Sally Mara’s Intimate Diary, dating from 1950, is exceptional; a
salacious, black humorous and meaningful story by the influential
and erudite French novelist, Raymond Queneau. When ‘Sally Mara’
begins her diary in January 1934, she is 17 years old and lives
with her mother, older brother and younger sister in south central
Dublin. The everyday language is, of course, English, but she is
writing in ‘newly-learned’ French to impress her beloved and
just departed French tutor, a professional polyglot linguist. To
impress him even more, she decides to learn Irish in order to write
a novel of some kind in Irish. However, the action throughout is
determined by Sally’s resolution to overcome her ignorance of the
mysteries of sex and reproduction. The often sensual and dark
humour of Sally Mara’s Journal intime is founded on language and
languages, so this translation, while prioritizing clarity, aims to
maintain ‘Frenchness’, tinged of course with Dublinese.
Surprisingly, for a French author, Irish words and phrases occur
throughout; these are not translated but, like some challenging
French phrases, are supported by footnotes. In 1949, when Raymond
Queneau wrote Journal intime, published anonymously under the
pseudonym Sally Mara, he was, as always, greatly influenced by
James Joyce and fascinated by the limitations of language. He was
also in need of the ready money provided by Éditions du Scorpion,
publishers of erotic and violent pulp fiction, and of Journal
intime.
General
Imprint: |
Dalkey Archive Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
French Literature Series |
Release date: |
October 2023 |
Authors: |
Raymond Queneau
|
Translators: |
James Gosling
|
Dimensions: |
215 x 139mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
ISBN-13: |
978-1-62897-460-7 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-62897-460-5 |
Barcode: |
9781628974607 |
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