Narrative
Paris Peasant
Le Paysan de Paris
Louis Aragon · 1926
Synopsis
After a preface devoted to a modern mythology, the narrator walks the length of the Passage de l'Opéra in Paris, which is slated for demolition. He describes its shops, cafés, hotels and regulars with an almost naturalist precision, and discovers the marvellous there, as when a shop window turns into a seascape where a mermaid passes. He then recounts a night walk with friends in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, in search of new myths of nature.
Context
The text first appeared in fragments in La Revue européenne in 1924 and 1925, then in volume form with Gallimard in 1926. Aragon presented it as a mythology of the modern world, and in it he mixes lyrical effusions, theoretical reflections, minute descriptions and dream visions. This covered passage was demolished in 1925 for the extension of the boulevard Haussmann. Walter Benjamin found in this book the starting point of his great work, left unfinished, on the Parisian arcades.
Who it is for
A book without a plot, between description, essay and reverie, to be read in fragments rather than in one sitting.
Prizes and reception
Simon Watson Taylor translated it into English in 1971; the publisher Exact Change reissued that translation.
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The pages consulted to check this page.