The Violins of Saint-Jacques Contributor(s): Leigh Fermor, Patrick (Author), Campbell, James (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 1590177827 ISBN-13: 9781590177822 Publisher: New York Review of Books OUR PRICE: $12.60 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2017 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology - Fiction | Cultural Heritage |
Dewey: 823.914 |
LCCN: 2016059861 |
Series: Nyrb Classics |
Physical Information: 0.4" H x 4.9" W x 8" (0.30 lbs) 160 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Mr. Fermor's elegant rococo fantasy about a volcanic eruption on an imaginary Caribbean island is just close enough to reality to raise a genuine shiver--possibly even a genuine tear. In truth, it is a small timeless masterpiece. --Phoebe Lou Adams, The Atlantic An NYRB Classics Original Patrick Leigh Fermor's only novel displays the same lustrous way with words as his beloved travel trilogy (A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water, and The Broken Road), the memoir of his youthful walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. This slim book starts with the meeting of an English traveler and an enigmatic elderly Frenchwoman on an Aegean island. He is captivated by her painting of a busy Caribbean port in the shadow of a volcano, which leads her to tell him the story of her childhood in that town back at the beginning of the twentieth century. The tale she unfolds, set in the tropical luxury of the island of Saint-Jacques, is one of romantic intrigue and decadence involving the descendants of slaves and a fading French aristocracy. Then, on the night of the annual Mardi Gras ball, a whole world comes to a catastrophic and haunting end. |