{"product_id":"victims-of-the-book-reading-and-masculinity-in-fin-de-siecle-france-hardback-9781487505479","title":"Victims of the Book; Reading and Masculinity in Fin-de-Siècle France (Hardback) 9781487505479","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eVictims of the Book\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eReading and Masculinity in Fin-de-Siècle France\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eFrancois Proulx (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781487505479\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 8 November 2019\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e408 pages, 7 colour illustrations\u003cbr\u003e23.1 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm, 0.74 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eVictims of the Book\u003c\/em\u003e uncovers a long-neglected but once widespread subgenre: the fin-de-siècle novel of formation in France. In the final decades of the nineteenth century, social commentators insistently characterized excessive reading as an emasculating illness that afflicted French youth. Novels about and geared toward adolescent male readers were imbued with a deep worry over young Frenchmen\u0026amp;#x2019;s masculinity, as evidenced by titles like \u003cem\u003eCrise de jeunesse\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eYouth in Crisis\u003c\/em\u003e, 1897), \u003cem\u003eLa Crise virile\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eCrisis of Virility\u003c\/em\u003e, 1898), \u003cem\u003eLa Vie stérile\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eA Sterile Life\u003c\/em\u003e, 1892), and \u003cem\u003eLa Mortelle Impuissance\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eDeadly Impotence\u003c\/em\u003e, 1903). In this book, François Proulx examines a wide panorama of these novels, as well as polemical essays, pedagogical articles, and medical treatises on the perceived threats posed by young Frenchmen\u0026amp;#x2019;s reading habits. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFin-de-siècle writers responded to this pathologization of reading with a profusion of novels addressed to young male readers, paradoxically proposing their own novels as potential cures. In the early twentieth century, this corpus was critically revisited by a new generation of writers. \u003cem\u003eVictims of the Book\u003c\/em\u003e shows how André Gide and Marcel Proust in particular reworked the fin-de-siècle paradox to subvert cultural norms about literature and masculinity, proposing instead a queer pact between writer and reader.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eList of Illustrations \u003cbr\u003eNote on Translations and Previously Published Material \u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIntroduction: Reading Anxieties  \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePart I: Youth in Crisis \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1. Contagions and Cures \u003cbr\u003e2. Representing the Fin-de-Siècle Reader: Exhaustion, Deviation, Impotence \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePart II: The Three Dangers of Literature \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3. Vallès, the \u003cem\u003eDéclassé\u003c\/em\u003e, and the Pitfalls of Education \u003cbr\u003e4. Bourget, the Chambige Affair, and the Queer Seductions of the Novel \u003cbr\u003e5. Barrès and the Ghosts of Balzacian Ambition \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePart III: Forming the Reader \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6. Martin du Gard, Tinan, and the Uses of Irony \u003cbr\u003e7. Gide and the Novel as Formation \u003cbr\u003e8. Proust and the Fantasy of Readerly Recognition \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEpilogue: The Afterlives of Bad Masters \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eBibliography \u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Toronto Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52595470532888,"sku":"9781487505479","price":48.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/victims-of-the-book-reading-and-masculinity-in-fin-de-siecle-france-hardback-9781487505479","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}