The Child
$36.05
- Paperback
376 pages
- Release Date
15 June 2004
Summary
The Child is a story about growing up that is comparable in humor and humanity to Great Expectations, even as its unflinching exposure of violence and hypocrisy foreshadows the nightmare realism of Louis-Ferdinand Celine.
Jules Vall s, an anarchist and a bohemian, dedicated his book “to all those who were bored stiff at school or reduced to tears at home, who in childhood were bullied by their teachers or thrashed by their parents,” and it tells the (autobiographical) tale of a young …
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781590171172 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1590171179 |
| Author: | Jules Valles, Douglas Parmée |
| Publisher: | New York Review Books |
| Imprint: | NYRB Classics |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 376 |
| Edition: | Main |
| Release Date: | 15 June 2004 |
| Weight: | 380g |
| Dimensions: | 130mm x 203mm |
| Series: | New York Review Books Classics |
You Can Find This Book In
Critics Review
”[Vallès] is a more reliable witness of his society, or at least certain sectors of it, than many more renowned but less involved writers of his age.”
— Walter D. Redfern, Times Literary Supplement
“Essentially autobiographical, Vallès’s 19th-century novel charts the author’s experience of growing up in an emotionally distant family obsessed with social status.”
— The Guardian
“The author of The Child is one of the masters of French prose. There’s no denying that. But his work shouldn’t be considered an exercise in virtuosity. It has an exact and terrible significance. His work stands as an act of liberation. Vallès is the man who liberates us from the family, who liberates us from our father and our mother, who says to us: ‘judge them and, if there is cause to, condemn them’.”
— Maurice Barrès
“A true book, a book composed of the most exact, the most poignant human documents. It’s been ten years since a work has moved me to such a degree.”
— Émile Zola
Jules Valles
Bohemian journalist and anarchist pamphleteer Jules Vallès (1832-1885) wrote a trilogy of autobiographical novels, of which this is the first. Douglas Parmée has translated works by Flaubert, Zola, and Baudelaire. He lives in Australia.
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.