse. London: Harvill Press, 1999.
3. The Emigrants. 1993. Trans. Michael Hulse. 1996. London: Vintage, 2002.
4. The Rings of Saturn. 1995. Trans. Michael Hulse. 1998. London: Vintage, 2002.
5. A Place in the Country: On Gottfried Keller, Johann Peter Hebel, Robert Walser and Others. 1998. Trans. Jo Catling. 2013. London: Penguin, 2014.
6. On the Natural History of Destruction: With Essays on Alfred Andersch, Jean Améry and Peter Weiss. 1999. Trans. Anthea Bell. 2003. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2004.
7. Austerlitz. 2001. Trans. Anthea Bell. 2001. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2002.
8. Campo Santo. Ed. Sven Meyer. 2003. Trans. Anthea Bell. 2005. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2006.
9. [with Jan Peter Tripp]. Unrecounted: 33 Texts and 33 Etchings. 2003. Trans. Michael Hamburger. Hamish Hamilton. London: Penguin, 2004.
10. Across the Land and the Water: Selected Poems, 1964-2001. 2008. Trans. Iain Galbraith. Hamish Hamilton. London: Penguin, 2011.

Carol Angier's biography speaks to the underlying anxieties of Sebald's life and times, and the curious ways in which this manifested itself in his work. As in her previous book about Primo Levi, she does have certain hobby-horses which appear continually, but no-one could complain of any lack of contextual documentation for her views.

1. Angier, Carol. Speak, Silence: In Search of W. G. Sebald. London: Bloomsbury Circus, 2021.

Barbara L Hui: Mapping Literature (2014)

•

Iain Sinclair (2013)

Iain Sinclair
& the Secret History of London

Iain Sinclair is certainly the most self-consciously psychogeographical of all the authors mentioned here. He began as a poet, then moved to writing novels, and then on to stranger works of cross-genre travel / history / art & film criticism. It's mostly these latter which have won him a cult audience.

He may lack the immediate visibility of a Peter Ackroyd or an Alan Moore, but his oeuvre could be argued to be at least as influential. I haven't yet written about him at length, as there are a number of his books I'd like to read first, but I have compiled an approximate bibliography for him among the others included here

Here's a small selection from the poetry and fiction he's published to date:

1. Lud Heat and Suicide Bridge. 1975 & 1979. Introduction by Michael Moorcock. Vintage. London: Random House, 1995.
2. Flesh Eggs & Scalp Metal: Selected Poems, 1970-1987. A Paladin Paperback Original. London: Grafton Books, 1989.
3. Downriver (Or, The Vessels of Wrath): A Narrative in Twelve Tales. 1991. Vintage. London: Random House, 1995.
4. Radon Daughters. 1994. Vintage. London: Random House, 1995.
5. Dining on Stones (or, The Middle Ground). 2004. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2005.

The non-fiction works listed below are where his greatest strengths lie, I would argue. Unfortunately I don't own a copy of his ground-breaking London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25 (2002) but I have read it with great interest, and indeed used a chapter from it as one of the readings in my Massey Travel Writing course.

1. Lights Out for the Territories: 9 Excursions in the Secret History of London. London: Granta Books, 1997.
2. Edge of the Orison: In the Traces of John Clare's 'Journey Out of Essex'. 2005. London: Penguin, 2006.

Karen Robinson: On the Road (2004)

•

Here and there on this blog you can find some of my own attempts at a psychogeography of my own whereabouts, in the form of the two (hopefully ongoing) series "The Intrepid Ghost-Hunters" and "The Mysteries of ...":

1. The Intrepid Ghost-Hunters (1): Waitomo Caves (13/11/2012)
2. The Intrepid Ghost-Hunters (2): Thames & Te Aroha (13/8/2013)
3. The Intrepid Ghost-Hunters (3): Home Turf (5/8/2015)
4. The Mysteries of Ashburton (25/1/2019)
5. The Mysteries of Rotorua (28/4/2019)
6. The Mysteries of Auckland: H. P. Lovecraft (12/4/2021)
7. The Mysteries of Auckland: Jules Verne (4/7/2021)

•

In any case, it's nice to see all these books gathered together for the first time. I can feel them already starting to talk among themselves. I doubt very much that this is the last that I'll have to say on the topic, either.

Robert Macfarlane: Psychogeography (2019)

Der Bau

Elias Canetti: Auto da Fé (1935)

Someone has stolen my copy of Auto da Fé, by Elias Canetti.

They did it in quite an ingenious way. I had it in a bookcase arranged with double rows of books on each shelf. The idea is that a quick scan of the books in front will enable you to guess what's concealed behind.

In this case, there were two Penguin paperbacks by Canetti - Crowds and Power and Auto da Fé - in the front row, and a group of his other books (including his four-volume autobiography) hidden behind.

What the thief did was to move one of the books from the back row to fill the gap in the front row, and thus conceal the fact that anything was missing from that shelf at all.

There's a certain irony in the fact that they chose that particular book to run off with. It's a novel about an obsessive scholar, Dr Peter Kien, who lives entirely in, and for, his library of rare books.

When I say he lives in his library, I mean just that. He moves his little portable bed and washstand from room to room, depending on what he happens to be working on at the time.

Elias Canetti: Die Blendung (1935)

The original German title of the book, Die Blendung, translates literally as 'the blinding.' His English translator, the well-known historian C. V. Wedgwood, chose to change this to Auto da Fé ['Act of Faith' - the name for the mass burnings of heretics conducted by the Spanish Inquisition], presumably because she thought that this might better convey the book's claustrophobic sense of entrapment and sacrifice.

Elias Canetti: Party in the Blitz: The English Years (2003)

The book my thief chose to move forward was a hardback edition of one of Canetti's last works: Party in the Blitz (2003). Once again, there's a certain irony in that, as the novel concludes with the protagonist's self-immolation on a heap of his own books (they've been stolen and sold on by his unscrupulous housekeeper-turned-wife and her louche accomplices, but then recovered and brought back to him by his rather saintly brother).

I imagine I'll succeed in finding another copy of Auto da Fé to fill the gap. That isn't really the point, though.

Any collector of anything has to face the paradox that the more things you have, the less control you have over each part of your collection. While you're gleefully filling gaps in your holdings of some particular author, the most precious volume of all may just have disappeared into somebody's pocket.

Nor do we all have similar ethical standards in such matters. I know plenty of people who regard it as quite unnecessary to return books they've borrowed, and in fact react most indignantly to anyone who tries to recover their own property - they seem to envisage some wondrous freemasonry of books, passing from hand to hand like lightning rods: albeit with the slight, disquieting, detail that it's generally someone else providing the raw material.

And certainly getting too obsessed with ownership can become a bit excessive. At one point, to combat my own tendencies in that direction, I formulated a theory that the only books which would available to one in the afterlife would be those which had been given away. I accordingly began a programme of donations which would guarantee my own future reading pleasure - on the offchance I don't end up in the burning place instead, that is.

The burning place. Elias Canetti's novel is certainly not meant as an endorsement of bibliomaniacs such as his Peter Kien - on the contrary, in fact - but his success in portraying one would certainly seem to show certain tendencies in that direction on his own part.

Perhaps the thief meant to do me a favour by running off with the book. Perhaps they thought it would be unhealthy for me to brood too much over the dark material included in it. And it's probably true that it will be a long time before I feel it necessary to read it again - though Canetti's autobiography, in particular, is a delight.

Franz Kafka: Der Bau (1924)

The other thing it made me think of, I'm afraid, was Kafka's great short story 'Der Bau' [The Burrow]. Written six months before his death, and published posthumously in 1931, it describes a large burrowing animal who has built a most marvellous underground structure which he is engaged in constantly improving.

Gradually he becomes aware of little piles of loose dirt, betokening the presence of some alien invader, which he tidies as best he can, but which continue to appear, threatening to undermine all the - illusory - grandeur of the dwelling he's built for himself. It's the rift within the lute, the maggot in his brain, the ideé fixe which will end up by destroying him.

Donald A. Mackenzie: Teutonic Myth and Legend (1912)

I remember once, in a university class on the Old English epic Beowulf, suggesting that the dragon whose horde is invaded by the hero Beowulf towards the end of the poem might feel similarly about his own treasure chamber - that he might feel a deep sense of repulsion at the mere fact that an intruder has succeeded in invading his sanctuary.

I remember one of my classmates laughing at this: "I don't think he feels like the creature in Kafka, Jack."

'Why not?' I asked at the time. Why shouldn't he feel like that? The poet gives few clues to his feelings.

At present (Der Bau-like), I'm engaged in a large-scale project to map every one of the books in our house, and - in the process - adding protective covers to all the vulnerable hardbacks. I've also decided to write my name in each and every one of them, rather than reserving that for the more interesting acquisitions.

From now on there will be a small sign on the shelves in our guest space:

Feel free to read the books, but please be careful of them if you do.

Don't take anything away without asking. That will be regarded as theft.

So if that bookthief was sending me a message about the perils of getting too attached to my collection, I'm afraid that I've chosen to ignore it.

Elias Canetti: Auto da Fé (English translation, 1946)

•

And, to show how thoroughly I've missed the point, here are my holdings of Elias Canetti, Franz Kafka, and - the Beowulf poet.

The Southwick Codex (c.1000)

Beowulf
(c.8th-early 11th century)

Editions:


1. Klaeber, Franz, ed. Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg. 1922. Third Edition with First and Second Supplements. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1950.


2. Swanton, Michael, ed. Beowulf: A Glossed Text. Manchester Medieval Classics. Ed. G. L. Brook. Manchester: Manchester University Press / New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1978.


3. Alexander, Michael, ed. Beowulf: A Glossed Text. 1995. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2000.

Translations:


4. Wright, David, trans. Beowulf: A Prose Translation. 1957. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961.


5. Alexander, Michael, trans. Beowulf: A Verse Translation. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.


6. Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf: A Verse Translation. 2000. Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Daniel Donghue. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002.


7. Tolkien, J. R. R. Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2014.

Secondary:


8. Garmonsway, G. N., & Jacqueline Simpson, trans. Beowulf and Its Analogues. Including Archaeology and Beowulf, by Hilda Ellis Davidson. 1968. A Dutton Paperback. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1971.


9. Tolkien, J. R. R. Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode. Ed. Alan Bliss. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982.


10. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays. Ed. Christopher Tolkien . London: George Allen & Unwin, 1983.


11. Wilson, R. M. The Lost Literature of Medieval England. 1952. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1970.

Elias Canetti (1981)

Elias Canetti
(1905-1994)

Fiction:


1. Auto da Fé. 1935. Trans. C. V. Wedgwood. 1946. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965.

Essays:


2. Crowds and Power. 1960. Trans. Carol Stewart. 1962. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.


3. Kafka’s Other Trial. 1969. Trans. Christopher Middleton. 1974. In Kafka, Franz. Letters to Felice. Ed. Erich Heller & Jürgen Born. Trans. James Stern & Elizabeth Duckworth. 1973. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.


4. The Human Province. 1973. Trans. Joachim Neugroschel. 1978. London: Picador, 1986.


5. The Conscience of Words / Earwitness. 1976 & 1979. Trans. Joachim Neugroschel. 1986 & 1979. London: Picador, 1987.

Memoirs:


6. The Tongue Set Free: Remembrance of a European Childhood. 1977. Trans. Joachim Neugroschel. 1979. London: Picador, 1989.


7. The Torch in My Ear. 1980. Trans. Joachim Neugroschel. 1982. London: Picador, 1990.


8. The Play of the Eyes. 1985. Trans. Joachim Neugroschel. 1986. London: Picador, 1991.


9. Party in the Blitz: The English Years. 2003. Trans. Michael Hofmann. Introduction by Jeremy Adler. London: Harvill Press, 2005.

Travel:


10. The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit. 1967. Trans. J. A. Underwood. 1978. London: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd., 1982.

Franz Kafka (1923)

Franz Kafka
(1883-1924)

Works:


1. The Trial / America / The Castle / Metamorphosis / In the Penal Settlement / The Great Wall of China / Investigations of a Dog / Letter to His Father / The Diaries 1910-1923. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir et al. London: Secker & Warburg / Octopus, 1976.

Novels:


2. The Trial: Definitive Edition. 1925. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1935. Rev. E. M. Butler. 1956. London: Secker & Warburg, 1963.


3. The Trial. 1925. Trans. Douglas Scott & Chris Waller. Introduction by J. P. Stern. 1977. London: Picador, 1980.


4. The Castle: Definitive Edition. 1926. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1930. Rev. Eithne Wilkins & Ernst Kaiser. 1953. London: Secker & Warburg, 1961.


5. Amerika: Roman. 1935. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985.


6. America: Definitive Edition. 1927. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1938. Rev. ed. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949.


7. The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika). 1927. Trans. Michael Hofmann. Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996.

Stories:


8. Sämtliche Erzählungen. Ed. Paul Raabe. 1970. Hamburg: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1983.


9. The Great Wall of China and Other Pieces. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1933. Rev. ed. London: Secker & Warburg, 1946.


10. The Metamorphosis / Die Verwandlung. 1935. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1968. New York: Schocken Books, 1974.


11. Der Heizer / In der Strafkolonie / Der Bau. 1935. Ed. J. M. S. Pasley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966.


12. Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1933 & 1958. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.


13. In the Penal Settlement: Tales and Short Prose Works. Definitive Edition. 1935. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949.


14. Wedding Preparations in the Country and Other Posthumous Prose Writings: Definitive Edition. 1953. Trans. Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins. London: Secker & Warburg, 1954.


15. Wedding Preparations in the Country and Other Stories. Trans. Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins. 1953. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.


16. Description of a Struggle and The Great Wall of China: Definitive Edition. 1933. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir and Tania & James Stern. 1958. London: Secker & Warburg, 1960.


17. Description of a Struggle and Other Stories. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir, Malcolm Pasley, Tania & James Stern. 1973. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.


18. The Complete Stories. Ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. 1971. New York: Schocken Books, 1976.


19. Stories 1904-1924. Trans. J. A. Underwood. Foreword by Jorge Luis Borges. 1981. A Futura Book. London: Macdonald & Co, 1983.

Letters & Diaries:


20. The Diaries of Franz Kafka. Ed. Max Brod. Trans. Joseph Kresh and Martin Greenberg with Hannah Arendt. 1948 & 1949. Peregrine Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964.


21. Letters to Milena. Ed. Willy Haas. Trans. Tania & James Stern. 1953. London: Corgi Books, 1967.


22. Letters to Felice. Ed. Erich Heller & Jürgen Born. Trans. James Stern & Elizabeth Duckworth. 1973. With Elias Canetti: Kafka’s Other Trial. 1969. Trans. Christopher Middleton. 1974. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.


23. Letters to Friends, Family and Editors. Trans. Richard & Clara Winston. 1977. Richmond, Surrey: Alma Classics Ltd., 2014.

Secondary:


24. Brod, Max. Franz Kafka: A Biography. 1937. Trans. G. Humphreys Roberts. 1947. Rev. Richard Winston. 1960. New York: Schocken Books, 1973.


25. Calasso, Roberto. K. 2002. Trans. Geoffrey Brock. Jonathan Cape. London: Random House, 2005.


26. Hayman, Ronald. K: A Biography Of Kafka. 1981. An Abacus Book. London: Sphere Books, 1983.


27. Janousch, Gustav. Conversations with Kafka. 1953. Rev. ed. 1968. Trans. Goronwy Rees. New York: New Directions, 1971.


28. Pawel, Ernst. The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka. 1984. London: Collins Harvill, 1988.

Bruxelles & la Bibliothèque de la Pléiade

Brussels: Grande Place

A long time ago in a country far, far away - called Belgium - I lived a life in what now seems to me almost an alternate universe.

I don't know how convinced you are by the physics of the multiverse: the infinite branching paths radiating out from each moment in each of our lives (or, for that matter, in the life of the cosmos), but certainly in my own life I can see certain moments of decision - certain choices which determined one chain of events or another.

Palmerston North

One of them was in Palmerston North, where I taught for a year at Massey University, and was offered at the end of it a new, improved half-time contract rather than the full-time one I'd been on.

On that occasion, a counter-offer of full-time work at Auckland was decisive. I returned to my home town, not without certain regrets, but forced by economic necessity.

Brussels: Kraainem

My brief life as potential citizen of Europe (or Eurotrash, if you prefer) built up over several years from the late eighties to the mid-nineties. It was all involved with my first marriage, to a London-born, Paris-educated, French, German and Flemish speaking girl whose quite wealthy family lived in one of the nicer suburbs of Brussels.

The only one of those languages I could really speak was French, but no doubt the others would have come in time (I have a reading knowledge of German, though no Flemish at all).

The moment of our break-up put paid to that life. Nearly a quarter of a century later, I can't say I'm sorry. There's a certain comfort, as well as a certain complexity, in making your life in the place you originally came from. I do miss speaking French every day, but returning to New Zealand with the determination to try and get to know it properly for the first time has been as absorbing as any life task could be.

Some of the reliquaries of that vanished life include a large library of French books. One or two of them I should probably have returned to Jackie-Anne when we split up our few sticks of property, but I guess I hung on to them because they would be so much easier for her to replace than for me to reacquire (this was long before the days of Amazon.com and such digital gateways to virtually all the books in existence).

Tintin murals: Stockel metro station

I did send back a whole lot of things, but some I overlooked at the time. Since she kept everything we had in the other country, I imagine it worked out pretty equally. If not, it's all a long time ago now. I hope I learned some things about avoiding pettiness on such occasions as a result, though. It certainly confirmed my agreement with that old Shakespearean tag: 'He jests at scars who never felt a wound.'

Marriage break-ups, like any other emotional upheaval, are not to be taken lightly - and it's been a help to me many times since to remember my own feelings at the time. I don't feel judgemental about excesses of behaviour which might otherwise seem inexplicable.

Some people are able to stay on civil terms with their ex's. I wish that were true of me, too, but it isn't. I envy their maturity, but - again - it's helped me to understand why people will change countries, let alone cities, to avoid any casual encounters.

Bibliothèque de la Pléiade

These are some of the thoughts I have when I examine the following maniacal-seeming list of books belonging to the magisterial French collection of classics, the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. If you notice obvious gaps, that's probably because I have a lot of other French books in less impressive forms.

And if you've got sick of these long lists of books-in-particular-series I've been putting up on this blog, all I can say is that I suspect this will be the last of them for a while. So far my lists-of-lists have included:

1. La Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (1931- ) [41]
2. The Folio Society (1947- ) [95]
3. The Landmark Ancient Histories (1996- ) [5]
4. The Library of America (1979- ) [92]
5. The Loeb Classics (1912- ) [59]
6. Longman Annotated English Poets (1965- ) [12]
7. The Nonesuch Library (1927-77) [16]
8. Norton Annotated Editions (2000- ) [20]
9. Oxford Myths and Legends (1954- ) [19]
10. Penguin Modern Poets (1962-83) [28]
11. Penguin Modern European Poets (1958-84) [40]
12. Penguin Poets in Translation (1996-2005) [12]
13. The Reynard Library (1950-71) [7]
14. Russian Foreign Languages Publishing House (1946-64) [40]

It's the Pléiade which has the most tender, still smarting associations, however.

I'll never regret that other life I almost started to live, but the life I live now is so much more satisfactory in every way, that I have to say that my main feeling about the whole thing now is gratitude both for the amazing opportunity, and also for the fact that I ended up taking another road - the road home, the one less travelled by.

Maybe I'll write more about it someday.

Auckland: Mairangi Bay

•


La Pléiade (1931- )

Ma bibliothèque

MES LIVRES

41 ouvrages / 26 auteurs

1. Anonyme





Les Mille et Une Nuits: Tome I (2005)



• Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits. Tome 1: Nuits 1 à 327. 3 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 515. Paris: Gallimard, 2005.

Parution le 13 Mai 2005, 1312 pages, 68.00 €





Les Mille et Une Nuits: Tome II (2006)



• Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits. Tome 2: Nuits 327 à 719. 3 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 526. Paris: Gallimard, 2006.

Parution le 12 Octobre 2006, 1104 pages, 61.00 €





Les Mille et Une Nuits: Tome III (2006)



• Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine, and André Miquel, trans. Les Mille et Une Nuits. Tome 3: Nuits 719 à 1001. 3 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 527. Paris: Gallimard, 2006.

Parution le 12 Octobre 2006 1088 pages, 61.00 €





Margaret Sironval: Album Mille et Une Nuits: Iconographie commentée (2005)



• Album Mille et Une Nuits : Iconographie. Choisie et commentée par Margaret Sironval. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Albums de la Pléiade, n° 44. Paris: Gallimard, 2005.

Parution le 13 Mai 2005, 272 pages, 248 ill.




2. Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki [Guillaume Apollinaire] (1880-1918)





Guillaume Apollinaire : Œuvres poétiques complètes (1956)



• Apollinaire, Guillaume. Œuvres poétiques : Le Bestiaire - Alcools - Vitam impendere amori - Calligrammes - Il y a - Poèmes à Lou - Le Guetteur mélancolique - Poèmes à Madeleine - Poèmes à la marraine - Poèmes retrouvés - Poèmes épistolaires - Poèmes inédits. Théâtre : Les Mamelles de Tirésias - Couleur du temps - Casanova. Ed. Marcel Adéma & Michel Décaudin. Préface d'André Billy. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 121. 1956. Paris: Gallimard, 1990.

Parution en Décembre 1956, 1344 pages, 59.00 €





Guillaume Apollinaire : Œuvres en prose complètes: Tome I (1977)



• Apollinaire, Guillaume. Œuvres en prose complètes I : Contes et récits : L'Enchanteur pourrissant - L'Hérésiarque et Cie - Le Poète assassiné - Contes écartés du «Poète assassiné» - La Femme assise - Contes retrouvés - La Fin de Babylone - Les Trois Don Juan - La Femme blanche des Hohenzollern. Théâtre : La Température - Le marchand d'anchois - Jean-Jacques - La colombelle - Fragments divers. Cinéma : La Bréhatine - C'est un oiseau qui vient de France. Ed. Michel Décaudin. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 267. 1977. Paris: Gallimard, 1988.

Parution le 14 Mai 1977, 1584 pages, 60.00 €





Guillaume Apollinaire : Œuvres en prose complètes: Tome II (1991)



• Apollinaire, Guillaume. Œuvres en prose complètes II : Écrits sur l'art : Méditations esthétiques - Les Peintres cubistes - Fragonard et l'Amérique - Chroniques et paroles sur l'art. Critique littéraire : La Phalange nouvelle - Les Poèmes de l'année - Les Poètes d'aujourd'hui - [Sur la littérature féminine] - L'Antitradition futuriste - L'Esprit nouveau et les Poètes. Chroniques et articles : Théories et polémiques - Portraits et silhouettes - Critique - Variétés. Échos sur les lettres et les arts. Ed. Pierre Caizergues & Michel Décaudin. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 382. Paris: Gallimard, 1991.

Parution le 20 Novembre 1991, 1872 pages, 74.50 €





Guillaume Apollinaire : Œuvres en prose complètes: Tome III (1993)



• Apollinaire, Guillaume. Œuvres en prose complètes III : Le Flâneur des deux rives - La Vie anecdotique - Chroniques et échos - Les Diables amoureux. Appendices : Essai sur la littérature sotadique au XIXe siècle - L'Arétin et son temps - [Les Fleurs du Mal] - Lettre à Louis Chadourne. Textes érotiques : Les Onze Mille Verges - Les Exploits d'un jeune don Juan. Compléments : théâtre : Un buveau d'absinthe qui a lu Victor Hugo - À la cloche de bois. Pièce en un acte - Revue de l'année : la Vérité sur la vie et le théâtre. Compléments : contes : [Projet de contes] - Un vol à la cour de Prusse - Le Roi Lune - Héloïse ou Dieu même. Chroniques et échos. Ed. Pierre Caizergues & Michel Décaudin. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 399. Paris: Gallimard, 1993.

Parution le 13 Mai 1993, 1632 pages, 76.00 €




3. Georges Bataille (1897-1962)





Georges Bataille : Romans et récits (2004)



• Bataille, Georges. Romans et récits : Histoire de l'œil - Le Bleu du ciel - Madame Edwarda - Le Petit - Le Mort - Julie - L'Impossible - La Scissiparité - L'Abbé C - Ma mère - Charlotte d'Ingerville - Archives du projet «Divinus Deus». Appendices : Récits retrouvés - La Maison brûlée - Ébauches. Ed. Jean-François Louette. Preface by Denis Hollier. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 511. Paris: Gallimard, 2004.

Parution le 18 Novembre 2004, 1552 pages, ill., 66.00 €




4. Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1821-1867)





Charles Baudelaire : Œuvres complètes: Tome I (1931)



• Baudelaire, Charles. Œuvres. Tome 1 : Les Fleurs du Mal - Le Spleen de Paris - Les Paradis artificiels - Essais et nouvelles - Théâtre - Critique littéraire - Critique artistique - Richard Wagner - Journaux intimes - Pauvre Belgique - Amœnitates Belgicæ - Traductions de l'anglais. Ed. Y.-G. Le Dantec. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1. 1931. Paris: Gallimard, 1944.

Ancienne édition, Parution le 2 Octobre 1931, 666 pages




5. Albert Camus (1913-1960)





Albert Camus : Théâtre – Récits et nouvelles (1962)



• Camus, Albert. Théâtre – Récits et nouvelles : Théâtre : Caligula - Le Malentendu - L'État de siège - Les Justes - Révolte dans les Asturies. Adaptations : Les Esprits - La Dévotion à la croix - Un Cas intéressant - Le Chevalier d'Olmedo - Requiem pour une nonne - Les Possédés. Récits et nouvelles : L'Étranger - La Peste - La Chute - L'Exil et le royaume : La Femme adultère. Le Renégat. Les Muets. L'Hôte. Jonas. La Pierre qui pousse. Ed. Roger Quilliot. Préface de Jean Grenier. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 161. 1962. Paris: Gallimard, 2005.

Ancienne édition, Parution le 13 Décembre 1962, 2128 pages





Albert Camus : Essais (1965)



• Camus, Albert. Essais : L'Envers et l'Endroit - Noces - Le Mythe de Sisyphe - Lettres à un ami allemand (1943-1944) - Actuelles I, chroniques 1944-1948 - L'Homme révolté - Actuelles II, chroniques 1948-1953 - L'Été - Actuelles III, chroniques algériennes 1939-1958 - Réflexions sur la guillotine - Discours de Suède (1957). Essais critiques : Introduction aux « Maximes » de Chamfort - Avant-propos à « La Maison du peuple », de Louis Guilloux - Rencontres avec André Gide - L'Artiste en prison - Roger Martin du Gard - Sur « Les Îles », de Jean Grenier - René Char. Appendices : Métaphysique chrétienne et néoplatonisme - Articles, préfaces, interviews, inédits. Ed. Roger Quilliot & Louis Faucon. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 183. 1965. Paris: Gallimard, 1981.

Épuisé, Parution le 8 Décembre 1965, 2000 pages




6. Paul Claudel (1868-1955)





Paul Claudel : Théâtre: Tome I (1948)



• Claudel, Paul. Théâtre. Tome 1 : L'Endormie - Fragment d'un drame - Tête d'or (1re et 2e versions) - La Ville (1re et 2e versions) - La Jeune fille Violaine (1re et 2e versions) - L'Échange (1re et 2e versions) - Le Repos du septième jour - Partage de midi (1re version et version pour la scène). Traductions d'Eschyle : Agamemnon - Les Choéphores - Les Euménides. Ed. Jacques Madaule & Jacques Petit. 2 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 72. 1947. Paris: Gallimard, 1991.

Ancienne édition, Parution en Avril 1948, 1440 pages





Paul Claudel : Théâtre: Tome II (1948)



• Claudel, Paul. Théâtre. Tome 2 : L'Annonce faite à Marie (1re version et version pour la scène) - L'Otage - Protée (1re et 2e versions) - Le Pain dur - Le Père humilié - La Nuit de Noël 1914 - L'Ours et la Lune - L'Homme et son désir - La Femme et son ombre (1re et 2e versions) - Le Peuple des hommes cassés - Le Soulier de satin (version intégrale et version pour la scène) - Sous le rempart d'Athènes - Le Livre de Christophe Colomb - La Parabole du festin - La Sagesse ou La Parabole du Festin - Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher - Le Jet de pierre - La Danse des morts - L'Histoire de Tobie et de Sara - La Lune à la recherche d'elle-même - Le Ravissement de Scapin. Ed. Jacques Madaule & Jacques Petit. 2 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 73. 1948. Paris: Gallimard, 1965.

Ancienne édition, Parution le 23 Mars 1948, 1568 pages




7. Denis Diderot (1713-1784)





Denis Diderot : Œuvres (1946)



• Diderot, Denis. Œuvres : Les Bijoux indiscrets - La Religieuse - Le Neveu de Rameau - Jacques le fataliste et son maître - Lui et moi - Les Deux amis de Bourbonne - Entretien d'un père avec ses enfants - Ceci n'est pas un conte - Sur l'inconséquence du jugement publique de nos actions particulières - Mon père et moi - Lettre à mon frère - Lettre sur les aveugles à l'usage de ceux qui voient - Entretien avec d'Alembert - Le rêve de d'Alembert - Regrets sur ma vieille robe de chambre - Sur les femmes - Sur l'estampe de Cochin - Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville - Paradoxe sur le comédien - Éloge de Richardson - Traité du Beau - Essai sur la peinture - Entretien d'un philosophe avec la Maréchale de *** - Satire I sur les caractères et les mots de caractère, de profession, etc. - Entretiens sur «Le fils naturel» - Des auteurs et des critiques - Lettres de Madame Riccoboni. Ed. André Billy. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 25. 1946. Paris: Gallimard, 1969.

Ancienne édition, Parution le 25 Septembre 1946, 1478 pages




8. Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie [Alexandre Dumas, père] (1802-1870)





Alexandre Dumas : Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (1981)



• Dumas, Alexandre. Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. 1845-46. Ed. Gilbert Sigaux. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 290. Paris: Gallimard, 1981.

Parution le 6 Mai 1981, 1504 pages, 60.00 €




9. André Paul Guillaume Gide (1869-1951)





André Gide : Romans – Récits et soties – Œuvres lyriques (1958)



• Gide, André. Romans; Récits et Soties; Œuvres lyriques : Le Traité du Narcisse - Le Voyage d'Urien - La Tentative amoureuse - Paludes - Les Nourritures terrestres - Les Nouvelles Nourritures - Le Prométhée mal enchaîné - El Hadj ou Le Traité du faux prophète - L'Immoraliste - Le Retour de l'Enfant Prodigue - La Porte Étroite - Isabelle - Les Caves du Vatican - La Symphonie pastorale - Les Faux-Monnayeurs - L'École des femmes - Robert - Geneviève ou La confidence inachevée - Thésée. Introduction by Maurice Nadeau. Ed. Yvonne Davet & Jean-Jacques Thierry. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 139. 1958. Paris: Gallimard, 1980.

Ancienne édition, Parution le 13 Novembre 1958, 1664 pages




10. Louis Poirier ['Julien Gracq'] (1910-2007)





Julien Gracq : Œuvres complètes: Tome I (1989)



• Gracq, Julien. Œuvres complètes. Tome 1 : Au château d'Argol - Un beau ténébreux - Liberté grande - Le Roi pêcheur - André Breton. Quelques aspects de l'écrivain - La Littérature à l'estomac - Le Rivage des Syrtes - Préférences. Appendices : Éclosion de la pierre - Un cauchemar - Le Surréalisme et la Littérature contemporaine - Prose pour l'étrangère - Enquête sur la diction poétique - Kleist : «Penthésilée» - Entretien sur «Penthésilée» de H. von Kleist. Ed. Bernhild Boie. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 354. Paris: Gallimard, 1989.

Parution le 4 Avril 1989, 1536 pages, 74.50 €




11. Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos (1741-1803)





Choderlos de Laclos : Œuvres complètes (1944)



• Choderlos de Laclos. Œuvres complètes : Les Liaisons dangereuses - De l'éducation des femmes - Poésies - Critique littéraire - Sur l'éloge de Vauban - Œuvres politiques - Appendices. Ed. Maurice Allem. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 6. 1944. Paris: Gallimard, 1959.

Ancienne édition, Parution le 16 Mars 1944, 942 pages




12. Stéphane [Étienne] Mallarmé (1842-1898)





Stéphane Mallarmé : Œuvres complètes (1945)



• Mallarmé, Stéphane. Œuvres complètes : Poëmes d'enfance et de jeunesse - Poésies - Vers de circonstance - Les Poëmes d'Edgar Poe - Proses de jeunesse - Poèmes en prose - Crayonné au théâtre - Variations sur un sujet - Un Coup de dés - Quelques médaillons et portraits en pied - Richard Wagner - Préface à «Wathek» - Le «Ten o'clock» de M. Whistler - Contes indiens - La Musique et les Lettres - Proses diverses - Les Mots anglais - Thèmes anglais - Les Dieux antiques - L'Étoile des fées. Ed. Henri Mondor & G. Jean-Aubry. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 65. 1945. Paris: Gallimard, 1992.

Épuisé, Parution le 12 Juin 1945, 1696 pages




13. André Malraux (1901-1976)





André Malraux : Romans (1947)



• Malraux, André. Romans : Les Conquérants - La Voie royale - La Condition humaine - L'Espoir. 1928, 1930, 1946, 1937. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 70. 1947. Paris: Gallimard, 1978.

Épuisé, Parution en Juin 1947, 864 pages




14. Prosper Mérimée (1803-1870)





Prosper Mérimée : Romans et nouvelles (1934)



• Mérimée, Prosper. Romans et nouvelles : Chronique du règne de Charles IX - Mosaïque - La Double méprise - Les Âmes du purgatoire - La Vénus d'Ille - Colomba - Arsène Guillot - Carmen - L'Abbé Aubain - Il Viccolo di Madame Lucrezia - La Chambre bleue - Lokis - Djoûmane. Appendice : Histoire de Rondino. Ed. Henri Martineau. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 21. Paris: Gallimard, 1934.

Ancienne édition, Parution le 30 Novembre 1934, 864 pages




15. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin ['Molière'] (1622-1673)





Molière : Œuvres complètes: Tome I (1972)



• Molière. Œuvres complètes. Tome 1 : La Jalousie du Barbouillé - Le Médecin volant - L'Étourdi ou Les Contretemps - Le Dépit amoureux - Les Précieuses ridicules - Sganarelle ou Le Cocu imaginaire - Dom Garcie de Navarre ou le Prince jaloux - L'École des Maris - Les Fâcheux - L'École des Femmes - Remerciement au Roi - La Critique de l'École des Femmes - L'Impromptu de Versailles - Le Mariage forcé - Les Plaisirs de l'Île enchantée - La Princesse d'Élide - Le Tartuffe ou L'Imposteur - Appendices. Ed. Georges Couton. 2 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 8. 1972. Paris: Gallimard, 1981.

Ancienne édition, Parution le 23 Février 1972, 1488 pages





Molière : Œuvres complètes: Tome II (1972)



• Molière. Œuvres complètes. Tome 2 : Dom Juan ou Le Festin de Pierre - L'Amour médecin - Le Misanthrope - Le Médecin malgré lui - Le Bal des Muses - Pastorale comique - Mélicerte - Le Sicilien ou L'amour peintre - Amphitryon - Le Grand divertissement royal de Versailles - George Dandin ou Le Mari confondu - L'Avare - Monsieur de Pourceaugnac - Les Amants magnifiques - Le Bourgeois gentilhomme - Psyché - Les Fourberies de Scapin - La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas - Les Femmes savantes - Le Malade imaginaire - Œuvres diverses - Appendices. Ed. Georges Couton. 2 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 9. 1972. Paris: Gallimard, 1981.

Ancienne édition, Parution le 23 Février 1972, 1584 pages




16. Georges Perec (1936-1982)





Georges Perec : Œuvres: Tome I (2017)



• Perec, Georges. Œuvres I : Les Choses - Quel petit vélo à guidon chromé au fond de la cour? - Un homme qui dort - La Disparition - Les revenentes - Espèces d'espaces - W ou Le souvenir d'enfance - Je me souviens. Ed. Christelle Reggiani, with Dominique Bertelli, Claude Burgelin, Florence de Chalonge, Maxime Decout & Yannick Séité. 2 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 623. Paris: Gallimard, 2017.

Parution le 11 Mai 2017, 1184 pages, 61.50 €





Georges Perec : Œuvres: Tome II (2017)



• Perec, Georges. Œuvres II : La Vie mode d'emploi - Un cabinet d'amateur - La Clôture et autres poèmes - L'Éternité. Appendice : Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu parisien - Le Voyage d'hiver - Ellis Island - L'art et la manière d'aborder son chef de service pour lui demander une augmentation - L'Augmentation. Ed. Christelle Reggiani, with Claude Burgelin, Maxime Decout, Maryline Heck et Jean-Luc Joly. 2 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 624. Paris: Gallimard, 2017.

Parution le 11 Mai 2017, 1280 pages, 63.50 €





Claude Burgelin : Album Georges Perec (2017)



• Burgelin, Claude. Album Georges Perec : Iconographie commentée. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Albums de la Pléiade, n° 56. Paris: Gallimard, 2017.

Parution le 11 Mai 2017, 256 pages, 202 ill.




17. Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa (1888-1935)





Fernando Pessoa : Œuvres poétiques (2001)



• Pessoa, Fernando. Œuvres poétiques : Alberto Caeiro : Le Gardeur de troupeaux - Le Berger amoureux - Poèmes non assemblés. Ricardo Reis : Odes. Livre premier - Odes publiées dans la revue «Presença» - Odes éparses. Álvaro de Campos : Premiers poèmes - Les Grandes odes - Autour des grandes odes - Derniers poèmes. Fernando Pessoa : Poèmes paülistes, sensationnistes et intersectionnistes - Pour un «Cancioneiro» - Sonnets - Quatrains - Rubayat - Poèmes politiques - Poèmes ésotériques et métaphysiques - Message - En marge de «Message» - Praça da Figueira - Un Soir à Lima - Poésie humoristique et vers de circonstance. Poésie anglaise : Poèmes d'Alexander Search - Épithalame - Antinoüs - Trente-cinq sonnets - Inscriptions - Le Violoneux fou - Poèmes anglais épars. Appendices : Poèmes de jeunesse - Aux frontières de la littérature : les poèmes français. Ed. Patrick Quillier. Trans. Olivier Amiel, Maria Antónia Câmara Manuel, Michel Chandeigne, Pierre Léglise-Costa et Patrick Quillier. Préface de Robert Bréchon. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 482. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.

Parution le 14 Novembre 2001, 2176 pages, 76.00 €




18. Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (1871-1922)





Marcel Proust : À la recherche du temps perdu: Tome I (1954)



• Proust, Marcel. À la recherche du temps perdu. Tome 1 : Du Côté de chez Swann - À l’Ombre des jeunes filles en fleur. Preface by André Maurois. Ed. Pierre Clarac & André Ferré. 3 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 100. 1954. Paris: Gallimard, 1964.

Épuisé, Parution le 30 Novembre 1954, 1056 pages





Marcel Proust : À la recherche du temps perdu: Tome II (1954)



• Proust, Marcel. À la recherche du temps perdu. Tome 2 : Le Côté de Guermantes - Sodome et Gomorrhe. Ed. Pierre Clarac & André Ferré. 3 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 101. 1954. Paris: Gallimard, 1973.

Épuisé, Parution le 30 Novembre 1954, 1232 pages





Marcel Proust : À la recherche du temps perdu: Tome III (1954)



• Proust, Marcel. À la recherche du temps perdu. Tome 3 : La Prisonnière - La Fugitive - Le Temps retrouvé. Ed. Pierre Clarac & André Ferré. 3 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 102. Paris: Gallimard, 1954.

Épuisé, Parution le 30 Novembre 1954, 1344 pages





Marcel Proust : Jean Santeuil précédé de Les Plaisirs et les Jours (1971)



• Proust, Marcel. Jean Santeuil précédé de Les Plaisirs et les Jours. Ed. Pierre Clarac & Yves Sandre. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 228. Paris: Gallimard, 1971.

Release on 29 Septembre 1971, 1136 pages, 49.00 €





Marcel Proust : Contre Sainte-Beuve précédé de Pastiches et mélanges suivi de Essais et articles (1971)



• Proust, Marcel. Contre Sainte-Beuve précédé de Pastiches et mélanges et suivi de Essais et articles. Ed. Pierre Clarac & Yves Sandre. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 229. Paris: Gallimard, 1971.

Release on 29 Septembre 1971, 1040 pages, 49.70 €




19. Jean Racine (1639-1699)





Jean Racine : Œuvres complètes: Tome I (1931)



• Racine. Oeuvres complètes I : Théâtre : La Thébaïde ou les frères ennemis - Alexandre Le Grand - Andromaque - Les Plaideurs - Britannicus - Bérénice - Bajazet - Mithridate - Iphigénie - Phèdre - Esther - Athalie. Poésies : Épigrammes - Cantiques spirituels - Paysage ou les promenades de Port-Royal-Des-Champs - Poésies latines. Ed. Raymond Picard. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 50. 1931. Paris: Gallimard, 1964.

Épuisé, Parution en Décembre 1931, 1216 pages




20. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944)





Antoine de Saint-Exupéry : Œuvres (1953)



• Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de. Œuvres : Courrier Sud - Vol de nuit - Terre des hommes - Pilote de guerre - Lettre à un otage - Le Petit Prince - Citadelle. Preface de Roger Callois. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 98. 1953. Paris: Gallimard, 1959.

Épuisé, Parution en Novembre 1953, 1056 pages, ill.




21. Alexis Leger [Saint-John Perse] (1887-1975)





Saint-John Perse : Œuvres complètes (1972)



• Saint-John Perse. Œuvres complètes : Œuvre poétique : Éloges - La Gloire des rois - Anabase - Exil - Vents - Amers - Chronique - Oiseaux - Chanté par celle qui fut là - Chant pour un équinoxe. Prose : Discours - Hommages - Témoignages. Correspondance : Lettres de jeunesse - Lettres d'Asie - Lettres d'exil. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 240. 1972. Paris: Gallimard, 2004.

Parution le 27 Novembre 1972, 1472 pages, 56.00 €




22. Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (1905-1980)





Jean-Paul Sartre : Œuvres romanesques (1982)



• Sartre, Jean-Paul. Œuvres Romanesque : La Nausée - Le Mur. Les Chemins de la liberté : L'Âge de raison - Le Sursis - La Mort dans l'âme - Drôle d'amitié. Appendices : Dépaysement - La Mort dans l'âme [Fragments de journal] - La Dernière chance [Fragments]. Ed. Michel Contat & Michel Rybalka, with Geneviève Idt & George H. Bauer. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 295. Paris: Gallimard, 1981.

Parution le 13 Janvier 1982, 2304 pages, 73.50 €




23. Somadeva (c.11th century)





Somadeva : Océan des rivières de contes (1997)



• Somadeva. Océan des rivières de contes. Ed. Nalini Balbir, with Mildrède Besnard, Lucien Billoux, Sylvain Brocquet, Colette Caillat, Christine Chojnacki, Jean Fezas & Jean-Pierre Osier. Traduction des ‘Contes du Vampire’ par Louis & Marie-Simone Renou, 1963. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 438. Paris: Gallimard, 1997.

Parution le 5 Septembre 1997, 1792 pages, ill., 76.00 €




24. Marie-Henri Beyle ['Stendhal'] (1783-1842)





Stendhal : Voyages en Italie (1973)



• Stendhal. Voyages en Italie : Rome, Naples et Florence en 1817 - L'Italie en 1818 - Rome, Naples et Florence (1826) - Promenades dans Rome. Suppléments : Les Marionnettes - Lettres de Rome à Romain Colomb - Les Ambassadeurs, etc. Ed. V. Del Litto. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 249. Paris: Gallimard, 1973.

Parution le 26 Octobre 1973, 1920 pages, 60.00 €




25. Paul-Marie Verlaine (1844-1896)





Paul Verlaine : Œuvres poétiques complètes (1938)



• Verlaine, Paul. Œuvres poétiques complètes : Premiers vers - Poèmes saturniens - Fêtes galantes - Poèmes contemporains des «Poèmes saturniens» et des «Fêtes galantes» - La Bonne chanson - Contribution à l'«Album zutique» - Romances sans paroles - Poèmes contemporains de «La bonne chanson» et des «Romances sans paroles» - Sagesse - Reliquat de «Cellulairement» et poèmes contemporains de «Sagesse» - Jadis et naguère - Amour - Parallèlement - Poèmes contemporains de «Parallèlement» - Dédicaces - Bonheur - Chansons pour elle - Liturgies intimes - Odes en son honneur - Élégies - Le Livre posthume - Dans les limbes - Épigrammes - Chair - Invectives - Biblio-sonnets - Poèmes divers. Œuvres libres : Femmes - Hombres. Ed. Y.-G. Le Dantec. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 47. 1938. Paris: Gallimard, 1954.

Parution en Juillet 1938, 1600 pages, 61.00 €




26. Blessed Jacobus de Varagine / Voragine [Giacomo da Varazze / Jacopo da Varazze] (c.1230–1298)





Jacques de Voragine : La Légende dorée (2004)



• Voragine, Jacques de. La Légende dorée. Preface by Jacques Le Goff. Ed. Alain Bouveau, Monique Goullet, Pascal Colomb, Laurence Moulinier, & Stefano Mula. ‘La Legende dorée et ses images’, by Dominique Donadieu-Rigaut. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 504. Paris: Gallimard, 2004.

Parution le 11 Mars 2004, 1664 pages, 197 ill., 69.00 €