The Governesses

Serre, Anne

ISBN 10: 081122807X / ISBN 13: 9780811228077

Published by New Directions, 2018

Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00103398349

Synopsis:

In a large country house shut off from the world by a gated garden, three young governesses responsible for the education of a group of little boys are preparing a party. The governesses, however, seem to spend more time running around in a state of frenzied desire than attending to the children's education. One of their main activities is lying in wait for any passing stranger, and then throwing themselves on him like drunken Maenads. The rest of the time they drift about in a kind of sated, melancholy calm, spied upon by an old man in the house opposite, who watches their goings-on through a telescope. As they hang paper lanterns and prepare for the ball in their own honor, and in honor of the little boys rolling hoops on the lawn, much is mysterious: one reviewer wrote of the book's "deceptively simple words and phrasing, the transparency of which works like a mirror reflecting back on the reader."

Written with the elegance of old French fables, the dark sensuality of Djuna Barnes and the subtle comedy of Robert Walser, this semi-deranged erotic fairy tale introduces American readers to the marvelous Anne Serre.

About the Authors:

The author of fourteen novels and short story books, Anne Serre was born in 1960. Her work has been acclaimed here as "hypnotic, enchanting" (Publishers Weekly), "tight and fabulist" (Full Stop), and "strange and beguiling" (Kirkus).

Mark Hutchinson was born in London in 1957 and lives in Paris. Among his many translations are René Char's Hypnos: Notes from the French Resistance and The Inventors and Other Poems.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Governesses
Publisher: New Directions
Publication Date: 2018
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Good