Messalina : a novel of imperial Rome
by Alfred Jarry
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Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) is admired today as the creator of a new tradition of humor. The Garden of Priapus is undoubtedly the best novel of Jarry's mature period. It is historical romance in episodic form, a series of tableaux of Rome in her decadence.Tags
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Author Information

153+ Works 3,467 Members
Alfred Jarry, eccentric dramatist, poet, and humorist, was born in Laval, France, in 1873. He was the co-founder, with Remy de Gourmont in 1894, of the magazine L'ymagier, which literally translated is "the maker of prints." This magazine, in existence only two years, presented texts and art images from a number of literary avant-garde artists of show more the late 19th century. Jarry is perhaps best known for the satirical and farcical play Ubu Roi (King Ubu), the first in a series of Ubu plays, published in 1896. Jarry died in 1907 in Paris. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Messalina : a novel of imperial Rome
- Original title
- Messaline
- People/Characters
- Messalina; Claudius Caesar; Mnester; Caius Silius
- First words
- That night, like many other nights, she descended from the palace on the Palatine in search of Happiness.
- Quotations
- And Messalina that evening in bed, fifty-eight years exactly since the birth of Claudius, whispered, 'Claudii, husband, emperor, god,' she repulsed him as she did when insisting on some trivial and paradoxical caprice, 'Caesa... (show all)r, augur, versed in music, even astronomy: I want THE MOON.'
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And it was then that Claudius Caesar—propped on one elbow on his couch, insatiable for love and feasting, pale, his cheek cerulean from the recent assiduity of his barber, a prototype Bluebeard just a few generations on from the cynocephalus, ancestor of our glorious warriors—meditated on his fourth wife:
Agrippina. - Original language
- French
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- 5 — Catalan, Czech, English, French, German
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