The plague

Thanks for the information and tips, VS. I was able to taste Olivier Rivire's wines in Valaire a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, all so young.

Octavine (2 Impasse du Bureau, 75011 Paris) has some old (1970s) bottles of Via Tondonia.
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I found that on Wine Searcher a few months ago and excitedly made a beeline to that address. Interestingly enough, it was a regular apartment building and there was no wine business of any kind. I have no idea who they are or why they appear to be a store or other wine concern. Curious.
 
Any suggestions on recommended English translations would be appreciated.
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I only know the one American translation. Except for its translation of the title, it's OK. Camus' French can be read with a couple of years of high school French, for the most part, so translating him isn't that difficult. It's just the title I was objecting to in the American translation. I believe there's a UK translation that renders the title "The Outsider." I think that's better, though not exact. Titles of works of art are notoriously difficult as they frequently press on the multiple meanings of words.
 
Georges Five is the best bistrot for wine geeks in Lyon (or maybe in France, with Le Baratin), and their little shop nearby, Antic Wine, has some incredible things, in addition to being Dirk Niepoort's unofficial embassy in France.

Luis Gutirrez (in Spanish) on Georges dos Santos and his Georges Five:

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elmundovino.elmundo.es
 
Jonathan, I don't know why you object to the title The Stranger, but then again, I haven't read Camus in ages.

I tend to agree with Mark Lipton (what else is new?), and am reminded sometimes of Michel Butor's description of Thomas Mann: that the ideology in his novels "dpasse en des hernies disgracieuses" sticks out like ungainly hernias.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Jonathan, I don't know why you object to the title The Stranger, but then again, I haven't read Camus in ages.

I tend to agree with Mark Lipton (what else is new?), and am reminded sometimes of Michel Butor's description of Thomas Mann: that the ideology in his novels "dpasse en des hernies disgracieuses" sticks out like ungainly hernias.
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I don't think the title refers to Meursault's either being in some sense unknown and from somewhere else to his society, which is what the word means usually in English. I don't even think it means he's strange as in bizarre, though he is that. It means he's an outsider, an alien, someone who doesn't belong, a foreigner psychologically. When I first read the book in English, I genuinely didn't understand the title for that reason.

I agreed with Mark about La Peste as well. But it's an allegory and allegories are virtually by definition insistent on their meanings or they'd be indecipherable. I like Thomas Mann too, though if Butor was speaking of Doctor Faustus (I don't know the quote), then I might agree.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

I don't think the title refers to Meursault's either being in some sense unknown and from somewhere else to his society, which is what the word means usually in English. I don't even think it means he's strange as in bizarre, though he is that. It means he's an outsider, an alien, someone who doesn't belong, a foreigner psychologically. When I first read the book in English, I genuinely didn't understand the title for that reason.

I agreed with Mark about La Peste as well. But it's an allegory and allegories are virtually by definition insistent on their meanings or they'd be indecipherable. I like Thomas Mann too, though if Butor was speaking of Doctor Faustus (I don't know the quote), then I might agree.
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+1 (both paragraphs)
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Jonathan, I don't know why you object to the title The Stranger, but then again, I haven't read Camus in ages.

I tend to agree with Mark Lipton (what else is new?), and am reminded sometimes of Michel Butor's description of Thomas Mann: that the ideology in his novels "dpasse en des hernies disgracieuses" sticks out like ungainly hernias.
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I don't think the title refers to Meursault's either being in some sense unknown and from somewhere else to his society, which is what the word means usually in English. I don't even think it means he's strange as in bizarre, though he is that. It means he's an outsider, an alien, someone who doesn't belong, a foreigner psychologically. When I first read the book in English, I genuinely didn't understand the title for that reason.

I agreed with Mark about La Peste as well. But it's an allegory and allegories are virtually by definition insistent on their meanings or they'd be indecipherable. I like Thomas Mann too, though if Butor was speaking of Doctor Faustus (I don't know the quote), then I might agree.
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How about "The Estranged" or "The Estranged One" for an alternate title?
 
How about "The Estranged" or "The Estranged One" for an alternate title?
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I guess and it's a cognate, but it's sort of like translating una furtiva lagrima as one furtive lagrimation or la dame e mobile qual piuma al vento as dames are mobile like plumes in ventilators.
 
originally posted by MLipton:
The Plague is, on balance, my preferred Camus novel: his penchant for didactic prose is kept to a minimum there, IMO. Even there, though, the allegory is rather heavy-handed, though that problem may lie more with the translator (they're a shifty lot, I hear). I would feel greater sympathy re your vinous isolation were it not for my existence here in vinous No Man's Land (though I did just spot bottles of the '06 Drouhin Chorey, a wine that impressed us greatly over Xmas, for sale at a local retailer's).

Best of luck on your quest,
Mark Lipton
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To this point, I happened to be reading with dinner tonight letters of Saul Bellow published in a very recent New Yorker article.

There's a letter to Philip Roth, noting that a short story manuscript Roth had sent Bellow was well-written but a bit idea heavy.

Bellow writes about the manuscript, "A company of Japanese comitting hari-kari, though, I wasn't sure. A great idea, but palpably IDEA. I have a thing about IDEAS in stories. Camus's "The Plague was an IDEA. Good or bad? Not so hot, in my opinion."

The letter to Faulkner about Ezra Pound is great as is the response to Malamud about The Adventures of Augie March.
 
originally posted by scottreiner:
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
Take the train to Lyon. My wife was just there and enjoyed this place: http://www.georgesfive.com/.
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Wow, great list! I'd heard good things about the wine store that is affiliated with them, as well. Time to head back to Lyon.
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mother fu**er, that is a great list!!!
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Holy crap. Mugnier Marechal blanc. Damn.
 
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