Heartsnatcher - Paperback
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Heartsnatcher by Boris Vian - A Darkly Comic French Masterpiece
Set in a bizarre and slightly sinister town where the elderly are auctioned off at an Old Folks Fair, the townspeople assail the priest in hopes of making it rain, and the official town scapegoat bears the shame of the citizens by fishing junk out of the river with his teeth.
Heartsnatcher is both Boris Vian's most playful and most serious work. The main character is Clementine, a mother who punishes her husband for causing her the excruciating pain of giving birth to three babies. As they age, she becomes increasingly obsessed with protecting them, going so far as to build an invisible wall around their property.
About This French Literary Classic
This translated edition captures Vian's unique blend of dark humor, surrealist imagery, and social commentary. The narrative follows Clementine's descent into maternal obsession within a grotesque yet compelling fictional world. Vian constructs a society where absurdity reigns—from elderly auctions to ritualistic scapegoating—creating a backdrop that amplifies the psychological intensity of the central family drama.
The novel explores themes of maternal love taken to disturbing extremes, marital discord, and the construction of psychological and physical barriers. Vian's experimental narrative style combines satirical social critique with deeply human emotional struggles, making Heartsnatcher a significant work in 20th-century French literature.
Boris Vian (1920-1959) was an engineer, inventor, jazz trumpeter, actor, recording artist, and prolific writer. His multifaceted career informed his distinctive literary voice, blending technical precision with artistic experimentation.
Translation and Editorial Team
Stanley Chapman (1925-2009) was a British architect, designer, writer, and translator, most notably of Vian (Mood Indigo) and Raymond Queneau. He was the founder of Outrapo and a member of Oulipo, the College de 'Pataphysique (of which Vian was also a member), and the Lewis Carroll Society.
Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) is acknowledged as one of the most influential of modern French writers, having helped determine the shape of twentieth-century French literature, especially in his role with the Oulipo, a group of authors that includes Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, and Harry Mathews, among others.
John Sturrock is a literary journalist, sometimes deputy editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and consulting editor at the London Review of Books. He has written widely on French literature, and is an accomplished translator.
Published by Dalkey Archive Press, this paperback edition makes Vian's challenging and rewarding work accessible to English-speaking readers interested in experimental European fiction.
Contributor(s)
Boris Vian, Stanley Chapman (Translator), Raymond Queneau (Foreword by)
Author
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Heartsnatcher by Boris Vian - A Darkly Comic French Masterpiece
Set in a bizarre and slightly sinister town where the elderly are auctioned off at an Old Folks Fair, the townspeople assail the priest in hopes of making it rain, and the official town scapegoat bears the shame of the citizens by fishing junk out of the river with his teeth.
Heartsnatcher is both Boris Vian's most playful and most serious work. The main character is Clementine, a mother who punishes her husband for causing her the excruciating pain of giving birth to three babies. As they age, she becomes increasingly obsessed with protecting them, going so far as to build an invisible wall around their property.
About This French Literary Classic
This translated edition captures Vian's unique blend of dark humor, surrealist imagery, and social commentary. The narrative follows Clementine's descent into maternal obsession within a grotesque yet compelling fictional world. Vian constructs a society where absurdity reigns—from elderly auctions to ritualistic scapegoating—creating a backdrop that amplifies the psychological intensity of the central family drama.
The novel explores themes of maternal love taken to disturbing extremes, marital discord, and the construction of psychological and physical barriers. Vian's experimental narrative style combines satirical social critique with deeply human emotional struggles, making Heartsnatcher a significant work in 20th-century French literature.
Boris Vian (1920-1959) was an engineer, inventor, jazz trumpeter, actor, recording artist, and prolific writer. His multifaceted career informed his distinctive literary voice, blending technical precision with artistic experimentation.
Translation and Editorial Team
Stanley Chapman (1925-2009) was a British architect, designer, writer, and translator, most notably of Vian (Mood Indigo) and Raymond Queneau. He was the founder of Outrapo and a member of Oulipo, the College de 'Pataphysique (of which Vian was also a member), and the Lewis Carroll Society.
Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) is acknowledged as one of the most influential of modern French writers, having helped determine the shape of twentieth-century French literature, especially in his role with the Oulipo, a group of authors that includes Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, and Harry Mathews, among others.
John Sturrock is a literary journalist, sometimes deputy editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and consulting editor at the London Review of Books. He has written widely on French literature, and is an accomplished translator.
Published by Dalkey Archive Press, this paperback edition makes Vian's challenging and rewarding work accessible to English-speaking readers interested in experimental European fiction.
Contributor(s)
Boris Vian, Stanley Chapman (Translator), Raymond Queneau (Foreword by)
Author