Genet jean

1993 · 24020 — New York City NY: Alfred A. Knopf 1993. First Edition. First Printing. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket. New York City NY: Alfred A. Knopf 1993. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 820 pages. Massive Biography on subject. One of Edmund White's masterworks it is the best book on Genet in English ever written thus far. The first appearance of the title in the United Kingdom. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that sold out despite its intimidating length. In terms of production values the British Edition is superior to the American in every respect. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Edmund White's "Genet: A Biography". The great French Modernist writer as seen by the perceptive and insightful American writer/expatriate of the time. As such White has written a meticulous hence its daunting length and illuminating account a necessary antidote to Jean-Paul Sartre's impenetrable "biography" "Saint Genet". According to many dependable critics there is no other 20th-century writer whose prose style is as commanding as authoritative and as original as Jean Genet's with the exception of Marcel Proust and Franz Kafka. That Genet was largely self-taught makes his achievement all the more astonishing. It is just as fascinating that he and Proust the unsurpassed French literary artists of the 20th century should both be homosexual. As such "Genet" is also biography-as-autobiography: Edmund White also homosexual and profoundly influenced by Genet examines this cultural phenomenon its continuity in the constellation of such writers as Andre Gide Jean Cocteau Michel Tournier the philosopher Michel Foucault and the culture critic Roland Barthes all seminal figures all gay. Every Edmund White book is deep down a fable. "Genet" is no exception. Every fable as Michael Ondaatje has remarked about White is marked by a melancholy beauty. Indeed Genet's life-story is when all is said and done about EVERY truly great writer's temperament which is always melancholy. An absolute "must-have" title for Edmund White and Jean Genet collectors. This title is a great book. This is one of very few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing British still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean crisp and bright. Please note: Copies available online have very serious flaws or are in multiple subsequent printings. Readers actually read and re-read this book because it is absorbing and beautifully written. Hence too many used copies online. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with vintage photographs. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1994 for "Genet: A Biography". Anointed by Vladimir Nabokov as his American successor. One of the greatest writers of our time on one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A fine copy. SEE ALSO OTHER JEAN GENET AND EDMUND WHITE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG. ISBN 070113397X. Alfred A. Knopf hardcover