Interest in Andre Malraux as the epitome of the artist-intellectual
who theatrically turned to action will make this new translation
welcome. The novel, which came out in 1928 and was rendered into
English the next year, has not been readily obtainable in the
United States. It is flawed as history, telling us more about
Malraux's preoccupations than it does about the revolutionary
upheaval in Canton, China that is its obstensible subject. In his
central portrait of Garine, fed up with the bourgeoisie from which
he sprang but by no means enamored of the proletariat or an
egalitarian future, the young Malraux put a lot of himself.
Garine's hunger for power, pure and simple, throws light on some of
Malraux's own twists and turns in the political arena. The new
translation contains an afterword by Malraux that is largely made
up of a speech he delivered in 1948 in defense of a Gaullist
anti-Communist course. He links this speech with the novel written
20 years before by saying they both reflect European values. Beyond
all these extra-literary considerations, the novel can be enjoyed
simply as a remarkable work of modernism. With images derived from
the silent cinema and prose from the telegraph, it moves at a
tremendous pace. Canton all comes to violent life, seen as though
from a speeding car. (Kirkus Reviews)
"The Conquerors" describes the struggle between the Kuomintang and
the Communists in the Cantonese revolution of the 1920s. It is both
an exciting war story and a gallery of intellectual portraits: a
ruthless Bolshevik revolutionary, a disillusioned master of
propaganda, a powerful Chinese pacifist, and a young anarchist.
Each of these "conquerors" will be crushed by the revolution they
try to control.
In a new Foreword, Herbert R. Lottman discusses the political
background of the book, and the extent to which Malraux invented
the history he wrote about.
"["The Conquerors"] is a valuable introduction to Malraux himself,
who would, like his fictional counterpart, become an analgam of
talents as novelist, essayist, Leftist and Gaullist, Resistance
hero and art critic. He was among the most 'universal' of French
men of letters."--"Choice"
"The novel can be enjoyed as a remarkable work of modernism. With
images derived from the silent cinema and prose from the telegraph,
it moves at a tremendous pace. Canton all comes to violent life,
seen as though from a speeding car."--"Kirkus"
"No other writer of the 20th century had the same capacity to
translate his personal adventure into a meeting with history and a
dialogue of civilization."--Carlos Fuentes," New York Times Book
Review "
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