The Great Fire of London: A Story with Interpolations and BifurcationsPart novel and part autobiography, The Great Fire of London is one of the great literary undertakings of the last fifty years. At various times exasperating, daunting, moving, dazzling, and challenging, it has its origins in Jacques Roubaud's attempt to come to terms with the death of his young wife Alix, whose presence both haunts and gives meaning to every page. Having failed to write his intended novel ("The Great Fire of London"), instead he creates a book that is about that failure, but in the process opens up the world of the creative process, which is at once an attempt to bring order to his ravaged personal life and to construct an intricate literary project that functions according to strict rules, one of them being the palindrome. |
From inside the book
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Page 11
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Contents
The Chain | 33 |
Prae | 55 |
Portrait of the Absent Artist | 88 |
Dream Decision Project | 108 |
Nothing Doing in London | 175 |
from Chapter 1 | 195 |
from Chapter 2 | 205 |
from Chapter 3 | 212 |
from Chapter 5 | 241 |
from Chapter 6 | 263 |
Ornamental Hermit | 279 |
A Boston Romance | 292 |
Fifteen Minutes at Night | 304 |
Night | 316 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alix already Arte Mayor assertion axiom azarole bifurcation black lines branch chapter color completed constraints croissants cypresses dark decasyllables decision deduction double doubt dream elucidation English everything example existence eyes fact father fiction Fire of London fragments French gaze gray hermit imagine interpolation intertwining Jacques Roubaud Jean-Pierre Faye jelly Kamo no Chōmei lamp language least light Louise mathematics meaning memory mirror morning mystery narrative nature never night notebook novel numbers obscure once Oulipo P. D. James palindrome paper passion path perhaps photograph picture poem poetry possible present Project prose Prose Lancelot Provençal reader reading recollection recounted riddle Ronsasvals Roubaud Rue des Francs-Bourgeois scrubland sense shadow silence solitude sonnets sort story style swimming tell three clear things tion translation trees troubadours turn verse walking wall window words writing written