Blue of Noon
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Set against the backdrop of Europe's slide into Fascism, Blue of Noon is a blackly compelling account of depravity and violence. As its narrator lurches despairingly from city to city in a surreal sexual and mental nightmare of squalor, sadism and drunken encounters, his internal collapse mirrors the fighting and marching on the streets outside. Exploring the dark forces beneath the surface of civilization, this is a novel torn between identifying with history's victims and being seduced by the monstrous glamour of its terrible victors, and is one of the twentieth century's great nihilist works.
Customer Reviews
Favorite
This is one of the best novels I’ve read. It is short, but has the same cogency as Proust’s ouvre. In my opinion, this is a variation on Flaubert’s Sentimental Education. If not, it bears many similarities at the very least. The main character is living in a tumultuous historical moment but vaguely notices it, consumed as he is by his own desires, whims, and disappointments. He is taken with a woman he cannot ignore. While he obsesses, history moves around him. I prefer Bataille’s rendering of this type of story to Flaubert’s, and the afterword is perhaps the best reflection on writing novels than any others I’ve read.