I read it this summer and is a novice to Flaubert, coming from a historical fiction/fantasy background, and had heard that several of the biggest names in Sword & Sorcery were inspired by it: I now clearly see how incredible detailed settings driping of decadence and brutality and his prose must have been a clear inspiration for Clark Ashton-Smith and HP Lovecraft! Salammbo straddling the line between damsel in distress and femme fatale, and Mercenary Duo of the big and physical strong (but also prone to great passion and distress) “Barbarian” Matho the Libyan and the willy and “entrepreneurial” Jack of all trades Spendius, could have come straight from a Sword & Sorcery story! In fact, Spendius might be the “ur-rogue”, as Fritz Leiber mentions Spendius specifically as an inspiration, along with Loki and Peer Gynt, for his own “the Grey Mouser” (of “Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser” fame, another great Barbarian & Rogue Duo, highly influential on D&D!) Being written in the 1860s, at a time when France had colonies across much of Northwestern Africa, was ruled by Emperor Napoleon III and had a legacy of both revolutionary republicanism and dynastic imperialism, I can not help but read the multinational army of Napoleon I, the French Foreign Legion and the then recent Sepoy rebellion in India against the British Empire into the Mercenary Revolt. And also compare the returning Hamilcar and his infant Hannibal to Napoleon III and his uncle Napoleon I return from Elba, and the scene of the ritual sacrifice with the guillotining of French Nobles during the French Revolution. Love the illustration by Alfons Mucha and the ritual sacrifice scene must also have been a huge inspiration for the Underground Factory scenes of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”!
I don't know about HPL so much but I definitely kept thinking Clark Ashton Smith knew this book when I was first reading him a few years ago, and this time through I'm pretty certain as well...great book whatever!
I had a weird, indirect introduction to this book when I was ten years old. I'd borrowed a pile of old comics from an adult friend of the family, and tucked in with them were a couple of 1970's Heavy Metal magazines. One of which included part of Philippe Druillet's sci-fi comic adaptation of Salammbo. It blew my mind: the episode showed the Carthagian delegation in the offal pit (very disgusting), and Spendius and Matho sneaking into the city at night (very beautiful). Year later when I read the real thing I realised the novel was even stranger than the adaptation.
Thank you for this channel. I am reading Vineland at this moment thanks to your recommendation. The way you talked about it and read from it made me go back and try again.
Salammbô is a monument of poetic prose. The writing in French is absolutely gorgeous. In fact it opens with the most beautiful sentence of all French literature and in French school is quoted up there with Pascal as a master of poetic prose. Flaubert was the contemporary of Baudelaire and both wanted to overcome romanticism and get rid of the hegemony of Victor Hugo on the French letters. I think they've been greatly successful.
@@Scottmbradfield Thanks. I'm French BTW. English language reviewers help me find or rediscover Anglo writers that I read in French translation before Amazon and the Internet.
I've read Salambo many years ago and I have only vague recollections of it, vague yet vivid, if that makes sense - the strange mix of impressionism and decadence filtered through (probably very self-aware) period orientalism (again - if that makes sense) has stayed with me. I share Your enthusiasm for Flaubert, but one thing puzzles me a bit - I have seen many of Your videos where You speak about Flaubert and his work, but I'd swear I've never heard You mention his last - unfinished - novel 'Bouvard and Pécuchet'... Flaubert spent many years gathering material for it and did not manage to finish it, yet... it is perfect as a fragment, a(n) (in)complete encyclopedic mockery - well, that's not the right word - encyclopedic vivisection of the 19th century as a whole, as a paradigm, as a comedy. All the self-indulgent quackery and faux-certainty of period science, all the soppy-stern hierarchical nonsense of society, religion, architecture... everything laid bare and poked with a stick, making funny noises. One of those books that grow in you in time and serve as an unseen template for The Great Puzzle...
Interesting, yeah, I'm rereading Bouvard and Pecuchet now, maybe not in the right mood for it; but it is pretty funny. One thing I like about Flaubert is how different each of his books is from each other...Thanks for splashing by! s
pretty sure Cyril Connolly said it was utterly unreadable. he is, as you know, up there with Nabokov and Tolstoy for me, but wow this one is custard on top of mustard. really tried. failed. gonna try again--just for you, scottyboy! hahah.
I'm a fellow Flaubert fan. I agree with you about Salammbo. It's an extraordinary work although you have to be a bit psycho to love it (it was one of Gabriele d'Annunzio's favorite novels). What's your view of A Sentimental Education? I didn't like it.
I read it this summer and is a novice to Flaubert, coming from a historical fiction/fantasy background, and had heard that several of the biggest names in Sword & Sorcery were inspired by it: I now clearly see how incredible detailed settings driping of decadence and brutality and his prose must have been a clear inspiration for Clark Ashton-Smith and HP Lovecraft! Salammbo straddling the line between damsel in distress and femme fatale, and Mercenary Duo of the big and physical strong (but also prone to great passion and distress) “Barbarian” Matho the Libyan and the willy and “entrepreneurial” Jack of all trades Spendius, could have come straight from a Sword & Sorcery story! In fact, Spendius might be the “ur-rogue”, as Fritz Leiber mentions Spendius specifically as an inspiration, along with Loki and Peer Gynt, for his own “the Grey Mouser” (of “Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser” fame, another great Barbarian & Rogue Duo, highly influential on D&D!)
Being written in the 1860s, at a time when France had colonies across much of Northwestern Africa, was ruled by Emperor Napoleon III and had a legacy of both revolutionary republicanism and dynastic imperialism, I can not help but read the multinational army of Napoleon I, the French Foreign Legion and the then recent Sepoy rebellion in India against the British Empire into the Mercenary Revolt. And also compare the returning Hamilcar and his infant Hannibal to Napoleon III and his uncle Napoleon I return from Elba, and the scene of the ritual sacrifice with the guillotining of French Nobles during the French Revolution. Love the illustration by Alfons Mucha and the ritual sacrifice scene must also have been a huge inspiration for the Underground Factory scenes of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”!
I don't know about HPL so much but I definitely kept thinking Clark Ashton Smith knew this book when I was first reading him a few years ago, and this time through I'm pretty certain as well...great book whatever!
I had a weird, indirect introduction to this book when I was ten years old. I'd borrowed a pile of old comics from an adult friend of the family, and tucked in with them were a couple of 1970's Heavy Metal magazines. One of which included part of Philippe Druillet's sci-fi comic adaptation of Salammbo. It blew my mind: the episode showed the Carthagian delegation in the offal pit (very disgusting), and Spendius and Matho sneaking into the city at night (very beautiful). Year later when I read the real thing I realised the novel was even stranger than the adaptation.
That is weird. Mainly because it sounds like it would work. There are some really horribly beautiful and beautifully horrible scenes throughout! S
Thank you for this channel. I am reading Vineland at this moment thanks to your recommendation. The way you talked about it and read from it made me go back and try again.
Thanks for joining us in the tub! Splash by any time! (I love VINELAND.) s
Salammbô is a monument of poetic prose. The writing in French is absolutely gorgeous. In fact it opens with the most beautiful sentence of all French literature and in French school is quoted up there with Pascal as a master of poetic prose. Flaubert was the contemporary of Baudelaire and both wanted to overcome romanticism and get rid of the hegemony of Victor Hugo on the French letters. I think they've been greatly successful.
It's a pretty amazing piece of visual and sensory description! I love (and Flaubert loved) Baudelaire as well! Welcome to the bathtub, Blue Dusk!
@@Scottmbradfield Thanks. I'm French BTW. English language reviewers help me find or rediscover Anglo writers that I read in French translation before Amazon and the Internet.
Great! Gives me a chance to say it again-Bienvenue dans la baignoire! s
I've read Salambo many years ago and I have only vague recollections of it, vague yet vivid, if that makes sense - the strange mix of impressionism and decadence filtered through (probably very self-aware) period orientalism (again - if that makes sense) has stayed with me.
I share Your enthusiasm for Flaubert, but one thing puzzles me a bit - I have seen many of Your videos where You speak about Flaubert and his work, but I'd swear I've never heard You mention his last - unfinished - novel 'Bouvard and Pécuchet'... Flaubert spent many years gathering material for it and did not manage to finish it, yet... it is perfect as a fragment, a(n) (in)complete encyclopedic mockery - well, that's not the right word - encyclopedic vivisection of the 19th century as a whole, as a paradigm, as a comedy. All the self-indulgent quackery and faux-certainty of period science, all the soppy-stern hierarchical nonsense of society, religion, architecture... everything laid bare and poked with a stick, making funny noises. One of those books that grow in you in time and serve as an unseen template for The Great Puzzle...
Interesting, yeah, I'm rereading Bouvard and Pecuchet now, maybe not in the right mood for it; but it is pretty funny. One thing I like about Flaubert is how different each of his books is from each other...Thanks for splashing by! s
pretty sure Cyril Connolly said it was utterly unreadable. he is, as you know, up there with Nabokov and Tolstoy for me, but wow this one is custard on top of mustard. really tried. failed. gonna try again--just for you, scottyboy! hahah.
Cyril Connolly can bite my ass! I don't know if it's your cup of tea, pretty exotic and weird, but you like Peake so maybe...
I'm a fellow Flaubert fan. I agree with you about Salammbo. It's an extraordinary work although you have to be a bit psycho to love it (it was one of Gabriele d'Annunzio's favorite novels).
What's your view of A Sentimental Education? I didn't like it.