Sunday of Fiction: The Modern French Eccentric

Contents

Contents vii List of Eccentrics xi Acknowledgments 1 Introduction A la recherche de l’excentrique perdu 11 Chapter One Nineteenth-Century Eccentric Prototypes 12 The Anglomane 14 The Grand dictionnaire universel 17 Le fou littéraire 22 The Romantic Adventure Hero 24 The Dandy and the Eccentric 27 The Decadent Eccentric 32 Jules Verne’s Eccentric Stationary Travelers 36 Fin de Siècle Eccentricity 43 Chapter Two The Clinamen: The Discreet Eccentric 45 The Swerve 47 The Clinamen as a Metaphor for the Eccentric 49 Salavin, Duhamel’s White-Collar Eccentric 53 Monsieur, Toussaint’s Modern-Day Salavin 69 Echenoz’s Eccentric Adventure Hero 79 Etaix’s Eccentric Suitor 86 Des Forêts’s Eccentric Chatterbox 98 Perec’s Clinamen: Eccentricity, A User’s Manual 115 Chapter Three The Eccentric’s Universe 115 The Sunday of Life 117 The Amusement Park 123 The Banlieue: An Ex-centered Paradise of Movie Palaces and Cafés 135 The Vanishing Pleasures of Everyday Life 138 The Eccentric’s Reactions to the New World around Us 146 Eccentric Space, Eccentric Time: The Eccentric’s Hour Glass v vi Contents vi 162 Conclusion L’excentrique retrouvé 169 Notes 173 Bibliography 185 Index ...