Morose Prose

Gourmont, Remy de, 1858-1915Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 70K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Proses moroses by Remy de GourmontAuthor: Gourmont, Remy de, 1858-1915,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Aug 17, 2018

Editor's review

Proses moroses is a short French prose collection by the French writer Remy de Gourmont, symbolist in inclination and marked by fin-de-siècle melancholy reflection. Gourmont works with a refined, somewhat detached touch on emotion, ideas, and sensory experience; the prose is dense and carefully wrought, suited to close reading rather than quick consumption. Its value lies not in narrative but in the aesthetic experience of the language itself and in what it reveals about late nineteenth-century French literary taste. For readers studying French literature or the symbolist tradition, it offers a usable sample of the original text; general readers will need some French reading ability and literary patience. As you read, attend to the short-chapter structure, the choice of imagery, and the ironic tone, and observe how the prose moves between lyricism and reflection.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying French literature and the symbolist tradition
Readers with French reading ability who want to read short prose in the original
Literary enthusiasts who enjoy refined, reflective writing and are willing to read slowly
Readers interested in late nineteenth-century French literary taste

Not a good fit for

Readers unable to read French and without access to a translation
Readers who prefer tightly plotted, strongly narrative works
Beginners seeking systematic literary history or heavily annotated introductions

Reading tips

Read only one or two short pieces at a time and leave room for pause and reflection rather than reading continuously.
Keep a French dictionary at hand; look up unfamiliar usages and record example sentences as you go.
After reading, try retelling each piece in Chinese to check which images you have grasped.
If possible, read alongside a Chinese translation and compare what is gained and lost in the transfer between languages.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is there a Chinese translation of this book?

The available information indicates only that it is a French public-domain e-book and provides no information about a Chinese translation. Readers may search for one themselves; if none can be found, a certain command of French is required to read the original directly.

Is Gourmont's prose easy to read?

Not particularly. His writing is refined and carefully wrought, often interweaving emotion and ideas, with no clear plot line. It suits readers willing to read slowly and savor the language; those used to fast-paced reading may find it demanding.

Is this book suitable for learning French?

It can serve as advanced reading material but is not suitable for beginners. The vocabulary and syntax are distinctly literary, and some expressions bear the marks of their period. It is best used once you have intermediate or higher French reading ability, together with a dictionary and annotation tools.

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About the author

Gourmont, Remy de, 1858-1915 Author

Remy de Gourmont (1858–1915) was an important French writer, critic, and essayist of the Symbolist period. Publicly available details of his life are limited, so his profile is best seen through his writings. About twenty of his works are held in the collection, spanning literary criticism, cultural essays, and fiction. Representative titles include Le livre des masques, The Book of Masks, La culture des idées, Decadence, and Other Essays on the Culture of Ideas, Sixtine: roman de la vie cérébrale, and A Virgin Heart: A Novel. His writing is marked by speculative intelligence and stylistic awareness: he comments on literary circles through mask-like portraits and discusses the formation and decay of ideas in his cultural essays, while Physique de l‘Amour: Essai sur l’instinct sexuel reflects his interest in sexuality and instinct. His concise, somewhat skeptical and decadent style influenced early twentieth-century French criticism and the essay tradition.