Impressions d’Afrique (Impressions of Africa)

Roussel, Raymond. Impressions d’Afrique (Impressions of Africa). Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1963. Reprint. Octavo. 316, [2]pp. Original printed wrappers. Title page in red and black lettering. In 1910, French writer Raymond Roussel* self-published “Impressions d’Afrique” (Impressions of Africa), a carnivalesque travelogue that features the passengers of the Lynceus, a vessel shipwrecked by a hurricane in the fictional land of Ponukele on a journey from Marseilles to Buenos Aires. To entertain themselves while waiting for a release ransom to be paid to the local drag-clad Emperor Talou, the crew of serendipitously skilled performers (including a historian, a ballerina, a fencing champion, a pyrotechnic, and an ichthyologist, among others), known collectively as the “Incomparables,” stage a gala. Readers should be prepared for an Africa unlike any they would likely visit in reality. Although Roussel travelled extensively (he cited India, Australia, Asia, America, and Tahiti), he claimed that “from all these travels I never took anything for my books. It seems to me that this is worth mentioning, since it clearly shows just how much imagination accounts for everything in my works.” A devotee of both Jules Verne and Victor Hugo, Roussel rather used the idea of Africa – a place to him as fanciful and unimaginable as possible – as a setting and an organizing device for his most imaginative of tales. Spine slightly discolored, with minor rubbing along edges. Text in French. Wrappers in overall good+, interior in very good condition. g+ to vg. Softcover.

* Raymond Roussel (1877-1933) was a French poet, novelist, playwright, musician, and chess enthusiast. Through his novels, poems, and plays he exerted a profound influence on certain groups within 20th century French literature, including the Surrealists, Oulipo, and the authors of the nouveau roman. (38200) $45