A Splendid Conspiracy
Albert Cossery
(Author)
Alyson Waters
(Editor)
Description
Summoned home to Egypt after a long European debauch (disguised as "study"), our hero Teymour--in the opening line of A Splendid Conspiracy--is feeling "as unlucky as a flea on a bald man's head." Poor Teymour sits forlorn in a provincial café, a far cry from his beloved Paris. Two old friends, however, rescue him. They applaud his phony diploma as perfect in "a world where everything is false" and they draw him into their hedonistic rounds as gentlemen of leisure. Life, they explain, "while essentially pointless is extremely interesting." The small city may seem tedious, but there are women to seduce, powerful men to tease, and also strange events: rich notables are disappearing.Eyeing the machinations of our three pleasure seekers and nervous about the missing rich men, the authorities soon see--in complex schemes to bed young girls--signs of political conspiracies. The three young men, although mistaken for terrorists, enjoy freedom, wit, and romance. After all, though "not every man is capable of appreciating what is around him," the conspirators in pleasure certainly do.
Product Details
Price
$14.95
$13.90
Publisher
New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date
May 25, 2010
Pages
216
Dimensions
5.1 X 0.6 X 7.8 inches | 0.5 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780811217798
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Albert Cossery (1913-2008) was an Egyptian-born French novelist. Among his works are The Colors of Infamy, A Splendid Conspiracy, and The House of Certain Death, all published by New Directions.
Alyson Waters is a translator of French and francophone literary fiction, art history, and children's literature. She has been awarded an NEA translation grant, a PEN translation grant, two grants from the Centre national du livre, and was twice winner of the French-American Foundation Translation Prize, for Eric Chevillard's Prehistoric Times and for Jean Giono's A King Alone. Her translation of the children's book The Tiger Prince by Chen Jiang Hong was awarded the Prix Albertine Jeunesse in 2019. Her most recent translations are Jean-Patrick Manchette's No Room at the Morgue (NYRB), and with her daughter Margot Kerlidou, Claude Ponti's Blaze and the Castle Cake for Bertha Daye (Elsewhere Editions). She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Reviews
Above all Cossery, one of the last and quirkiest links to the postwar glory days of St. Germain-de-Pres, elevated idleness to an art form.
A legend...His caustic satire burned like the desert sun, undermining all forms of authority. Cossery despised materialism and eschewed the rat race... The overt message [is] that paradise is not lost, but most of us are too busy to bask in the Edenic simplicity of the world.
I never see anything anywhere like it. All of Cossery's books have a rare, exotic, haunting, unique flavor.--Henry Miller
A legend...His caustic satire burned like the desert sun, undermining all forms of authority. Cossery despised materialism and eschewed the rat race... The overt message [is] that paradise is not lost, but most of us are too busy to bask in the Edenic simplicity of the world.
I never see anything anywhere like it. All of Cossery's books have a rare, exotic, haunting, unique flavor.--Henry Miller
