Albucius by Pascal Quignard

Rome, 69 B.C. The Empire was at its summit, but pregnant with its own unwinding and destruction. In this year Caius Albucius is born: patrician, maker of unrest, agitator of the Latin language, privileged outsider, student of the sordid - a storyteller as magical and violent as Ovid, but more weary from the world's damage. The omnipresent theme is defilement and sordidness, but in their most expansive and, therefore, contradictory aspects. It is a vision that sees crystalline virtue completely bound up with the darkest brutality - a cascade of storytelling, and a combustion of language marked by the brilliance conferred by complete surrender. Our edition of Albucius is of large format, with exceptional tinted plates and illustrations throughout. Translated by Bruce Boone.

Published by The Lapis Press, Venice, California, 1992, 198 pages, 11 1/8 in. x 8 in., hardcover

ISBN: 0932499694