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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'One Sunday afternoon in a secluded valley in Normandy, Robert Dessaix chanced upon the castle where the 20th-century French writer Andre Gide spent his childhood. Recalling the excitement he felt when he first read Gide as a teenager, Dessaix sets off to recapture what it was that once drew him so strongly to this enigmatic figure.
'On a magic carpet ride from Lisbon to the edge of the Sahara, from Paris to the south of France and Algiers, he takes us to the places where the Nobel Prize winning author, in ways still scandalous to modern sensibilities, lived out his unconventional ideas about love, marriage, sexuality and religion.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Brio).
Notes
-
Epigraph: We always write in order to remember the truth, When we invent, it is only in order to remember the truth more exactly. Luis Fernando Verissimo in Borges and the Eternal Urangutans.
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Epigraph: Home is heaven and orgies are vile, But you need an orgy once in a while. Ogden Nash.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Robert Dessaix, André Gide and the Poor Boys of Algeria
2014
single work
essay
— Appears in: Quadrant , April vol. 58 no. 4 2014; (p. 66-72) -
The Arabesques of Paradox
Danielle Wood
(interviewer),
Robert Dessaix
(interviewer),
2008
single work
interview
— Appears in: Island , Summer no. 115 2008; (p. 8-14) Editor's note: Robert Dessaix ... has recently published a curious and fascinating book, Arabesques, which blends travel memoir with a life of Andre Gide. Here Robert converses with fellow Tasmanian author Danielle Wood ... Danielle has recently embarked on a nonfiction project which involves researching and writing about Tasmania's housewife superstar Marjorie Bligh. From Bligh to Gide, these two subtle thinkers converse about the joys and complexities of writing 'a life'. -
ArtsBooks
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane News , 22 - 28 October no. 708 2008; (p. 35)
— Review of The Devil's Eye 2008 single work novel ; Women of the Outback 2008 single work biography ; Arabesques : A Tale of Double Lives 2008 single work autobiography -
Inside Journey
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 25 - 26 October 2008; (p. 25)
— Review of Arabesques : A Tale of Double Lives 2008 single work autobiography -
The Age of Experience
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 25 October 2008; (p. 12)
— Review of Arabesques : A Tale of Double Lives 2008 single work autobiography ; The Rip 2008 selected work short story
-
Looking and Seeing
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , October vol. 3 no. 9 2008; (p. 16-17)
— Review of Arabesques : A Tale of Double Lives 2008 single work autobiography -
Read of the Week
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 5 October 2008; (p. 26)
— Review of Arabesques : A Tale of Double Lives 2008 single work autobiography -
The Line of Beauty
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 4 October 2008; (p. 24)
— Review of Arabesques : A Tale of Double Lives 2008 single work autobiography -
Barefoot on Sharp Stones
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 305 2008; (p. 15-16)
— Review of Arabesques : A Tale of Double Lives 2008 single work autobiography -
Pilgrimage
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 39 2008; (p. 66-68)
— Review of Arabesques : A Tale of Double Lives 2008 single work autobiography -
Guided by Gide: Travelling to Forget and to Remember
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 27 September 2008; (p. 12-13) -
Aiming for a Banality of the Superior Kind
2008
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 27 September 2008; (p. 25) The Sydney Morning Herald , 27-28 September 2008; (p. 30-31) -
The Arabesques of Paradox
Danielle Wood
(interviewer),
Robert Dessaix
(interviewer),
2008
single work
interview
— Appears in: Island , Summer no. 115 2008; (p. 8-14) Editor's note: Robert Dessaix ... has recently published a curious and fascinating book, Arabesques, which blends travel memoir with a life of Andre Gide. Here Robert converses with fellow Tasmanian author Danielle Wood ... Danielle has recently embarked on a nonfiction project which involves researching and writing about Tasmania's housewife superstar Marjorie Bligh. From Bligh to Gide, these two subtle thinkers converse about the joys and complexities of writing 'a life'. -
Robert Dessaix, André Gide and the Poor Boys of Algeria
2014
single work
essay
— Appears in: Quadrant , April vol. 58 no. 4 2014; (p. 66-72)
Awards
Last amended 19 Sep 2017 15:04:42
Subjects:
- Western Europe, Europe,
- North Africa, Africa,
- Mediterranean, Europe,
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