Zenobia
by Gellu Naum
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Description
One of the best-known novels by prolific Romanian avant-garde writer Gelu Naum, Zenobia is the evocation of the singular quest of a Surrealist knight-errant who strives to be true to the gentle demands of his lady in a landscape of snares, desolation, incipient madness, and material poverty magically interrupted by moments of extreme beauty. His wife, artist Lyggia Naum, was the inspiration for the title character. In this 1985 masterpiece, penned in the twilight of the totalitarian regime show more of Nicolae Ceausescu, love, in all its intimate, carnal communion, lights the path through the dark forest, the streets of Bucharest, and the desert swamps. The narrator, speaking from the depths of love and despair, invites the reader to share his quest. Highly praised now and then, Zenobia is an enduring avant-garde classic of twentieth-century Eastern European literature. show lessTags
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Zenobia
- Original publication date
- 1985
- Epigraph
- And all of us who were alive thought we were dead and walked about in a daze...
--Ioan Dobrescu, furrier in the Batesti Quarter of Bucharest, October 1813 - First words
- Too many things solicit us, and, given the equivocal solicitation mechanism, too many words flock to contain them, to hide them in their useless and deceiving labyrinth--that's why I might sometimes tell you what shouldn't be... (show all) told; anyway, I am convinced that everyone will meditate more on the surplus, leaving aside the state in which I float, below, like a frogman, for instance.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Her hair had turned gray from waiting...
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 859.334 — Literature & rhetoric Italian, Romanian & related literatures Literatures of Romanian, Rhaetian, Sardinian, Corsican languages Romanian fiction 1900– 1945–
- LCC
- PC840.24 .A8 .Z3513 — Language and Literature Romanic languages Romance Romanian
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 78
- Popularity
- 404,798
- Rating
- (4.63)
- Languages
- 5 — English, French, German, Norwegian, Romanian
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 11
