{"product_id":"2940014205993","title":"One Of Cleopatra's Nights And Other Fantastic Romances","description":"TO THE READER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe stories composing this volume have been selected for translation\u003cbr\u003efrom the two volumes of romances and tales by Théophile Gautier\u003cbr\u003erespectively entitled _Nouvelles_ and _Romans et Contes_. They afford in\u003cbr\u003ethe original many excellent examples of that peculiar beauty of fancy\u003cbr\u003eand power of painting with words which made Gautier the most brilliant\u003cbr\u003eliterary artist of his time. No doubt their warmth of coloring has been\u003cbr\u003eimpoverished and their fantastic enchantment weakened by the process of\u003cbr\u003etransformation into a less voluptuous tongue; yet enough of the original\u003cbr\u003echarm remains, we trust, to convey a just idea of the French author's\u003cbr\u003erich imaginative power and ornate luxuriance of style.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe verses of Swinburne referring to the witchery of the novelette which\u003cbr\u003eopens the volume, and to the peculiarly sweet and strange romance which\u003cbr\u003efollows, sufficiently indicate the extraordinary art of these tales. At\u003cbr\u003eleast three of the stories we have attempted to translate rank among the\u003cbr\u003emost remarkable literary productions of the century.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese little romances are characterized, however, by merits other than\u003cbr\u003ethose of mere literary workmanship; they are further remarkable for a\u003cbr\u003ewealth of erudition--picturesque learning, we might say--which often\u003cbr\u003elends them an actual archæologic value, like the paintings of some\u003cbr\u003escholarly artist, some Alma Tadema, who with fair magic of\u003cbr\u003ecolor-blending evokes for us eidolons of ages vanished and civilizations\u003cbr\u003epassed away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThus one finds in the delightful fantasy of _Arria Marcella_ not only a\u003cbr\u003edream of \"Pompeiian Days,\" pictured with an idealistic brilliancy beyond\u003cbr\u003ethe art of Coomans, but a rich knowledge, likewise, of all that\u003cbr\u003efascinating lore gleaned by antiquarian research amid the ashes of the\u003cbr\u003esepultured city--a knowledge enriched in no small degree by local study,\u003cbr\u003eand presented with a descriptive power finely strengthened by personal\u003cbr\u003eobservation. It is something more than the charming imagination of a\u003cbr\u003epoetic dreamer which paints for us the blue sea \"unrolling its long\u003cbr\u003evolutes of foam\" upon a beach as black and smooth as sifted charcoal;\u003cbr\u003ethe fissured summit of Vesuvius, out-pouring white threads of smoke from\u003cbr\u003eits crannies \"as from the orifices of a perfuming pan;\" and the\u003cbr\u003efar-purple hills \"with outlines voluptuously undulating, like the hips\u003cbr\u003eof a woman.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd throughout these romances one finds the same evidences of\u003cbr\u003earchæologic study, of artistic observation, of imagination fostered by\u003cbr\u003epicturesque fact. The glory of the Greek kings of Lydia glows goldenly\u003cbr\u003eagain in the pages of _Le Roi Candaule_; the massive gloom and\u003cbr\u003emelancholy weirdness of ancient Egypt is reflected as in a necromancer's\u003cbr\u003emirror throughout _Une Nuit de Cléopâtre_. It is in the Egyptian\u003cbr\u003efantasies, perhaps, that the author's peculiar descriptive skill appears\u003cbr\u003eto most advantage; the still fresh hues of the hierophantic paintings,\u003cbr\u003ethe pictured sarcophagi, and the mummy-gilding seem to meet the reader's\u003cbr\u003eeye with the gratification of their bright contrasts; a faint perfume\u003cbr\u003eof unknown balm seems to hover over the open pages; and mysterious\u003cbr\u003esphinxes appear to look on \"with that undefinable rose-granite smile\u003cbr\u003ethat mocks our modern wisdom.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcepting _Omphale_ and _La Morte Amoureuse,_ the stories selected for\u003cbr\u003etranslation are mostly antique in composition and coloring; the former\u003cbr\u003ebeing Louis-Quinze, the latter mediæval rather than aught else. But all\u003cbr\u003ealike frame some exquisite delineation of young love-fancies; some\u003cbr\u003eadmirable picture of what Gautier in the _Histoire du Romantisme_ has\u003cbr\u003eprettily termed \"the graceful _succubi_ that haunt the happy slumbers of\u003cbr\u003eyouth.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd what dreamful student of the Beautiful has not been once enamoured\u003cbr\u003eof an Arria Marcella, and worshipped on the altar of his heart those\u003cbr\u003eancient gods \"who loved life and youth and beauty and pleasure\"? How\u003cbr\u003emany a lover of mediæval legend has in fancy gladly bartered the blood\u003cbr\u003eof his veins for some phantom Clarimonde? What true artist has not at\u003cbr\u003esome time been haunted by the image of a Nyssia, fairer than all\u003cbr\u003edaughters of men, lovelier than all fantasies realized in stone--a\u003cbr\u003ePygmalion-wrought marble transmuted by divine alchemy to a being of\u003cbr\u003eopalescent flesh and ichor-throbbing veins?","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47080012447984,"sku":"2940014205993","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014205993_p0.jpg?v=1763602891","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014205993","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}