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the complete review - handbook

A Handbook for
the Perfect Adventurer

by
Pierre Mac Orlan

general information | quotes | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : nice little volume making the case for adventures of the mind

See our review for fuller assessment.

  Quotes:

• "(S)omehow, the essay soars to tome-like proportions. Within the space of 60-or-so tight leaves, Mac Orlan’s whole life-spirit is laid bare. In it, he presents some compelling, if offbeat, notions about adventure" - Andy Merrifield, The Brooklyn Rail (9/2004)

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       A Handbook for the Perfect Adventurer posits that there are two kinds of adventurers, active and passive ones -- and makes the case that it is far preferable to be of the passive sort, vicariously adventuring in one's imagination and through books of adventure stories. Simply put: "Adventure is in the mind of the one who pursues it".
       The adventure story allows the imagination to run wild -- far better than actually running wild (though Mac Orlan acknowledges a few real-life (i.e. active) adventurers), what with all the inconvenience and discomfort attendant to that. In an age where "adventure has vanished from our living conditions", passive adventuring -- losing oneself in a book or a flight of fancy -- still offers a welcome escape, and one that it is easy to (generally) safely return from.
       Mac Orlan defends the adventure story and novel -- though he has quite specific ideas of what it should offer. He's disappointed that castaway-novels almost never include a woman on their desert isle settings -- and insists: "The passive adventurer must invite women -- and beautiful ones at that -- to set foot on deserted islands". Indeed, if there's a major flaw to adventure fiction he finds that it's that "bawdiness and perversity" have largely been banished from them.
       Mac Orlan also has his issues with some masters of the genre:

     Adventure books are dangerous. I make an exception for the books of Jules Verne, which are completely lacking in art and sensitivity and can only appeal to amateur botanists. The Earth seen by Jules Verne is like a huge natural history museum where every animal carries a label on its neck, and every plant a card in French and Latin with an identifying herbarium number.
     These books do not allow the imagination to wander beyond a permitted limit.

- M.A.Orthofer, 2 October 2013

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Links:

• Wakefield Press publicity page
• Mercure de France publicity page
• éditions Sillage publicity page
• Adelphi edizioni publicity page

• Di6dent (French)
• Le fond des poches (French)
• il Giornale (Italian)
• Il Paradiso degli Orchi (Italian)
• The Wonderful World of TamTam Books

• Official site of the Comité Pierre Mac Orlan
• Profile at The Penniless Press

• See Index of Literary Essays
• See Index of Travel-related books
• See Index of French literature
• See Index of Books Written Between 1900 and 1945

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About the Author:

       French author Pierre Mac Orlan lived 1882 to 1970.

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© 2013 the complete review

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