My May reading list: Sade, Nabe and Mishima.
On my May reading list, «Les Infortunes de la vertu», Sade's first version of his most famous text, «Justine», released five years earlier, rediscovered and published by Apollinaire in 1930 [1]. It is the shortest and softest version of the three which exist, and was the one written in the Bastille, in two weeks. I could not find online a snapshot of the cover of my edition (maxi-poche). It has a painting by Félicien Rops, The Sentimental Initiation [2], reproduced above. It keeps the wings of the macabre Cupid escaping the frame with some cloning of the sky (and tree!) to fill-in the background. I bought this copy a long time ago, and it is now a familiar image to me, also a rebutting one, possibly the reason why I did not delve yet into this version (I am not a fan of Sade either).
Nabe's «L'Âge du Christ» comes from my birthday's selection, and the only title of the trinity I haven't read, mainly because buying from Nabe's platform [3], I also got a copy of «L'Enculé» which I read first, and the work did not impress me enough to keep the other title on the top of my list. I will write on the latter though, as it has a few points of interest, and also on Saramago's masterpiece, which jumped right away into my list of favourites.
Mishima's "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" (金閣寺) (Ivan Morris' translation) as the most significant and famous work of this author, of whom I want to know more. Nobody who, in our century, commits Seppuku on the sheer basis of their ideals should be totally ignored. I am also interested in his "Confession of a mask" and "My friend Hitler".
⇠ See also the previous reading list.
⇢ See also the next reading list.