Synopses & Reviews
In
The Sexual Night, renowned French writer and critic Pascal Quignard meditates on a remarkable collection of illustrations of sexual imagery. He moves from the annals of global art to ancient and modern, from Bosch and Dand#252;rer to Rembrandt and Tintoretto, from Caspar David Friedrich and Caravaggio to Bacon and Jean Rustin. The meditations are wonderfully woven together, presenting a reflection on the sexual image that psychoanalysis calls and#147;the primal sceneand#8221;and#151;a concept introduced by Freud as the first sexual scene witnessed by a child; a scene that is unexplained, unforgettable, and ultimately haunting.
Throughout the course of twenty-seven chapters that draw on the mythological and artistic resources of Western and Far Eastern cultureand#151;including the tragic love of Dido and Aeneas; the scandalous figure of Mary Magdalene; Lascaux and Golgotha; voyeurism and melancholy; Saint Augustine and Freudand#151;the book is a disquisition on vision, temporality, generation, and creation in all its forms. Forty-eight brilliant and sensual color images accompany the text, as Quignard questions the origin of our being and explains the unexplainable, while noted translator Chris Turner lends a crisp voice to the entire collection.and#160;
Review
andldquo;Intelligible, mournful, and profound.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The Sexual Night explores much more thoroughly and universally than ever before this andlsquo;invisibleandrsquo; sexual scene that founds and forever affects us. . . . A thoroughly stimulating book.andrdquo;
About the Author
Pascal Quignard
Table of Contents
Foreword
Dido and Aeneas
The Invisible Scene
Lot and His Daughters
Noah and His Sons
Noli Me Tangere
Mary Magdalene
Nyx and Nox
Sleep and Dreams
Lascaux
Golgotha
Saint Augustine and Desiderio
The Nether World
The Wild Beasts
Saturn
Voyeurism
Actaeon and Diana
Mars and Venus
Baubo and Demeter
A French Scene
A Chinese Primal Scene
The Origin of The World
The Origin of Painting
Eros and Psyche
Leander and Hero
The Last Image
The Fourth Night
Esto Es Lo Que Hay
Notes