/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21330946]

Marcel Schwob is one of my favorite writers ever and I don't understand why he is still utterly forgotten/ignored. Wakefield Press have come out with a new work of his and its description reminded me of just how prestigious an author Schwob really was and once again had me question how tf no one really reads him. Most of his works struggle to reach ever a couple hundred ratings on goodreads and I've never really seen him mentioned here except very rarely in passing. Yet during his time and for many incredibly well known authors today like Borges he was crucial in guiding entire bodies of work.
what gives? Look how cool this book sounds. Yet is there any fanfare for its release last month anywhere, among anyone? Not that I can see. It's sad.

>“All over the world,” wrote Jorge Luis Borges, “there are devotees of the writer Marcel Schwob who constitute little secret societies.” One could argue that Spicilege, Schwob’s last book published under his name, constitutes the handbook to these societies: a handbook to Schwob’s work, to himself as erudite scholar and author, and to the twilight of the era of French symbolism that was giving way to a new, complex modernism—a modernity that would encompass such disparate entities as Paul Valéry and Alfred Jarry (both of whom would dedicate books to Schwob).

https://wakefieldpress.com/schwob_spicilege.html

[Anonymous No.21330966]

I had not heard of him. I will read him now. Thank you, anon.

[Anonymous No.21330988]

>>21330966
The Book of Monelle is his most personal and many say best work. Referred to as the bible of the French Symbolist movement its a collection of fairytales he initially wrote for his girl as she lay dying from syphilis (I think it was that), after she died he finished the collection and turned it into an amazing expression of pure grief in the form of the fantastic. It's easily my favorite book ever, and also probably the easiest place to start with him. Much of his work besides Monelle is filled with very erudite references to things like ancient Greek plays and medieval French myths. Monelle still has this stuff but not to an extreme degree.

[Anonymous No.21330993]

>translated
>Just takes the grave off the title
Schwob's great but they could have just called it Anthology.

[Anonymous No.21330998]

>>21330966
your welcome. Oh and I will add that you should buy from Wakefield Press directly, if you search to buy his books on google you are likely to be recommended a second hand seller on amazon over the actual publisher whose prices are often cheaper than used copies anyway. I will always regret getting a rather tattered copy of one of his books that cost me $5 more than a brand new copy lol.

[Anonymous No.21331011]

>>21330993
isnt that the name Schwob gave the collection when he published it? Thats what the description says.
>Spicilege, Schwob’s last book published under his name

[Anonymous No.21331027]

>>21331011
It's Spicilège. It means an anthology or collection. Like Schopenhauer calling his Parerga (supplement) etc.

[Anonymous No.21331033]

>>21331027
Oh I see now

[Anonymous No.21331034]

>>21330946
>I don't understand why he is still utterly forgotten/ignored
Bad translations maybe? cf. Apollinaire, Jarry.

[Anonymous No.21331071]

>>21331034
Wakefield press translations of him are all amazing as are most of their publications. I have like 10+ books of theirs. But they only started translating him recently, after 2010, its kinda crazy that some of there translations of his are the first ever in English and all of them are the first English publications of his work in probably decades. He was extremely well respected by his peers and the authors who came directly after him.(I wouldn't be surprised if Kafka read him), but seemingly after that became quite obscure.

[Anonymous No.21332076]

>>21331071
is wakefield really the only place to get his works in english? I'm not aware of any other publishers that do his, maybe Dedalus Book.

[Anonymous No.21332082]

>>21330946
Shut the fuck up, retard. We get it: you just discovered him and multiple publishing houses publish Schwob. Lurk more and check the archive per the sticky.

[Anonymous No.21332100]

>>21332082
No The Book of Monelle is not published by anyone but Wakefield in English along with several other of his works. And I've been reading him for many years hence why I made a thread asking why no one knows about him despite him being incredibly well respected by authors that people on /lit/ do know.

I've been lurking this board for over a decade and the only threads ever on Schwob are the 1 or 2 I made years ago you fucking faggot.

[Anonymous No.21332112]

>>21332082
waaaa how dare you post about an amazing lesser-known author you want to discuss and share on a board dedicated to literature.
what the fuck?

[Anonymous No.21332132]

>>21332112
Schwob is not “lesser-known,” you recessed chin faggot. The fact that you used good reads as a metric shows how you’re a mentally weak loser incapable of developing a rigorous idea. Moreover, this thread is less about Schwob and more about how OP (You) is a raging cock-sucking faggot since the entire OP is “ME ME ME ME ME ME ME. LOOK AT ME EVERYONE” like a true woman. You have never said anything substantive concerning Schwob besides platitudes, which read as if you copy/pasted from Wakefield, since you are a brainlet. Lastly,
>I have 10+ books of theirs
Wow, you own 10 whole books books whose page count respectively rarely exceeds 80 pages. I own their entire catalogue. We are not the same.

[Anonymous No.21332146]

>>21332132
HIS MOST IMPORTANT WORKS WEREN'T EVEN IN ENGLISH TILL A DECADE AGO. There are virtually no discussions about him online and I am 100% certain the only threads ever made about him /lit/ were made by me.

You're fucking delusional. I've been trying to discuss his work online since I first read them nearly a decade ago, its not possible. Hence this thread reminding people that an author Borges referred to as one of his most important influences is available in English for the first time if not ever then at least decades.

Why would you care this much about painting an undeniably unknown and extremely obscure author as some tired old hat everyone knows about. What the fuck??

[Anonymous No.21332153]

>>21330946
As masks are the sign that there are faces, words are the sign that there are things. And these things are the sign of the incomprehensible.
Marcel Schwob, The King in the Golden Mask and Other Stories

WHAT THE FUCK I THINK I FINALLY UNDERSTAND IDEALISM

[Anonymous No.21332163]

>>21332146
Mimes and The Children's Crusade were first published in English translation in the 1890s/1900s

[Anonymous No.21332174]

>>21332163
Yes we've already established some of his work was published in English before recently but we're talking about all the other (much more important) work of his that wasn't. Try to keep up

[Anonymous No.21332181]

Borges is a fucking pseud. I don't care what he has to say. I once read a book he'd recommended about some island and 2 suns and a dude who invents some giant watch there and jerks off to sandy tits of women and is invisible all other utter nonsense garbage. Zero insight into human condition. Just like Borges himself. Overrated "magical" tripe. A single page of Balzac or Chekhov or even fucking Le Guin has more soul than entire pseudo-philosophical speculative nonsense of Borges.

[Anonymous No.21332183]

>>21332100
>>21332112
>>21332146
>And I've been reading him for many years hence why I made a thread asking why no one knows about him despite him being incredibly well respected by authors that people on /lit/ do know.
>I've been lurking this board for over a decade and the only threads ever on Schwob are the 1 or 2 I made years ago you fucking faggot
>There are virtually no discussions about him online and I am 100% certain the only threads ever made about him /lit/ were made by me
>I've been trying to discuss his work online since I first read them nearly a decade ago, its not possible

[Anonymous No.21332196]

>>21332174
And before someone tries to bring up some random 1930s edition that probably costs $1000 today keep in mind it's only relevant if people can actually afford to purchase and is available. I'd love to know another publisher of Schwobs works in English but I'm unaware of any currently.

[Anonymous No.21332198]

>>21332181
>Zero insight into human condition.
Domain of the eternal midwit

[Anonymous No.21332219]

>>21332183
What exactly is the point of this board if this is how you all respond to someone earnestly trying to discuss a clearly great author who doesn't get much recognition?
Fuck these people op I like your post and will definitely check him out

[Anonymous No.21332232]

>>21332181
sounds like you'd love The Book of Monelle its one of the most penetrating works on the human condition ever written. It's nothing but a guy expressing grief through writing stories less about the love of his dying before his eyes.

[Anonymous No.21332244]

> its one of the most penetrating works on the human condition ever written

[Anonymous No.21332277]

>>21332244
This is just weird. I don't know why I ever thought you faggots would have anything interesting to say in the first place.

Mods feel free to delete this thread and ban me. I clearly posted something off topic. This place seems to exist mainly as a containment board for autists to argue about which incredibly mundane and basic authors would feel better to suck off. Enjoy your circlejerk faggots.

[Anonymous No.21332298]

>>21332277
>I don't know why I ever thought you faggots would have anything interesting to say in the first place
You first, bud.

[Anonymous No.21332301]

>>21332196
Eh I think Imaginary Lives is published by one of the ebook spin-offs (Elektron?) of Creation Books, which was a shady enterprise but also published a lot of great books. (In Italian Imaginary Lives (Adelphi) was translated by Fleur Jaeggi.)

[Anonymous No.21332308]

>>21332183
Fuck off you retarded miserable cunt

[Anonymous No.21332324]

>>21332277
You should have posted something about Jordan Petersen or the Bible

[Anonymous No.21332343]

>>21332277
Stop writing like a faggot.

[Anonymous No.21332355]

>>21332301
Interesting thank you. I'm always on the lookout for publishers of obscure works.

[Anonymous No.21332380]

>>21332343
>Waaaa stop trying to have a normal discussion you have to obfuscate everything beneath 4 layers of sarcasm or you're just a faggot.
Sure bud, whatever you say

[Anonymous No.21332386]

>AHHHHHHHHH I ONLY CONSOOOM OBSCURE BOOKS, BOOKS FOR PATRICIANS LIKE ME
>AHHHHHHH IS THAT DOSTOVESKY
>AHHHHHHH NO OBSCUREEEEE ENOUGH I AM GOING INSANE
>NOOO BOOKS HAVE TO BE REALLY OBSCURE, OTHERWISE I WON‘T FEEL HECKING SMART AND SPECIAL FOR READING THEM

[Anonymous No.21332395]

>>21332386

[Anonymous No.21332413]

>>21332181
Retardation.

[Anonymous No.21332491]

>>21332146
>I am 100% certain the only threads ever made about him /lit/ were made by me.
Zeta's dead tho. I have it on good authority from an albatross. You wouldn't call an albatross a liar now would you?

[Anonymous No.21332911]

what a shit show. How hard is it to just check out a cool book without bitching? Many on this board seem actually offended at mere mention of an author they don't know about actually being good/overlooked. Explains why there is barely any discussion of fiction on /lit/ that isn't mentioned on "top 100 books of ALL TIME" lists.

[Anonymous No.21333001]

>>21332181
Filtered

[Anonymous No.21334021]

>>21330946
>Marcel Schwob
Who?

[Anonymous No.21335010]

>>21334021
Only one of the most respected authors of the fin-de-siècle whose work "The Book of Monelle" was referred to as the unofficial bible of the French Symbolist movement. Yet despite this illustrious pedigree it wasn't published in English for the first time until less than a decade ago.

[Anonymous No.21335026]

>>21332112
>>21332219
>>21332277
Don’t let faggots get you down. Simply making a thread about a book means your doing good work. It seems here that some want to sabotage the board and make a scene when someone actually tries to discuss a book. It’s bizarre behavior

[Anonymous No.21335206]

Cool publisher

[Anonymous No.21335313]

>>21335026
>>21335206
Yea thats true. A lot of people who find this post interesting probably don't post.

[Anonymous No.21335335]

>>21330946
I love Imaginary Lives. Been meaning to get around to his other work.

[Anonymous No.21335357]

>>21335335
It's interesting to see where Schwob fits in the history of the development of fiction writing. Imaginary Lives in particular seems to have been quite influential and inspired many to attempt their own "fictional histories" like Borges as mentioned. Sometime I will get around to reading Gabrielle Wittkop's Exemplary Departures which I assume is an homage to Imaginary Lives.

[Anonymous No.21335361]

>>21330988
Enjoyed this considerably, second that.

[Anonymous No.21335410]

>>21335206
Wakefield Press is so cool. Almost every book screams "undiscovered masterpiece" which makes sense because they just have bilingual people translating little known works they think are great into English for the first time, what a great business plan.
They got even better in recent years too, everything they put out in 2022 looks fascinating. I'm waiting for Sens-Plastique
By Malcolm de Chazal to arrive in the mail which is just 300 pages of prose poetry and aphorisms that you can open to any page and find inspiration from.

[Anonymous No.21335541]

>>21335410
I wasn't planning on buying any physical books for some time, but it's tempting. At least I found electronic formats of their Schwob volumes and have a few new authors to discover.

[Anonymous No.21335582]

>>21330946
I tried Book of Monelle after you(?) recommended it in the last thread over a year ago. Didn't like it. I will try imaginary lives.

[Anonymous No.21335839]

>>21335582
>I will try imaginary lives.
Is it any good?

[Anonymous No.21335906]

>>21335839
Are you stupid?

[Anonymous No.21336114]

>>21330946
Where should I start with him?

[Anonymous No.21336790]

>>21335582
If you enjoy traditional short stories from the turn of century France then Imaginary Lives is some of the best but it will probably require a couple visits to wikipedia because it is near entirely variations on pretty obscure greek plays and medieval French folklore. He was a big fan of Bluebeard for instance who I had never heard of until reading his work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard

>>21336114
Monelle.

[Anonymous No.21336808]

>>21335410
>they just have bilingual people translating little known works they think are great into English for the first time, what a great business plan.
It's a better plan than that because a lot of the works are famous enough that people have been waiting on a translation since Britain was still an empire. They put out Potsdamer Platz last year with the Klee illustrations for less than fifteen bucks when people who like Klee but only speak English have been paying thousands for the German language editions illustrated by Klee for decades. Even just choosing to do the original illustration alone would be a viable business plan without the translations, but combined it's fire.

[Anonymous No.21336883]

>>21336808
hell yea, I was wondering if that was the case. It's crazy it took this long. There used to be a whole culture of people in NYC/LA and Britain that would circlejerk over how erudite and obscure the books they were reading are. Which lead to hilarious stuff like the literary hoax I, Libertine in the 1950s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Libertine
you'd think that would have been the time to translate and publish these works en masse but it really took till nearly a century later.

[Anonymous No.21337022]

>>21335010
>fin-de-siècle
>unofficial Bible
>Symbolist movement
>illustrious pedigree

[Anonymous No.21337085]

>>21337022
The mouth isn't big enough or empty enough, and it's going to need more scrofula.

[Anonymous No.21337310]

>>21337022
>Grug no like big word
>Why u no retard like me

[Anonymous No.21337324]

>>21337022
why are you even on the literature board if you're gonna sperg out at some basic literary terms?

[Anonymous No.21338496]

>>21330946
One last bump

[Anonymous No.21338690]

>>21338496
That's not your decision. Bump.

[Anonymous No.21338969]

>>21332132
Bro you have got to take some meds, there is simply no reason to get this mad over books

[Anonymous No.21338990]

>>21332076
I have a collection of his lesser stories translated by Sue Boswell under "The Assassins and other stories" and the translation feels like it leaves a lot to be desired. The stories are also just not as good as the stuff in golden mask and monelle though

[Anonymous No.21339123]

>>21338969
>there is simply no reason to get this mad over books
Do you know where we are? The only thing stopping several anons from going full Russian soul and stabbing a motherfucker over their wrong views about poetic metre is dynamic IPs.

[Anonymous No.21339315]

>>21338969
The most vile responses I see on this website are very consistently made on any thread or post I make "shilling" some obscure piece of media. It's strange because its the same kind of responses across multiple boards (/v/, /lit/, /mu/, not /tv/ surprisingly). It happens so consistently and with such vitriol that I almost think its bots. It just doesn't make sense why 75%+ of the time I post about something outside of the mainstream on 4chan it gets this sort of response. Seemingly the reason is that someone dared to post something most people don't know about, but why that makes anyone mad is beyond me.

[Anonymous No.21339340]

>>21338990
yea I can definitely see translation quality being an issue. Looks like that collection is from Snuggly Books who I absolutely adore. I have a lot of books from them translated by Brian Stableford who is like the foremost living expert on Decadent literature and anything close to it. I have Double Star by Jane De La Vaudre from them and Nightmares of an Ether-Drinker by Jean Lorrain is far as symbolist-style works go. I can also highly recommended Monada by Gabriel Mourey from them. It's not symbolist but its really solid. Snuggly Books has a collection of works that may even surpass Wakefield at least in number.

[Anonymous No.21339403]

>>21339315
HOLY HECKERINOOOO I ONLY READ OBSCURE BOOKS
> I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
>What do you mean I am literally incapable of writing a post where I am not the center of attention
Maybe if you did not write like such an insufferable faggot and actually said something substantive about these so-called “obscure” books (only obscure to you since you have read and own less than 100 books), then you would not be whinging needlessly over “vitriol”

[Anonymous No.21339501]

>>21339403
see how the bot cries out in pain as it attacks you? It really is mad because someone dared to not speak like a retarded zoomer. Who would come to the literature board and call someone an insufferable faggot for mentioning literature movements? I honestly don't believe a real person would act like this. How could they even read any literature if they sperg out like this at basic terms and what do they want this board to look like if they hate anyone who mentions basic literary terms and movements.

I honestly don't know but I can't suspend my disbelief, comments like this seem less than human. There is no incentive for a real person to act like this unless they have some weird ulterior motive.

[Anonymous No.21339512]

>>21339501
>bot
Go back.

[Anonymous No.21339518]

>>21339512
Not him, but go back to where?

[Anonymous No.21339541]

>>21339403
Hey, guess what? I do only read obscure books. And that makes me a patrician with good taste. Don't like it? Then cope.

[Anonymous No.21339559]

>>21339501
It's because of social media and modern culture. Western society has become incredibly anti-individual to the point where if you stand up and speak as yourself in any space that isn't explicitly devoted to personal anecdotes you will be attacked for the same reason a foreign germ gets destroyed in your body. Anything that is not a part of the hivemind is viewed as an invader that must be removed. This is why they got so mad at you using terms like fin-de-siècle despite it being completely mundane. It's not a term you see often online so its an invader that must be attacked even if its totally appropriate and literally taken from the blurb on the back of the book.

keep an eye out and you will start to see this phenomenon everywhere. It's the same reason people will often get mad at you for having a conversation in a comment section like they're worried about losing digital real-estate. Nothing can exist outside the hivemind so speaking for yourself is wrong, you must assimilate.

[Anonymous No.21339562]

>>21339541
>I do only read obscure books
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHUAHAHAHAHAHAH monolinguals are adorable

[Anonymous No.21339579]

>>21339518
it usually means reddit. I guess they mean that if I'm looking for an intelligent discussion I should go there? Well I for one disagree

[Anonymous No.21339590]

>>21339562
There you are, coping just like I said you would.

[Anonymous No.21339592]

>>21339512
ok
*remains in place*
I'm back :)

[Anonymous No.21339607]

>>21339590
>gets called monolingual
>seething at the truth
>I am not coping—you are coping
>sylphlike wrists pulsating due to the struggle of battling gravity pushing down on his body above the keyboard

[Anonymous No.21339618]

>>21339579
I was wondering where people who mention bots go because it could be a glorious schizo wonderland of technicolor shapeshifter fairies who eat your face after mating with you if you live within X radius of [insert common household electrical appliance of the past ten years].

[Anonymous No.21339654]

>>21339607
the intensity of this cope....I kneel, coper-sama...

[Anonymous No.21339858]

>>21339340
Brian Stableford just came out with a new translation last month on Snuggly Books

>Sabbat, by Hélène Picard (1873-1945), first published in 1923, is one of the most forthright contributions to the rich French tradition of “literary Satanism.” It was issued as part of a “Collection Colette,” and is dedicated to Colette, who also provided the preface, the brief text of which implies strongly that the book was commissioned by her.

https://www.snugglybooks.co.uk/sabbat/

[Anonymous No.21340606]

>>21339858
>that nyrb cover ripoff

[Anonymous No.21341487]

>>21340606
ikr, I had to double check if they were just rehosting NYRB works or something but nope.

[Anonymous No.21341591]

>>21339403
>>21339541
well known books are by definition the lowest common denominator. A top 10 list is a list of which things appeal to the widest amount of people. The difference between highly rated obscure books and highly rated well known works is that the former are able to be appreciated by few which is why they aren't well known in the first place but the few people who can grasp them while the latter are simple enough to be appreciated by most people so they are read much more.

obscure=too difficult for plebs to understand
well known=easy enough for plebs to enjoy

It's not like some piece of trash that no one liked is going to get published. If an obscure book is published again for the first time in a while its obviously because some people thought it was really fucking good. Yet retards constantly try to act like obscure stuff is obscure because it sucks. If it sucked you would never hear about it at all...

[Anonymous No.21342011]

>>21339858
Stableford has new publications of translations and his own novels coming out nearly every month from Snuggly Books. The man is a machine. Although it does make one wonder if its just not that hard to make a translation. Physically the act of writing down a book in a different language doesn't really sound that hard.

[Anonymous No.21342068]

>>21331071
I bought a Spanish translation some 5-6 years ago too, it was a recent translation too. It didn’t leave me any impression tho, but now I feel the urge to reread him.

[Anonymous No.21342082]

>>21332181
>or even fucking Le Guin
I expected better than that anon.