3
0
📍 Noticed
On Elegance While Sleeping
by Vizconde de Lascano Tegui
Sponsored
Synopsis
The first English translation of the self-proclaimed “Viscount” Emilio Lascano Tegui—a friend of Picasso and Apollinaire, and a larger-than-life eccentric in his own right—On Elegance While Sleeping is the deliciously macabre novel, part Maldoror and part Dorian ...
The first English translation of the self-proclaimed “Viscount” Emilio Lascano Tegui—a friend of Picasso and Apollinaire, and a larger-than-life eccentric in his own right—On Elegance While Sleeping is the deliciously macabre novel, part Maldoror and part Dorian Gray, that established its author’s reputation as a renegade hero of Argentine literature. It tells the story, in the form of a surreal diary, of a lonely, syphilitic French soldier, who—after too many brothels and disappointments—returns from Africa longing for a world with more elegance. He promptly falls in love with a goat, and recalls the time, after a childhood illness, when his hair fell out and grew back orange—a phenomenon his doctor attributed to the cultivation of carrots in a neighboring town. Disturbing, provocative, and mesmerizing, On Elegance While Sleeping charts the decline of a man unraveling due to his own oversensitivity—and drifting closer and closer to committing a murder.
from On Elegance While Sleeping:
“I was born in Bougival. The Seine flowed through our village. Fleeing from Paris. Its dark green waters dragged in the grime from that happy city. As the river crossed our town, it jammed the millwheel with the shy bodies of drowning victims hidden beneath its surface. Their trip ended with a final shove. They didn’t drain easily through the sluice gates as the water passed under the mill and so it happened, occasionally, that one of their arms would go through without them, reaching into the air in a gesture of help. I fished out a number of these bodies as a child. Like the mailman in town who was famous for bringing news of a death, I was known for discovering the most cadavers. It gave me a certain aura of fame among my comrades, and I prided myself on the distinction. I threatened the other children my age that I was going to find them too, the day they drowned.”
from On Elegance While Sleeping:
“I was born in Bougival. The Seine flowed through our village. Fleeing from Paris. Its dark green waters dragged in the grime from that happy city. As the river crossed our town, it jammed the millwheel with the shy bodies of drowning victims hidden beneath its surface. Their trip ended with a final shove. They didn’t drain easily through the sluice gates as the water passed under the mill and so it happened, occasionally, that one of their arms would go through without them, reaching into the air in a gesture of help. I fished out a number of these bodies as a child. Like the mailman in town who was famous for bringing news of a death, I was known for discovering the most cadavers. It gave me a certain aura of fame among my comrades, and I prided myself on the distinction. I threatened the other children my age that I was going to find them too, the day they drowned.”
You May Also Like
KBS Bread Machine Cookbook: Turn Every Day into a Fresh-Baked Delight: 180+ Easy Bread Recipes for Classic, Sweet, Savory & Gluten-Free Creations with Your KBS Bread Machine
Jasper K. Langford
The Making of the President 1960
Theodore H. White
XF-ULTRA: The X-Files, Conspiracy Culture and the National Security State
Christopher Knowles
Release Me
J. Kenner
Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage
Heather Ann Thompson
In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown (The American Revolution Series Book 3)
Nathaniel Philbrick
Non Fiction Picks
View All
Nice Girls Don't Win: How I Burned It All Down to Claim My Power
Parvati Shallow
The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Mutiny Love and Adventure at the Bottom of the World
Tilar J. Mazzeo
All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me
Patrick Bringley
Somebody's Daughter
Ashley C. Ford
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?
Julie Smith
The House of Hidden Meanings
RuPaul