"Arrivé en Espagne pour y devenir capitaine des gardes wallonnes, le jeune Alphonse Van Worden est entrainé dans une étrange aventure. La Sierra Morena, qu'il choisit de traverser pour se rendre à Madrid, jouit alors (debut du XVIIIè siècle) d'une sinistre réputation. Al'orée de cette contrée maudite, un gibet orné de pendus suplicies met en condition le voyageur assez intrepide pour s'y aventurer. C'est là pourtant qu'à travers les étapes et les épreuves d'une quête initiatique faite de terreurs et des délices alternées, le jeune Alphonse s'engagera dans la voie du vrai savoir - après avoir succombé jusqu'à l'inanition au charme de l'éblouissante Emina et de sa soeur Zibedde. Il apercevra l'abime insondable des forces qui assaillent la raison et qui ébranlent ses fragiles certitudes.
Roman picaresque, conte fantastique, récit libertin, fable philosophique, ce chef-d'oeuvre de la litterature française est une véritable anthologie de tous les genres narratifs.
Precurseur du romantisme, son auteur, le comte Jean Potocki (1761-1815), est aussi l'un des plus étincelants temoins du siècle des Lumières."
Arriving in Spain to take up his post as Captain of the Walloon guards there, the young Alphonse van Worden becomes embroiled in a strange adventure. He chooses to cross the Sierra Morena mountains en route to Madrid, which at the beginning of the 18th century, have earned a sinister reputation. A gallows with two hanged men at the edge of this cursed land prepare our intrepid hero for adventure. There, however, during the varying stages and tests of mettle from a quest of initiation comprised of terrors and delights, the young Alphonse finds himself on the path of True Knowledge - after having succumbed to a trance from the charms of the striking Emina and her sister Zibedde. He begins to get a notion of the immeasurably deep chasm of forces attacking his sanity and assaulting his fragile certainties.
Swashbuckling adventure, fantastic story, liscentious tale, philosophical parable, this masterwork of French Literature is a veritable anthology of narrative styles.
Precursor to Romanticism, the story's author - The Count Jan Potocki (1761-1815) is also one of the most sparkling documentors of the Enlightenment.
***
Yes...the Livre de Poche edition of the Saragossa Manuscript arrived in the mail the other day, along with a pretty post card of something I'd just bought at the Korean market for dinner that night.
Since I'm a huge fan of adventure stories, this really made my day. I'd been having a hard time trying to find a good, affordable copy of the book in the version originelle Potocki's travel experiences and rather against the grain interests really provide for some interesting twists on the standard swashbuckler story. The Saragossa is also a wonderful modern example of the story within the story framework. (Think 1001 Nights, Canterbury Tales or the Decameron). Wojciech Has's film adaptation, by the way, handles the transition between stories brilliantly and I can't recommend it highly enough.
Next thing I'm going to have to do is find a biography (actually, I saw two at Schoenhof) on Potocki, as he was one heck of a character in his own right.
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