Journal 1887-1910 (riverrun editions): an exclusive new selection of the astounding French classic

Jules Renard was a French literary figure of the late nineteenth century who was elected mayor of Citry-le-Mines in 1904. He wrote fiction, journalism, and drama, but his Journal is his masterpiece. It is a profusion of entries, without stitching or pattern, that reflect on style, literature, and theatre, as well as portraits of family, friends, and the Parisian literary scene. Samuel Beckett, Gide, and Sartre all praised it, and Julian Barnes has made a new selection from the Pléiade edition. Theo Cuffe's translation will help bring this fierce judge of human foibles to a new generation of readers.

Format: Hardback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 01 October 2020
Publisher: Quercus Publishing

As a mayor, I am responsible for the upkeep of rural roads, but as a poet, I prefer to see them neglected.

Jules Renard, a French literary figure of the late nineteenth century, was elected mayor in 1904 of the tiny village of Citry-le-Mines in a remote part of northern Burgundy. Despite not being a Parisian, he was a committed countryman with a rustic bourgeois soul and the ambition of a metropolitan. His wife's money allowed him to move in elevated circles, though he often appeared awkward and unrefined. Renard was a prolific writer, producing fiction, journalism, and drama with great success. However, his masterpiece, the Journal, stands out as the least categorizable work of the French fin de siècle.

The Journal is a vast collection of entries, without any stitching or pattern. It includes mordant reflections on style, literature, and theatre, portraits of family, friends, and the Parisian literary scene, quasi-ethnographical observations on village life, and notations of the natural world that are uniquely his own. Samuel Beckett, one of the twentieth century's most influential writers, compared Renard's style to that of Proust and Celine, describing the Journal as inexhaustible and as having learned from despair. Gide praised the Journal as not a river but a distillery, while Sartre claimed that Renard invented the literature of silence.

Despite these lofty. Renard's Journal is above all a moving and splintery piece of self-scrutiny. Julian Barnes, a renowned critic, has admired the Journal for many years and has made this new selection from the twelve hundred-page Pléiade edition. Theo Cuffe's translation will help bring this fierce judge of human foibles to a new generation of readers.

Weight: 502g
Dimension: 146 x 223 x 40 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787475595