{"product_id":"9780998829098","title":"Alley of Fireflies and Other Stories, the","description":"\u003cb\u003eAuthor: Roussel, Raymond\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRaymond Roussel is one of the most distinctive and compelling French writers of the 20th century, yet many aspects of his life remain shrouded in mystery. An extremely wealthy and always exquisitely dressed homosexual dandy, Roussel was also a compulsive writer. Despite the strangeness of his work, he was convinced that it would make him as popular as Victor Hugo or Shakespeare. His suicide at the age of 56 was in part prompted by the continual disappointment of his hopes for fame. However, Roussel's work was vociferously championed by Surrealist writers and painters such as André Breton, Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dalì, and later proved a significant influence on Oulipians (particularly Georges Perec), on nouveaux romanciers like Alain Robbe-Grillet, as well as on John Ashbery and Harry Mathews, who named their pioneering magazine of the 1960s \u003ci\u003eLocus Solus\u003c\/i\u003e, after Roussel's second novel.\u003cbr\u003eThe full extent of Roussel's writing only became clear in 1989 when a trunk was unearthed in a furniture warehouse containing a vast trove of his manuscripts. The most exciting discoveries were the full draft of \u003ci\u003eLocus Solus\u003c\/i\u003e (over twice as long as the published version) and the typescript of what would have been his third novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Alley of Fireflies\u003c\/i\u003e, which is translated here for the first time into English by the leading Roussel scholar, Mark Ford. Ford has also translated two haunting extracts from the drafts of \u003ci\u003eLocus Solus\u003c\/i\u003e, and versions of two of the young Roussel's most intriguing short stories, “Chiquenaude” and “Among the Blacks.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRaymond Roussel\u003c\/b\u003e (1877–1933) is best known for his novels \u003ci\u003eImpressions of Africa\u003c\/i\u003e (1910) and \u003ci\u003eLocus Solus\u003c\/i\u003e (1914), and for his posthumously published account of his peculiar compositional techniques, \u003ci\u003eHow I Wrote Certain of My Books\u003c\/i\u003e (1935).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN 9780998829098. The Song Cave. pb. 112 pages. 14 x 19 cm.\u003cbr\u003enot available\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"The Song Cave","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45472673366173,"sku":"9780998829098","price":39.95,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0584\/1439\/9645\/files\/9780998829098.jpg?v=1784274513","url":"https:\/\/wholesale.manic.com.au\/products\/9780998829098","provider":"Books at Manic Wholesale","version":"1.0","type":"link"}