Alfred Jarry: A Pataphysical Life (The MIT Press)

New
Paperback
2015
$65.13

This long-awaited biography of Alfred Jarry reconstructs a life both ubuesque and pataphysical. When Alfred Jarry died in 1907 at the age of thirty-four, he was a legendary figure in Paris-but this had more to do with his bohemian lifestyle and scandalous behavior than his literary achievements. A century later, Jarry is firmly established as one of the leading figures of the artistic avant-garde. Even so, most people today tend to think of Alfred Jarry only as the author of the play Ubu Roi, and of his life as a string of outlandish ubuesque anecdotes, often recounted with wild inaccuracy. In this first full-length critical biography of Jarry in English, Alastair Brotchie reconstructs the life of a man intent on inventing (and destroying) himself, not to mention his world, and the philosophy that defined their relation. Brotchie alternates chapters of biographical narrative with chapters that connect themes, obsessions, and undercurrents that relate to the life. The anecdotes remain, and are even augmented: Jarry's assumption of the ubuesque, his inversions of everyday behavior (such as eating backward, from cheese to soup), his exploits with gun and bicycle, and his herculean feats of drinking. But Brotchie distinguishes between Jarry's purposely playing the fool and deeper nonconformities that appear essential to his writing and his thought, both of which remain a vital subterranean influence to this day.

Synopsis

This long-awaited biography of Alfred Jarry reconstructs a life both ubuesque and pataphysical. When Alfred Jarry died in 1907 at the age of thirty-four, he was a legendary figure in Paris-but this had more to do with his bohemian lifestyle and scandalous behavior than his literary achievements. A century later, Jarry is firmly established as one of the leading figures of the artistic avant-garde. Even so, most people today tend to think of Alfred Jarry only as the author of the play Ubu Roi, and of his life as a string of outlandish ubuesque anecdotes, often recounted with wild inaccuracy. In this first full-length critical biography of Jarry in English, Alastair Brotchie reconstructs the life of a man intent on inventing (and destroying) himself, not to mention his world, and the philosophy that defined their relation. Brotchie alternates chapters of biographical narrative with chapters that connect themes, obsessions, and undercurrents that relate to the life. The anecdotes remain, and are even augmented: Jarry's assumption of the ubuesque, his inversions of everyday behavior (such as eating backward, from cheese to soup), his exploits with gun and bicycle, and his herculean feats of drinking. But Brotchie distinguishes between Jarry's purposely playing the fool and deeper nonconformities that appear essential to his writing and his thought, both of which remain a vital subterranean influence to this day.

$65.13

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 424
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 02 Oct 2015
ISBN 10: 0262528436
ISBN 13: 9780262528436
Book Overview: Who was Alfred Jarry really? And how did this angry young man from the provinces come to invent pataphysics and to write the revolutionary drama Ubu Roi? In this, the first full-length biography of Jarry in English, Alastair Brotchie, himself a central figure in the 'Coll ege de 'Pataphysique' and scholar of the avant-garde, gives us a richly documented, beautifully illustrated, and intimate portrait of the complex personality behind the Ubu masks. I found it a real page-turner. -- Marjorie Perloff, author of The Futurist Moment and Unoriginal Genius Alastair Brotchie has achieved something very rare. In giving us the first detailed account of Jarry's life, he shares a lot of discoveries and unknown documents but avoids reducing the life to a collection of biographical or archival facts. Indeed, he makes us feel, think, act, see, and almost speak in connivance with this delicate and strange monster, Alfred Jarry. -- Thieri Foulc, cofounder of the Oupeinpo and Provediteur-Editeur General of the College de 'Pataphysique Aficionados of Alfred Jarry's writings will welcome this urgently necessary life of the inventor of 'Pataphysics, that mad and minor science of imaginary solutions. Alastair Brotchie's biography fills an enormous gap in our understanding not only of Jarry's complex life but of the tangled sociocultural networks of tastes and antipathies that constructed the Banquet Years. Impeccably researched, masterfully written, and profusely illustrated, Alfred Jarry: A Pataphysical Life is guaranteed to broaden and deepen Anglophone interest in Jarry (whom Cyril Connolly dubbed the Santa Claus of the atomic age) and 'Pataphysics alike. -- Steve McCaffery, David Gray Chair Professor of Poetry and Letters, University at Buffalo, coeditor of Imagining Language: An Anthology

Media Reviews

That Jarry comes across as both more and less than we might expect from his reputation and his writings is a result of Brotchie so resolutely and expertly keeping his eye on the available facts and not allowing himself to wander into speculation and hero-worship. -William Bamberger, Rain Taxi
Alfred Jarry provides many new facts, some pertinent analyses, and a clutch of outrageously amusing yarns. -Mark Polizzotti, Bookforum * Reviews *
Alastair Brotchie brilliantly evokes the avant-garde artistic movements of fin-de-siecle Paris in all their glittering grubbiness. -Charlotte Keith, Varsity * Reviews *
Alfred Jarry: A Pataphysical Life by Alastair Brotchie is a superb chronicle of the life and times of the fin-de-siecle French writer. -Times Literary Supplement - (Book of the Year 2011) * Reviews *
An enthralling, scrupulously researched, and elegantly written biography. -Mark Ford, The New York Review of Books * Reviews *
[Brotchie] gives us an unmatched and vivid picture of the belle epoque's avant-garde, of which Jarry was an important, original part. -Michael Moorcock, The Guardian * Reviews *
...[Brotchie's] tone is clear and informed, rooted in a familiarity with Jarry that has something quite personal about it, which is all for the good. -Allan Graubard, Leonardo On-Line * Reviews *
Brotchie's archival work and translations are meticulous...Highly recommended.-M. Gaddis Rose -Choice * Reviews *
[Brotchie] skilfully moves between providing a relatively straightforward and sympathetic account of the writer's life and critically sorting through the narratives that have sustained and shaped the long-standing image of Jarry... Brotchie's refusal to mythologise stands as the book's greatest strength, and as a fitting testament to the manifold complexity of Alfred Jarry. -Karl Whitney, 3:AM Magazine * Reviews *
How a schoolboy caricature evolved into Jarry's best-known creation, his monstrous 'every-man', Pere Ubu, is a fascinating story which Brotchie tells with impressive scholarship, sympathy and wit. -Peter Blegvad, The Spectator * Reviews *
Brotchie's painstaking and drily funny biography is now the most ample account of Jarry and his importance that is available in our language; it is unlikely ever to be bettered. -Kevin Jackson, The Literary Review * Reviews *
That Jarry comes across as both more and less than we might expect from his reputation and his writings is a result of Brotchie so resolutely and expertly keeping his eye on the available facts and not allowing himself to wander into speculation and hero-worship. -William Bamberger, Rain Taxi * Reviews *

Author Bio

Alastair Brotchie is a founder of the London publishing house Atlas Press, a Regent of the College de 'Pataphysique in Paris, and the editor of books and anthologies on Surrealism, Dada, and the Oulipo.