{"product_id":"the-opposing-shore-paperback","title":"The Opposing Shore - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJulien Gracq\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eRichard Howard\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith four elegant and beautifully crafted novels Julien Gracq has established himself as one of France's premier postwar novelists. A mysterious and retiring figure, Gracq characteristically refused the Goncourt, France's most distinguished literary prize, when it was awarded to him in 1951 for this book. As the latest work in the Twentieth-Century Continental Fiction Series, Gracq'a masterpiece is now available for the first time in English. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSet in a fictitious Mediterranean port city, \u003ci\u003eThe Opposing Shore\u003c\/i\u003e is the first-person account of a young aristocrat sent to observe the activities of a naval base. The fort lies at the country's border; at its feet is the bay of Syrtes. Across the bay is territory of the enemy who has, for three hundred years, been at war with the narrator's countrymen; the battle has become a complex, tacit game in which no actions are taken and no peace declared. As the narrator comes to understand, everything depends upon a boundary, unseen but certain, separating the two sides. Besides the narrator there are two other main characters, the dark and laconic captain of the base and a woman whose compex relations to both sides of the war brings the narator deeper into the story's web. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor many French readers \u003ci\u003eThe Opposing Shore\u003c\/i\u003e (published as \u003ci\u003eLe rivage des Syrtes\u003c\/i\u003e ), with its theme of transgressions and boundaries, spoke to the issue of defeat and the desire to fail: a paticularly sensitive motif in postwar French literature. But there is nothing about the novel tying it either to France or to the 1950s; in fact, Gracq's novel, with its elaborate, richly detailed prose, will be of greater interest now than at any point in the last twenty years.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eJulien Gracq (the pseudonym of Louis Poirier) was born in 1910 in Saint-le-Vieil. His three other novels have appeared in English as \u003ci\u003eA Dark Stranger, The Castle of Argol, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBalcony in the Forest.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 213\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.82 x 8.21 x 5.4 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 14, 1986\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42724466556991,"sku":"9780231057899","price":79.92,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0105\/8226\/1823\/files\/840bb2a9f28955f2f015fcc66f8931f3.webp?v=1765102763","url":"https:\/\/dhlswag.com\/products\/the-opposing-shore-paperback","provider":"BBB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}