A Table of Green Fields includes ten stories, variously about the painter Henry Scott Tuke, the mathematician James Joseph Sylvester, Kafka, Thoreau, along with some imaginary Frenchmen and Scandinavians, among others. Calculating the infinite in the finite, tracing geometries of desire, placing the obdurate world in an uncustomary light, each of these stories opens out its own world. Without giving up the plot or character of the traditional short story, Guy Davenport's inventions are complex events in which ideas and ...
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A Table of Green Fields includes ten stories, variously about the painter Henry Scott Tuke, the mathematician James Joseph Sylvester, Kafka, Thoreau, along with some imaginary Frenchmen and Scandinavians, among others. Calculating the infinite in the finite, tracing geometries of desire, placing the obdurate world in an uncustomary light, each of these stories opens out its own world. Without giving up the plot or character of the traditional short story, Guy Davenport's inventions are complex events in which ideas and cultural history are a kind of music to which the characters dance. Despite the fractal, syncopated collage of his narrative style, Davenport's prose is objective, terse, and transparent. A constant theme in this book is the transmission of the past as an imaginative act; hence the title, Falstaff's dying vision of "a table of green fields," probably a mishearing of his recitation of the Twenty-third Psalm, corrected by editors to "he babbled of green fields," a symbol of all fiction, an art that must be exact about the uncertain.
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Seller's Description:
Fair. The cover has visible markings and wear. Some corner dings. The dust jacket shows normal wear and tear. The pages show normal wear and tear. There is a signature or handwriting on the inside front cover. There is writing discoloration or markings on the edges of the pages. Codes or product keys that accompany this product may not be valid. Fast Shipping in a Standard Poly Mailer!
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. New Directions, New York, 1993. First edition. First printing. A fine copy in a fine jacket. A clean copy with price ($21.95) intact on front flap. Comes with archival-quality jacket protector. Rear Stacks.