MARION BOYARS MODERN CLASSICS

'He is a man who has persistently and brilliantly rewritten Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in a manner which has nothing to do with psychology and everything to do with mystery. He is the apostle of the lives we have chosen not to live Cortázar keeps our ghosts alive, and we need him.’ New York Times Book Review

Cortázar’s stories are like small time pieces, where each polished part moves relentlessly on its own particular path, exercising a crucial and perpetual influence on the mechanism as a whole. Moments jerk forward and retract, reflect and refract: an island at noon from an aeroplane – an aeroplane at noon from an island; the living deceiving the dying and also themselves, about death; fatality by fire in an ancient Roman arena and in a modern city apartment. It is a world that is constantly shifting, upsetting our balance and our peace of mind, a world outside of time that provokes a fascination bordering on terror. Cortázar is the master of the form and this celebrated collection houses some of his finest work.

Julio Cortázar, an Argentinian, was born in Brussels in 1914 and lived and worked in Paris from 1952 until his death in 1984. He first captivated the English-speaking world through Antonioni’s film Blow Up. Although he was best known as a novelist and short story writer, he was also a poet, a translator and an enthusiastic amateur musician.

Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0-7145-3400-5
Fiction
£8.95