opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 30 June 2021

21 June: Bachmannpreis | Dalkey Literary Awards
22 June: Peace Prize of the German Book Trade | Solo Viola review
23 June: Gordon Burn Prize longlist | Le Fanu's Angel review
24 June: Griffin Poetry Prizes | Joshua Cohen Q & As | Virago history
25 June: Les Éditions de Minuit sold into Gallimard-stable | Prix Jean d'Ormesson
26 June: Académie française palmarès | Orwell Prizes | Satyricon review
27 June: Project Cassandra
28 June: New edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy | Allegria review
29 June: Summer World Literature Today | Echoes of Celandine review
30 June: Europese Literatuurprijs shortlist

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       Europese Literatuurprijs shortlist

       The Dutch Foundation for Literature has announced the five-title shortlist for this year's Europese Literatuurprijs, awarded for the best European novel translated into Dutch.
       The only shortlisted title under review at the complete review is Annie Ernaux's The Years.
       Only one of the shortlisted titles is a translation from the English -- Bernardine Evaristo's Booker Prize co-winning Girl, Woman, Other --; two are from the German.
       The winner will be announced 6 November.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Summer World Literature Today

       The Summer issue of World Literature Today is now available, featuring 'Palestine Voices" -- and much else.
       As always, of particular interest: the extensive section of book reviews.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Echoes of Celandine review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Derek Marlowe's 1970 novel, Echoes of Celandine.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       New edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy

       Just over twenty years ago, Nick Lezard wrote in The Guardian:

Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy survives among the cognoscenti, but there's no Penguin Classic of the book, and it would be difficult to see how there could be.

       Just over a year later the New York Review Books Classics one-volume paperback edition came out, and I can attest to its popularity: no book has been as much-bought via the Amazon-links at complete review over the years. Penguin Classics has now caught up: a hardcover edition, edited by Angus Gowland, is due out shortly (pre-order your copy at Amazon.co.uk), with a paperback edition to follow in a year.
       In The Observer Donna Ferguson reports, in ‘Be not solitary, be not idle’: secrets of 400-year-old self-help book unlocked that: "The Anatomy of Melancholy has at last been demystified", as:

Dr Angus Gowland of University College London told the Observer there are now only nine known mysteries and riddles of the text left to solve.

       It almost makes me want to stick with my three-(pocket-sized-)volume 1961 Everyman's Library edition .....

       As noted in my review, if, for some outrageous reason, I ever had to trim my library down to a small number of volumes, that number would have to be very, very small indeed before I would even consider going without The Anatomy of Melancholy; I suspect even with a desert-island-list-type limit of five books it would be among them.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Allegria review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Giuseppe Ungaretti's poetry-collection, Allegria, out from Archipelago Books last fall.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Project Cassandra

       In ‘At first I thought, this is crazy’: the real-life plan to use novels to predict the next war in The Guardian Philip Oltermann profiles, at considerable length, the Global Ethic Institute's (Weltethos-Institut's) Project Cassandra, which involves: "making literary texts usable as prognosis instruments in the field of violence prevention".
       Not an uninteresting idea, but I'm not sure how far one can get with this.
       Still, hey, finding meaning(fulness) in literature -- that's a positive, right ?

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Académie française palmarès

       The Académie française has announced its 2021 palmarès (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) -- all 65 of them.
       Among notable winners: Ready to Burst-author Frankétienne won the Grand Prix de la Francophonie; the Grande médaille de la francophonie went to In the United States of Africa-author Abdourahman Waberi, and the Grand Prix de Littérature went to Patrick Deville.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Orwell Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's Orwell Prizes, including the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, which went to Summer, by Ali Smith.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Satyricon review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the new Loeb Classical Library edition of Petronius' Satyricon, edited and translated by Gareth Schmeling.

       I long held off reviewing the Satyricon in the hopes that the old Loeb edition would be replaced but finally caved less than two years ago and reviewed that one (from 1913, revised in 1969) -- only to find the new edition coming out at the end of last year. I think it worked out for the best, however -- I'm glad to have reviewed and been able to compare both.

       Coïncidentally, Simon Strauss has just reviewed a new book by Tom F. Lange called Petronica in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; it is published by Hollitzer; see also their publicity page. It sounds fun, I'd love to see this.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Les Éditions de Minuit sold into Gallimard-stable

       French publisher Les Éditions de Minuit is the latest to be bought by Le groupe Madrigall, the Gallimard holding company that already includes leading literary publishers P.O.L, Denoël, and Flammarion, among others; see, for example, the report in Le Figaro, Gallimard rachète les mythiques Éditions de Minuit.
       Les Éditions de Minuit is a relatively small house, but with a very impressive list; this is a significant consolidation of literary publishing in France.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Prix Jean d'Ormesson

       They've announced the winner of this year's prix Jean d'Ormesson, the relatively new French prize for which the jurors can select any books, new or old, to be in the running; the longlist included a P.G.Wodehouse and John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.
       The winner was, however, a (relatively) new book, Robert Bober's Par instants, la vie n’est pas sûre; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report; see also the P.O.L publicity page.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Griffin Poetry Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's Griffin Poetry Prizes, with Music for the Dead and Resurrected by Valzhyna Mort winning the International category and The Dyzgraph^xst by Canisia Lubrin winning the Canadian category.
       (Recall that The Dyzgraph^xst also won this year's OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Joshua Cohen Q & As

       Joshua Cohen's The Netanyahus is now out, and there are now a couple of Q & As out with him: at The Paris Review Martin Riker speaks with him, in The Covering Cherub: An Interview with Joshua Cohen, while at alma. Emily Burack offers Joshua Cohen's 'The Netanyahus' Asks What Happens When You're Left Out of History.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Virago history

       At the LSE Review of Books D-M Withers considers Green Spines, Back Story: Delving into the Early History of Virago Reprints and Modern Classics, an interesting overview.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Gordon Burn Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Gordon Burn Prize, "recognising literature that is forward-thinking and fearless in both ambition and execution".
       I haven't see any of the twelve longlisted titles - but several Burn-books are under review at the complete review; see, for example, The North of England Home Service.
       The winner will be announced 14 October.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Le Fanu's Angel review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Brian Keogh's Le Fanu's Angel, recently from Dedalus.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Peace Prize of the German Book Trade

       They've announced that this year's Peace Prize of the German Book Trade goes to Nervous Conditions-author Tsitsi Dangarembga -- less than two weeks after they announced she is also getting this year's PEN Pinter Prize.
       The award ceremony will be held 24 October, at the conclusion of the Frankfurt Book Fair.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Solo Viola review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Post-Exotic Novel by Antoine Volodine, Solo Viola, just out in English from the University of Minnesota Press.
       This is an early work by Volodine -- from 1991 --; much post-exotic work has followed since.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Bachmannpreis

       They've announced the winner of this year's Bachmann Prize -- the peculiar German-language literary prize where authors read their texts to a group of judges who then publicly critique it; see this year's Deutsche Welle introduction by Elizabeth Grenier, The German-language authors' 'sadomasochist' talent show -- and the prize went to Nava Ebrahimi, for her text 'Der Cousin' [pdf].

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Dalkey Literary Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Dalkey Literary Awards, an Irish literary prize -- not yet at the official site, last I checked, but see, for example, Sinéad Crowley's RTÉ report, Dalkey Literary Awards winners announced
       Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell, was named Novel of the Year, and Elaine Feeney was named Emerging Writer of the Year (for As You Were).

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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