First published in Spain in 1983 and proclaimed "an instant postmodern classic, without a doubt the most disturbingly original Spanish prose of the century" (Encyclopedia Britannica 1985 Book of the Year), Larva is a rollicking account of a masquerade party in an abandoned mansion in London. Milalias (disguised as Don Juan) searches for Babelle (as Sleeping Beauty) though a linguistic fun house of polylingual puns and wordplay recalling Joyce's Finnegans Wake. A mock-scholarly commentary reveals the backgrounds of the ...
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First published in Spain in 1983 and proclaimed "an instant postmodern classic, without a doubt the most disturbingly original Spanish prose of the century" (Encyclopedia Britannica 1985 Book of the Year), Larva is a rollicking account of a masquerade party in an abandoned mansion in London. Milalias (disguised as Don Juan) searches for Babelle (as Sleeping Beauty) though a linguistic fun house of polylingual puns and wordplay recalling Joyce's Finnegans Wake. A mock-scholarly commentary reveals the backgrounds of the masked revelers, while R???os's punning and allusive language shows that words, too, wear masks, hiding an astonishing range of further meanings and implications. Larva's tale, a reassessment of the Don Juan myth in our time, is told in single-minded pursuit of double meanings, but it is serious play. It revives a Hispanic tradition repressed for centuries by introducing the Madhatter English tradition of puns, palindromes, and acrostics, by creating Joycean echoes and pushing language to its maximum connotative capacity. Larva has been praised by such leading Spanish-language writers as Carlos Fuentes, Juan Goytisolo, and Severo Sarduy, and establishes R???os as the most accomplished successor to Joyce.
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Add this copy of Larva: Midsummer Night's Babel to cart. $66.99, very good condition, Sold by Solr Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lincolnwood, IL, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Dalkey Archive Press.
Add this copy of Larva: Midsummer Night's Babel to cart. $122.33, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Dalkey Archive Press.
Add this copy of Larva: Midsummer Night's Babel to cart. $157.00, very good condition, Sold by Zed Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from New York, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Dalkey Archive Press.
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Seller's Description:
Very good in very good dust jacket. First printing. 8vo. [586] pp. Black cloth. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. Slightest shelfwear to boards. Red lettering to jacket spine faded slightly to pink. Translated by Richard Alan Francis with Suzanne Jill Levine and the author.
Add this copy of Larva: Midsummer Night's Babel to cart. $169.55, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Dalkey Archive Press.
