1LT79-1
A very long review full of spoilers. I made many notes reading the novel and thought it would be useful for those who have already read the Allen Press book and enjoy Nouveau Roman. Picture quality isn't the best.
Metachronal Wave
Centipedes walk in a very distinctive rhythmic way with the legs flowing in a metachronal wave. As a leg on the left side moves forward, its counterpart on the right moves backward. When multiplied over thirty legs, the rhythm becomes hypnotic.
The structure ofJealousy hypnotises the reader with similar waves of analepsis and prolepsis. Is the narration flashing forward or backward? What is the rhythm we are working to?
In the novel a centipede is killed and reanimated only to be killed again. It reappears in cycles as waves of violence strike back and forth on the arthropod. At one point the centipede is squashed into the shape of a question mark?
The centipede is a hive of rhythms:
The rhythmic feelers of the creature ceaselessly scan their environment for predators, prey or mates. With all three present, they meet in a jealous triangle.
Rhythmic Themes
The centipede is one of the 'rhythmic themes' in Jealousy, the subtitle chosen by the Allens. Just as Robbe-Grillet spells out the emotion to work with in the title, the Allens spell out a way of approaching the novel in the subtitle.
Rhythmic themes recur in rotations, cycles, spirals, pulsations, waves, sing song and counting, But the rhythms are broken and the breaks leave empty spacies, ellipses and question marks. The question mark is a space for the inquisitive reader to take an active role and propose answers. An indifferent reader will only see a wall of tedious surface level descriptions of objects and spaces. Once they key into the rhythms of a jealous mind, the novel opens up.
The Camera Eye
A pathologically jealous individual will stalk and observe, yet feel invisible. The invisible narrator is never directly referred to and can only be inferred through the spacial descriptions playing out to the reader. The opening chapter vignette shows this observational and spacial dynamic:
This looks like the cross section of an eye, its field of perception and image inversion on the retina. But its geometric presentation also suggests the eye of a camera. The novel is cinematographic. The eyes of the narrator and the eyes of the reader merge together into the eye of the camera.
A wife, only referred to as A, is being observed. The illustrator has added an inferred B for the narrator, a husband, who can only observe A through this jealous wave-like rhythm which inverts and warps perception.
Blind Jealousy
The title of the novel is a play on words in French meaning venetian blinds but also jealousy, merging object with emotion. The blinds, a cinematic framing device, obscure the view of the obsessed husband and create a barrier to the observed wife, resulting in blind spots for jealousy to thrive.
In the opening illustration of the book the blinds are deformed into the legs and pincers of the centipede. A distinctive wave or spiral appears between the pincers. The reader is placed at the centre of the house looking through the hallway to the entrance door waiting in anticipation.
The venetian shadows trope is common to film noir evoking a sense of menace:
Stranger on the Third Floor 1940
But in the Jealousy illustration above, the venetian shadows are projected onto all surfaces into the depths of the vanishing point. Every surface and all inferred depth of the novel will be formed through this warped venetian framing device and the emotion of jealousy. Not one sentence or word in the novel will escape it.
Surface and Emotion
Reading Jealousy you are presented with intricate surface level descriptions replaying in cycles from various angles with details added or subtracted on each return. The reader is primed with the emotion of jealousy. You have the repetitions, the surfaces and the emotion and you must work with this raw material in an active way. The Allens loaded the interior material aspects of the book with the emotion and the covers and typography with the surface level aspects.
The cool neutral grey of the cover binding contrasts violently with the internals as the reader flips the page to hit the jealous shock of yellow in the endpapers and the sensual tactility of the all-rag Wookey Hole handmade paper.
The balanced and neutral Univers typeface ties in stylistically with the spatial descriptions. The title page Garamont display type bridges the gap between surface and emotion with a touch of the calligraphic in an otherwise tempered typeface.
In the Labyrinth
At the heart of Jealousy is a love triangle between A the wife, B the inferred husband or narrator, and the neighbour Franck (with a C). B and C pivot around the central point of A.
B, A and C are configured thematically in the image below:
The Allens chose Michèle Forgeois, an artist whose primary form is sculpture to illustrate the book and although many of the pen and ink drawings look quite crude, it is worthwhile envisioning them as sculptural objects. With sculpture you walk around and observe the forms in space from multiple angles, much like the jealous husband stalking his wife from various vantage points from the house on the tropical banana plantation.
A knowledgeable sculptress would be able to trace the form all the way back to some of the earliest known sculptures such as the Venus of Willendorf, a faceless and footless figure with exaggerated female fertility features. A pathologically jealous husband would fixate on the perceived infidelity and by extension the fertility of his wife while the individuality of the face recedes into the background. The central totum-like figure above which sharpens at the feet into a dagger objectifies the wife and projects violence. The violent fantasy world in Jealousy pivots around this dagger point.
The three figures are configured into the basic shape of the house floor plan. As object is married with emotion, space is married with object. The space you enter in the novel appears to be a complete mental construct of a jealous mind.
The figure on the left merges features of the centipede with the labyrinthine layout of the house as its body. A venomous pincer is aimed at the neck of A. Labyrinths are a recurring theme in Robbe-Grillet novels and the film he scripted, Last Year at Marienbad. Characters are typically caught inside these inescapable complex layouts amid dislocated temporal repetitions. There is only one way in and one way out of the plantation. The jealous consciousness invokes the minotaur trapped in the heart of its labyrinth
The figure on the right merges features of a comb, car grille and blinds. These are the objects A interacts with and are associated with Franck. The narrator fixates and projects onto these objects in compulsive cycles.
On opening the book covers into a triangle the same three figures appear with the first figure emerging out of a blind spot in the shadows observing A through the inverted novel title replacing the jealous blinds. The artwork is full of these inversions mapped out earlier in the vignette. As you close the book the figure pivots around A and back into the shadows.
Compulsive Cycles
Franck gives A a lift into the nearest town one day. The car breaks down and the pair are forced to spend the night in a hotel as it is a long way from the plantation.
In this illustration we are supine most likely looking up from a bed towards a ceiling fan slightly to the left. We are being presented with the imagined view of A looking up from the hotel bed after the moment of perceived infidelity but she isn't central as Franck is lying next to her. The scene is imagined and framed through the jealous mind. The finial of the ceiling fan is a replica of the venus figure, here inverted, and the leaves on the end of the blades are suggestive of the plantation. The fan moves in an anticlockwise rotation around A. The infidelity fantasy is merged with the husband's abnormal cyclical stalking rhythms on the plantation. Every thought pivots around A. Inversions, rotations and cycles play out again and again as the rhythm of the novel quickens.
The compulsive cycles are projected onto A's ritual daily grooming:
Masticatory Rhythms
The husband is watching Franck eat dinner as the cycles accelerate. The fork morphs into the body of the venus figure and is consumed by Franck's mouth formed into the pincers of the centipede. The mouth is curved into an inverted C shape which is about to close shut into a full circle only to open and begin the cycle again, faster. Jealousy is consuming itself.
Cinematic Inversions
As the jealous rhythms of the novel accelerate and reach their climax, the husband (potentially) imagines a violent revenge fantasy involving a car crash with his wife and Franck. At this point, the illustrator merges the violent rhythmic themes into a comical and hideous sculpture - the mutilated centipede, Franck's car wheel and grille, the jealous blinds.
When you rotate the image, a film camera appears and you spin an inversion of an already warped inversion. Returning to the chapter opening vignette the reader's perceptions are passing through multiple framing devices: the emotion, the blinds and the camera (the overriding framing device). At this point in the novel the cinematographic framing breaks the third wall and becomes visible at the peak of violent fantasy.
Nocturnal Mating Calls
The rhythms settle as the novel ends:
The rhythmic sound of cricket stridulation in the night is nothing more than a repetitive insect mating call. In this final image the jealous rhythms of the novel are abstracted down to a fine white spiral in the darkness and the novel remains opaque. The perceived depth and vanishing point in the first illustration at the beginning of the novel now flattened to an undifferentiated black.
______________________________________________
References
Robbe-Grillet, A (1965) For a New Novel: Essays on Fiction 1st Ed. Grove Press
Robbe-Grillet, A (1971) Jealousy Rhythmic Themes 1st Ed. Allen Press
Tom Mccarthy's introduction to Jealousy in:
Robbe-Grillet, A (2008) Jealousy 1st Ed. Alma Classics
Tom Mccarthy on Robbe-Grillet:
https://youtu.be/-QcHi-4G4dU?si=5ei2Kw-5iD5z3MgA
On the idea of cinematic framing and marrying object with emotion:
https://youtu.be/D44xa6LLLiY?si=nOtVyjFRWlJu-Gqt
A short video in French on Michèle Forgeois:
https://base.centre-simone-de-beauvoir.com/DIAZ-510-56-0-0.html
Metachronal Wave
Centipedes walk in a very distinctive rhythmic way with the legs flowing in a metachronal wave. As a leg on the left side moves forward, its counterpart on the right moves backward. When multiplied over thirty legs, the rhythm becomes hypnotic.
The structure ofJealousy hypnotises the reader with similar waves of analepsis and prolepsis. Is the narration flashing forward or backward? What is the rhythm we are working to?
In the novel a centipede is killed and reanimated only to be killed again. It reappears in cycles as waves of violence strike back and forth on the arthropod. At one point the centipede is squashed into the shape of a question mark?
The centipede is a hive of rhythms:
"Only it's antennae rise and fall one after the other in an alternating, slow, but continuous movement."
The rhythmic feelers of the creature ceaselessly scan their environment for predators, prey or mates. With all three present, they meet in a jealous triangle.
Rhythmic Themes
The centipede is one of the 'rhythmic themes' in Jealousy, the subtitle chosen by the Allens. Just as Robbe-Grillet spells out the emotion to work with in the title, the Allens spell out a way of approaching the novel in the subtitle.
Rhythmic themes recur in rotations, cycles, spirals, pulsations, waves, sing song and counting, But the rhythms are broken and the breaks leave empty spacies, ellipses and question marks. The question mark is a space for the inquisitive reader to take an active role and propose answers. An indifferent reader will only see a wall of tedious surface level descriptions of objects and spaces. Once they key into the rhythms of a jealous mind, the novel opens up.
The Camera Eye
A pathologically jealous individual will stalk and observe, yet feel invisible. The invisible narrator is never directly referred to and can only be inferred through the spacial descriptions playing out to the reader. The opening chapter vignette shows this observational and spacial dynamic:
This looks like the cross section of an eye, its field of perception and image inversion on the retina. But its geometric presentation also suggests the eye of a camera. The novel is cinematographic. The eyes of the narrator and the eyes of the reader merge together into the eye of the camera.
A wife, only referred to as A, is being observed. The illustrator has added an inferred B for the narrator, a husband, who can only observe A through this jealous wave-like rhythm which inverts and warps perception.
Blind Jealousy
The title of the novel is a play on words in French meaning venetian blinds but also jealousy, merging object with emotion. The blinds, a cinematic framing device, obscure the view of the obsessed husband and create a barrier to the observed wife, resulting in blind spots for jealousy to thrive.
In the opening illustration of the book the blinds are deformed into the legs and pincers of the centipede. A distinctive wave or spiral appears between the pincers. The reader is placed at the centre of the house looking through the hallway to the entrance door waiting in anticipation.
The venetian shadows trope is common to film noir evoking a sense of menace:
Stranger on the Third Floor 1940
But in the Jealousy illustration above, the venetian shadows are projected onto all surfaces into the depths of the vanishing point. Every surface and all inferred depth of the novel will be formed through this warped venetian framing device and the emotion of jealousy. Not one sentence or word in the novel will escape it.
Surface and Emotion
Reading Jealousy you are presented with intricate surface level descriptions replaying in cycles from various angles with details added or subtracted on each return. The reader is primed with the emotion of jealousy. You have the repetitions, the surfaces and the emotion and you must work with this raw material in an active way. The Allens loaded the interior material aspects of the book with the emotion and the covers and typography with the surface level aspects.
The cool neutral grey of the cover binding contrasts violently with the internals as the reader flips the page to hit the jealous shock of yellow in the endpapers and the sensual tactility of the all-rag Wookey Hole handmade paper.
The balanced and neutral Univers typeface ties in stylistically with the spatial descriptions. The title page Garamont display type bridges the gap between surface and emotion with a touch of the calligraphic in an otherwise tempered typeface.
In the Labyrinth
At the heart of Jealousy is a love triangle between A the wife, B the inferred husband or narrator, and the neighbour Franck (with a C). B and C pivot around the central point of A.
B, A and C are configured thematically in the image below:
The Allens chose Michèle Forgeois, an artist whose primary form is sculpture to illustrate the book and although many of the pen and ink drawings look quite crude, it is worthwhile envisioning them as sculptural objects. With sculpture you walk around and observe the forms in space from multiple angles, much like the jealous husband stalking his wife from various vantage points from the house on the tropical banana plantation.
A knowledgeable sculptress would be able to trace the form all the way back to some of the earliest known sculptures such as the Venus of Willendorf, a faceless and footless figure with exaggerated female fertility features. A pathologically jealous husband would fixate on the perceived infidelity and by extension the fertility of his wife while the individuality of the face recedes into the background. The central totum-like figure above which sharpens at the feet into a dagger objectifies the wife and projects violence. The violent fantasy world in Jealousy pivots around this dagger point.
The three figures are configured into the basic shape of the house floor plan. As object is married with emotion, space is married with object. The space you enter in the novel appears to be a complete mental construct of a jealous mind.
The figure on the left merges features of the centipede with the labyrinthine layout of the house as its body. A venomous pincer is aimed at the neck of A. Labyrinths are a recurring theme in Robbe-Grillet novels and the film he scripted, Last Year at Marienbad. Characters are typically caught inside these inescapable complex layouts amid dislocated temporal repetitions. There is only one way in and one way out of the plantation. The jealous consciousness invokes the minotaur trapped in the heart of its labyrinth
The figure on the right merges features of a comb, car grille and blinds. These are the objects A interacts with and are associated with Franck. The narrator fixates and projects onto these objects in compulsive cycles.
On opening the book covers into a triangle the same three figures appear with the first figure emerging out of a blind spot in the shadows observing A through the inverted novel title replacing the jealous blinds. The artwork is full of these inversions mapped out earlier in the vignette. As you close the book the figure pivots around A and back into the shadows.
Compulsive Cycles
Franck gives A a lift into the nearest town one day. The car breaks down and the pair are forced to spend the night in a hotel as it is a long way from the plantation.
In this illustration we are supine most likely looking up from a bed towards a ceiling fan slightly to the left. We are being presented with the imagined view of A looking up from the hotel bed after the moment of perceived infidelity but she isn't central as Franck is lying next to her. The scene is imagined and framed through the jealous mind. The finial of the ceiling fan is a replica of the venus figure, here inverted, and the leaves on the end of the blades are suggestive of the plantation. The fan moves in an anticlockwise rotation around A. The infidelity fantasy is merged with the husband's abnormal cyclical stalking rhythms on the plantation. Every thought pivots around A. Inversions, rotations and cycles play out again and again as the rhythm of the novel quickens.
The compulsive cycles are projected onto A's ritual daily grooming:
Masticatory Rhythms
"The rhythmic distortions of all the muscles of the face during a conscientious mastication which, even before being completed, is already accompanied by an accelerated repetition of the whole series."
The husband is watching Franck eat dinner as the cycles accelerate. The fork morphs into the body of the venus figure and is consumed by Franck's mouth formed into the pincers of the centipede. The mouth is curved into an inverted C shape which is about to close shut into a full circle only to open and begin the cycle again, faster. Jealousy is consuming itself.
Cinematic Inversions
As the jealous rhythms of the novel accelerate and reach their climax, the husband (potentially) imagines a violent revenge fantasy involving a car crash with his wife and Franck. At this point, the illustrator merges the violent rhythmic themes into a comical and hideous sculpture - the mutilated centipede, Franck's car wheel and grille, the jealous blinds.
When you rotate the image, a film camera appears and you spin an inversion of an already warped inversion. Returning to the chapter opening vignette the reader's perceptions are passing through multiple framing devices: the emotion, the blinds and the camera (the overriding framing device). At this point in the novel the cinematographic framing breaks the third wall and becomes visible at the peak of violent fantasy.
Nocturnal Mating Calls
The rhythms settle as the novel ends:
"Now the dark night and the deafening racket of the crickets again engulf the garden and the veranda, all around the house."
The rhythmic sound of cricket stridulation in the night is nothing more than a repetitive insect mating call. In this final image the jealous rhythms of the novel are abstracted down to a fine white spiral in the darkness and the novel remains opaque. The perceived depth and vanishing point in the first illustration at the beginning of the novel now flattened to an undifferentiated black.
______________________________________________
References
Robbe-Grillet, A (1965) For a New Novel: Essays on Fiction 1st Ed. Grove Press
Robbe-Grillet, A (1971) Jealousy Rhythmic Themes 1st Ed. Allen Press
Tom Mccarthy's introduction to Jealousy in:
Robbe-Grillet, A (2008) Jealousy 1st Ed. Alma Classics
Tom Mccarthy on Robbe-Grillet:
https://youtu.be/-QcHi-4G4dU?si=5ei2Kw-5iD5z3MgA
On the idea of cinematic framing and marrying object with emotion:
https://youtu.be/D44xa6LLLiY?si=nOtVyjFRWlJu-Gqt
A short video in French on Michèle Forgeois:
https://base.centre-simone-de-beauvoir.com/DIAZ-510-56-0-0.html
3SebRinelli
Brilliant review!
4dlphcoracl
>1 LT79-1:
An insightful and highly original look into a difficult and ambiguous work of literature. Wonderful addition to the LTFPF. Thank you.
This edition was a distinct departure for Lewis and Dorothy Allen, their only foray into avant-garde literature amongst the 58 editions in their bibliography. The only other Allen Press edition similarly adventurous was their magnum opus edition 'Four Poems of the Occult' by Dadaist/Surrealist Yvan Goll.
An insightful and highly original look into a difficult and ambiguous work of literature. Wonderful addition to the LTFPF. Thank you.
This edition was a distinct departure for Lewis and Dorothy Allen, their only foray into avant-garde literature amongst the 58 editions in their bibliography. The only other Allen Press edition similarly adventurous was their magnum opus edition 'Four Poems of the Occult' by Dadaist/Surrealist Yvan Goll.
5LT79-1
Thanks all!
>4 dlphcoracl: I'd love to get my hands on that book and, in fact, all AP books. I've developed a real respect for the Allens.
There were one or two copies last time I checked of Jealousy for around $400 which I think is worth it. It's a fantastic starting point for collecting AP books within a reasonable budget. With the obvious caveat that Robbe-Grillet is an acquired taste.
I've also developed a respect for Michèle Forgeois and I know she worked on other AP books. For anyone interested in what the illustrations in Jealousy would look like as sculptural objects click on the last video in the references.
>4 dlphcoracl: I'd love to get my hands on that book and, in fact, all AP books. I've developed a real respect for the Allens.
There were one or two copies last time I checked of Jealousy for around $400 which I think is worth it. It's a fantastic starting point for collecting AP books within a reasonable budget. With the obvious caveat that Robbe-Grillet is an acquired taste.
I've also developed a respect for Michèle Forgeois and I know she worked on other AP books. For anyone interested in what the illustrations in Jealousy would look like as sculptural objects click on the last video in the references.
6dlphcoracl
>5 LT79-1:
The other books Michèle Forgeois illustrated for the Allen Press:
1. The Bacchae by Euripides (1972).
2. Romeo and Juliet (1988). A gem of a book.
3. Jonah - Judith - Ruth (1984).
If you are interested in collecting Allen Press books, Chris Adamson and I wrote nearly two dozen reviews of various Allen Press books with detailed photographs on his now-defunct Books and Vines website. A list of the complete Allen Press bibliography in chronological order is also present on the website. Link below.
https://booksandvines.com/index-of-book-reviews-by-publisher/
The other books Michèle Forgeois illustrated for the Allen Press:
1. The Bacchae by Euripides (1972).
2. Romeo and Juliet (1988). A gem of a book.
3. Jonah - Judith - Ruth (1984).
If you are interested in collecting Allen Press books, Chris Adamson and I wrote nearly two dozen reviews of various Allen Press books with detailed photographs on his now-defunct Books and Vines website. A list of the complete Allen Press bibliography in chronological order is also present on the website. Link below.
https://booksandvines.com/index-of-book-reviews-by-publisher/
7LT79-1
>6 dlphcoracl: An excellent resource. Thank you! I look forward to working my way through this.
8astropi
That looks lovely! Definitely going on my wish list. If you haven't seen it yet, my personal favorite is their Poeticon Astronomicon --
https://www.librarything.com/topic/350295
https://www.librarything.com/topic/350295
9LT79-1
>8 astropi: always tons of character in AP books. I'd love to own this one. A first translation too!
10DenimDan
>1 LT79-1: I really enjoyed this careful reading of the illustrations in the AP version of the novel. Quite illuminating! Jealousy is one of my favorites from the Allen Press, in large part because the novel and illustrations are so very contemporary/modern, while the Allens' materials and methods are characteristically traditional. It's such an unnerving novel; I feel weirdly claustrophobic anytime I read it. Apart from Four Poems of the Occult, the only other contemporary work they published was Camus' The Fall (also an impressive production, though I prefer Jealousy to both).
Thanks again for these insights!
Thanks again for these insights!
11LT79-1
>10 DenimDan:
"the novel and illustrations are so very contemporary/modern, while the Allens' materials and methods are characteristically traditional"
Indeed, unlikely bedfellows but the combination works perfectly for this novel. I think those opposites draw creative energies out of each other. It's a special book.
"the novel and illustrations are so very contemporary/modern, while the Allens' materials and methods are characteristically traditional"
Indeed, unlikely bedfellows but the combination works perfectly for this novel. I think those opposites draw creative energies out of each other. It's a special book.
12grifgon
This was a beautiful read! One of my favorite Allen titles, and the very first one I acquired!
13greenwald1
>6 dlphcoracl: side question - is Books and Vines still around? Links here that used to work now take me to an error page
14dlphcoracl
>13 greenwald1:
The Books and Vines website is no longer directly accessible and one is directed to an error message from Wordpress.com. In brief, Wordpress.com now acts as a gatekeeper for the B&V website. To access B&V, you must join Wordpress.com (it's free) and set up a user name and password. After doing so, links to the B&V website should take you there directly. That is how it has worked for me - now, if I click on my link in post #6 I will go directly to the B&V website and all its information and review articles are now accessible.
Hope this helps and works for you as well.
dlphcoracl
The Books and Vines website is no longer directly accessible and one is directed to an error message from Wordpress.com. In brief, Wordpress.com now acts as a gatekeeper for the B&V website. To access B&V, you must join Wordpress.com (it's free) and set up a user name and password. After doing so, links to the B&V website should take you there directly. That is how it has worked for me - now, if I click on my link in post #6 I will go directly to the B&V website and all its information and review articles are now accessible.
Hope this helps and works for you as well.
dlphcoracl
15greenwald1
>14 dlphcoracl: thanks, much appreciated!
16kermaier
>14 dlphcoracl: I have a Wordpress login, but trying to access B&V results in this message:
“Private Site
This site is currently private. If you would like to request access, we'll send your username to the site owner for approval.”
“Private Site
This site is currently private. If you would like to request access, we'll send your username to the site owner for approval.”
17yikou
>16 kermaier: Luckily, it looks like they were indexed by the Wayback Machine: Allen Press, of Lewis and Dorothy Allen.
18LT79-1
We need to keep visibility of Allen Press reviews. It would be a shame otherwise. None of those links work for me.
19Lukas1990
>17 yikou: Yay! Great find!
20eddielydon 
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Thank you very much for this great post. oliver tree jacket
