Novel
The Bed of Procrustes
Patul lui Procust
Camil Petrescu · 1933
Synopsis
A woman whom the book designates only by an initial writes three letters to an author, who comments on them in footnotes. Then comes the diary of Fred Vasilescu: in it he looks back on his love for a woman and their brutal break-up, and adds the correspondence of George Demetru Ladima, a journalist, with Emilia Rachitaru, a young actress. At the centre, an August afternoon spent at Emilia's, Fred tries to probe Ladima's existence. According to Diana Cebotari, each of the four characters thus gives his or her version of events that the others tell differently.
Context
The novel appeared in 1933, three years after its author's first. It assembles two confessions, the letters of Madame T., Fred's notebooks into which Ladima's are inserted, two epilogues, and notes by the author, who says he knows the characters; Tudor Vianu saw in it, according to Diana Cebotari, the technique of modern relativism. Florica Ciodaru-Courriol compares it to Proust. Jean-Louis Courriol translated it into French in 1990, with Jacqueline Chambon, under a title borrowed from the heroine of the letters; Ileana Orlich gave an English version in 2008.
Who it is for
A novel made up of letters, a diary and notes, which demands attentive reading; readable in French and, since 2008, in English.
Prizes and reception
ProTV calls it the most accomplished of its author's novels and a symbol of European modernism.
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