Monsieur Levert
| Author | Robert Pinget |
|---|---|
| Original title | Le Fiston |
| Translator | Richard Howard & Richard Coe |
| Language | French |
| Publisher | Editions de Minuit, Grove Press, John Calder |
| Publication date | 1959 |
Published in English | 1961, 1976 |
| Pages | 125 |
| LC Class | PZ4.P653 Mo |
Le Fiston (Editions de Minuit, 1959; literally, "The Son" or "The Lad" but translated as Monsieur Levert or No Answer) is a novel by Swiss-born French novelist Robert Pinget. That same year, he adapted the novel into the play Lettre Morte (Dead Letter).
The first printing of the French edition of Le Fiston is notable for the fact that it intentionally has no page numbers " . . . eliminating the conventional and convenient points of reference within the text’s 'progression' . . ."
Plot summary
Monsieur Levert is a lonely, drunken old man living in the isolation of a Swiss village. He spends his time writing and rewriting a letter to his son Gilbert who ran away from home ten years ago, knowing that he will never complete it and never send it.[1][2][3][4]
Translations
Le Fiston has been translated into English twice: first by Richard Howard for Grove Press in 1961, and then by Richard Coe for John Calder in 1976.
References
- ↑ Robert Pinget, Monsieur Levert, trans. Richard Howard (New York: Grove Press, 1961).
- ↑ Robert M. Henkels, Jr., Robert Pinget: The Novel as Quest (University of Alabama Press, 1979) 70–83.
- ↑ Léonard A. Rosmarin, Robert Pinget (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995) 46–53.
- ↑ David Vichnar, The Avant-Postman: Experiment in Anglophone and Francophone Fiction in the Wake of James Joyce (Karolinum Press, 2023) 83–4.
External links
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