Bruges-la-morte and the death throes of towns / [Georges] Rodenbach ; translated by Mike Mitchell and Will Stone ; with an introduction by Alan Hollinghurst.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rodenbach, Georges, 1855-1898.

Contributor:

Mitchell, Mike.

Stone, William, 1966-

Standardized Title:

Bruges-la-morte. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Widowers--Fiction.

Widowers.

Bruges (Belgium)--Fiction.

Bruges (Belgium).

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

166 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

Place of Publication:

Sawtry [U.K.] : Dedalus ; Gardena, Calif. : Distributed in the U.S. by SCB Distributors, 2005.

Language Note:

Translated from the French.

Summary:

Hugues Viane is a widower who has turned to the melancholy, decaying city of Bruges as the ideal location in which to mourn his wife and as a backdrop for the narcissistic wanderings of his disturbed spirit. He becomes obsessed with a young dancer whom he believes is the double of his beloved wife, leading him to psychological torment and humiliation, culminating in a deranged murder. This 1892 work is a poet's novel, dense, visionary and haunting. Bruges, the 'dead city', becomes a metaphor for Hugues'' dead wife as he follows its mournful labyrinth of streets and canals in a cyclical promenade of reflection and allusion--the ultimate evocation of Rodenbach's lifelong love affair with the enduring mystery and mortuary atmosphere of Bruges.

ISBN:

1903517230

OCLC:

53389055