The Sunday of Life
by Raymond Queneau
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Description
When shop-owner Julia Segovia decides that she's going to marry the handsome if exceedingly young and naive soldier Valentin Brû, he willingly goes along with her scheme. Little does he know that he will have to contend with disgruntled in-laws, eccentric locals, a cunning wife, a shifty career in fortune-telling, the approaching threat of war with Germany and the mysteries of Parisian public transport.With a cast of eccentric characters, amusing incidents and an uplifting tone, The Sunday show more of Life - its title playfully alluding to Hegel's theory of history - is a scintillating novel which showcases Queneau's trademark punning, sly wit and delight in the absurdity of people and situations. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
A short novel by Queneau that is both thoughtful and delightfully funny.
Pleasantly quirky but not much of a story... 2.5 stars
« L'œil inconsciemment gris-bleu, la molletière galamment embobinée avec inconscience, le soldat Brû promenait naïvement avec lui tout ce qu'il fallait pour plaire à une demoiselle ni tout à fait jeune ni tout à fait demoiselle. Il ne savait pas.
Julia pinça le bras de sa sœur Chantal et dit :
- Le v'là.
Tapies derrière un entassement brut de bobines et de boutons, elles le regardèrent passer, muettes. »
Julia pinça le bras de sa sœur Chantal et dit :
- Le v'là.
Tapies derrière un entassement brut de bobines et de boutons, elles le regardèrent passer, muettes. »
Jun 7, 2011French
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Author Information
171+ Works 9,830 Members
This French author of treatises on mathematics and other scholarly works has made his reputation writing comic novels. Raymond Queneau (through one of his characters) once defined humor as "an attempt to purge lofty feelings of all the baloney." Roger Shattuck interprets his philosophy: "Life is of course absurd and it is ludicrous to take it show more seriously; only the comic is serious." Life is so serious to Queneau that only laughter makes it bearable. He has written a play, screenplays, poetry, numerous articles, and many novels, the first of which, Le Chiendent (The Bark Tree), was published in 1933. In Exercises in Style (1947) he tells a simple anecdote 99 different ways. According to some critics, The Blue Flowers (1965) represents Queneau at his best. Its jokes, puns, double-entendres, deceptions, wild events, tricky correspondences, and bawdy language make it a feast of comic riches. The influence of Charlie Chaplin, as well as James Joyce is detectable in Queneau's fiction. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
レーモン・クノー・コレクション (9)
Gallimard, Folio (442)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- 人生の日曜日
- Original title
- Le dimanche de la vie
- Original publication date
- 1952
- Important places*
- Le Havre, Normandië, Frankrijk; Normandië, Frankrijk
- Canonical LCC
- PQ2633.U43 D513 1977
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 286
- Popularity
- 112,025
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.74)
- Languages
- 9 — Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 25
- ASINs
- 2
