Caribbean Winter by Paul Morand Mary Gallagher

Abstract

 Reviews addition, it determines the ways in which Ovid fashioned his narrative with a view to shaping and controlling later interpretation, also tracing critical developments in the practice of life writing. e second chapter examines the characterization of Ovid in a range of materials prefacing translations of his poetry. Much of this writing focuses on the stylistic features promoted by respective translators, and Taylor traces how, throughout the seventeenth century, the figure of Ovid grew increasingly synonymous with innovation. In the third chapter Taylor turns to the histoire galante, taking stock of fictional narratives of Ovid’s life to show how his love poetry earned him the especial attention of female authors; she also demonstrates that Ovid’s status as an exiled poet allowed writers, through the retelling and reimagining of his story, to question courtly power dynamics. Exile remains a prominent theme in the fourth chapter, where Taylor determines how the works of exiled authors éophile de Viau and Bussy-Rabutin draw parallels with tales of Ovid’s own life, with the ultimate aim of gaining the respect and validation of their readership. e final chapter analyses Pierre Bayle’s entry on Ovid in the , , and  editions of the Dictionnaire historique et critique. It discusses Bayle’s identification of the errors ubiquitous in previous narratives of Ovid’s life, leading finally to a perceptive assessment of contemporary thoughts on the distinction between fact and fiction, imagination and reality. Two key paradoxes are at the heart of each chapter. First, despite being a classical writer, Ovid became an increasingly crucial figure for negotiating questions of modernity; second, although Ovid’s work was employed to elevate court culture, his status as an exile pushed contemporary readers and writers to use his writings to evaluate and interrogate royal power. In this volume, Taylor establishes an innovative approach to understanding seventeenth-century literature and culture, testifying also to the utmost relevance of research into cultural ‘quarrels’, classical reception, and life writing: a true academic feat, and one which will surely long be appreciated by readers. S B’ H, O L R Caribbean Winter. By P M. Trans. and intro. by M G. Oxford: Signal. .  pp. £.. ISBN ––––. Paul Morand has had to travel a long hard road to rehabilitation. e modernist Wunderkind launched by Marcel Proust seemed fatally compromised by his friendship with Pierre Laval and service as Vichy ambassador to Bucharest and Bern. However, at the third attempt, Morand finally became an Immortel, significantly in May , during the twilight of his nemesis, Charles de Gaulle. Posthumously, his stupendous output (over a hundred books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction) has been republished and reassessed. In his  preface to Morand’s New York (), Philippe Sollers described Morand as one of the three greatest French writers of the twentieth century, alongside Proust and another sulphurous contemporary, LouisFerdinand Céline. Morand has also made a return to English-language publishing, notably through Euan Cameron’s translations for Pushkin Press. However, as Mary MLR, .,   Gallagher argues in her introduction, the works chosen have been those oriented towards the Anglo-Saxon world. is justifies Gallagher’s translation of Hiver caraïbe,whichgivesusasenseofMorandasindefatigablecosmopolitanglobetrotter. First published in , Caribbean Winter remassages notes from two journeys to the Caribbean and America made two years before. With Morand we cross the Atlantic: ‘Flying fish. e ship slows down, inching forward in a gelatinous light that is occasionally broken by a dorsal flash of shark. e walls of my cabin creak like a stove over-filled with fuel’ (p. ). We land at Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, and very soon may be made uncomfortable by Morand’s outlook: ‘It is quite obvious that all the Negroes here have the vote. ey are wearing the stony, hostile and malevolent expressions of people set to nurse their bad humour for another four years’ (p. ). ere follow Port of Spain, Venezuela, Curaçao, Haiti, Cuba, then a magnificent coda devoted to Mexico and southern California. In his elliptical and allusive style, Morand remarks on people, politics, landscape, literature, and art. Morand is obsessed with racial and national difference, and the Caribbean crucible is a perfect environment for him to explore. What haunts him is...