The Thief's Journal - Softcover

Genet, Jean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802128270 ISBN 13: 9780802128270

Publisher: Grove Press, 2018

Synopsis

First published in France in 1949, The Thief’s Journal is Jean Genet’s iconic work of autobiographical fiction. This new edition brings his legendary genius to future generations of readers, with an introduction by Genet’s great admirer, Patti Smith.

From a prison cell, the journal’s narrator recounts his travels across Europe in the 1930s―as a vagabond, pickpocket, and occasional prostitute―in pursuit of spiritual fulfilment through erotic trysts and evil deeds. Worshipping his own holy trinity of homosexuality, theft, and betrayal, he conducts every burglary, and each sexual encounter, with the elaborate, reverent ritual of a religious ceremony. Dressed in rags and stealing for his survival, he must evade the authorities for as long as possible.

A sensuous and philosophical reverie on freedom within confinement, the heroism of the outlaw, and deception as the ultimate act of devotion, The Thief’s Journal exemplifies the exquisitely lyrical combination of fact and fiction that made Genet a major figure in world literature.

About this title

About the Author:

Jean Genet (1910 – 1986) was “a pioneering author of confessional novels and a dramatist of the first magnitude” (New York Times). His many books include Our Lady of the Flowers, Querelle, The Miracle of the Rose, Funeral Rites, The Balcony, The Maids and Deathwatch, The Blacks, and The Screens.

Review:

PRAISE FOR THE THIEF’S JOURNAL

“One of the strongest and most vital accounts of a life ever set down on paper . . . Genet has dramatized the story of his own life with a power and vision which take the breath away . . . [he is] one of the most daring literary figures of all time.” ―New York Post

“Genet is one of those creatures who sum up or express the potentialities of an entire species or form even as its life is passing from it . . . one of the most striking things about Genet’s work, and especially The Thief’s Journal, is the consciousness with which it is suffused.” ―Steven Marcus, New York Review of Books

“Only a handful of twentieth-century writers, such as Kafka and Proust, have as important, as authoritative, as irrevocable a voice and style.” ―Susan Sontag

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0802128270
• ISBN 13: 9780802128270
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272