FANCY GOODS and OPEN ALL NIGHT

by Paul Morand ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1984

Written in 1921 and 1922 by French writer Morand (1888-1976), these sketches of Parisian flappers would hardly be a candidate for 1980s rediscovery--if it were not for the fact that they were translated by Ezra Pound: those translations never saw print back in the 1920s but were found in a trunk in Virginia in 1976. And it's not difficult to see why (financial reasons aside) these two groups of stories might have appealed to Pound--considering his interest in the condensation of linguistic imagery. (An example of Morand's prose: ""No hollow whitewashed apple tree could avoid bending over water reflecting the clouds, weighted with a boat and the odors of an alcohol lamp."") But Morand's work itself--portraits of seductive, neurotic women--is thin, mannered, recherchÉ; only one story (""Borealis,"" the last piece in Open All Night) has a flavor of comedy and oddness about it--with musings on German nudism adding to the sketch of yet another burstingly interesting young woman. So this is a literary curiosity-item for the most part, complete with Marcel Proust's preface to Fancy Goods--which hardly mentions Morand's work. . . but later was to become an intelligent section of Centre Sainte Beuve.

Pub Date: March 1, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: New Directions

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION