The Battle of Pharsalus (Masterplots II: World Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Claude Simon
- First Published: 1969
- Type of Work: Antistory
- Time of Work: The present, the recent past, and the ancient past
- Setting: A sidewalk cafe in Paris, a train traveling through Europe, and a small Greek village
- Principal Characters: O., Uncle Charles, Odette, O.’s Lover
- Genres: Long fiction, Antistory
- Subjects: 1960’s, Sex or sexuality, Paris, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, War, Painting or painters, Trains, Greek or Roman times, Time, Greece or Greek people
- Locales: Paris, France, Greece
The Novel
The Battle of Pharsalus is not an easy novel to read. It has no linear plot, but rather presents a set of images or basic scenes that constantly recur. In these repetitions sometimes the elements are the same, but more often they shift, reassemble themselves, or have additional material in them. In these ways, Claude Simon forces the reader to participate actively in the reading of this novel.
Although the book is divided into three basic sections, it is not until the second section that Simon clarifies the elemental scenes reiterated throughout...
[The entire page is 2022 words long]
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