NYRB Publishing

i deeply regret having not picked up the goncourt journals at the blackwells charing cross stock clearance--i bought a whole bunch of NYRBS, pretty much at random, and i can't remember what the others were (stefan zweig?)--but whatever they were, i feel the goncourts would have been the better choice. not least because i remember when i was staying up at gatwick, having got in early morning, and finishing proust, in costa coffee, and reaching the goncourt pastiche, and thinking, what in fuck is this? and then, on looking it up, remembering, clearly, my choice to return the goncourt volumes to the shelf.

has there been any discussion here of what we take the er ethos of the nyrb imprint to be, because i think on a certain level it actually kinda sucks

Like a comma overload now and then.

I saw the OUP edition of the Goncourts 2nd hand last weekend but the spine was damaged so no go.

The NYRB ed has an intro from fucking Geoff Dyer which is a bit off-putting.

re: ethos. Certainly more of a discussion I'd like to see...especially now as its expanding from its early days: NYRB Poets and the Calligrams series. Some of the reissues are lazy others inspired.

I was thinking if you look at Archipelago they have much more of a vision for certain kinds of literature, like their Nerval translation and almost all of the items from German literature proved to be a valuable guide for me.

Not just a guide but pretty much vital, whereas its pockets of stuff from NYRB (although the Hungarian section is quite strong)

Yes, their Hungarian and other Central European stuff is a goldmine.

has there been any discussion here of what we take the er ethos of the nyrb imprint to be, because i think on a certain level it actually kinda sucks

― carly rae jetson (thomp), Wednesday, 23 March 2016 06:14 (7 hours ago) Permalink

what do you mean?

Pretty covers aren't enough.

"er ethos"?

pretty covers not enough, but good selection and decent forewords is imo (what more can you ask for?)

curious though, on what level does it actually suck?

Yes, their Hungarian and other Central European stuff is a goldmine.

― like Uber, but for underpants (James Morrison), Wednesday, 23 March 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Btw what other Central Euro? The stuff from the Czechs is just (or mostly) re-publishing Hrabal which lots of ppl are hitting on day and night. The Richard Weiner issue on Two Lines showed them up.

The 10 paperbacks from the Penguin Central Euro series (despite the wacky covers) took some risks and it was interesting.

The other non-Hungarian Central Europeans I'm thinking of are Gregor von Rezzori, Aleksander Wat, Aleksandar Tišma, Peter Handke, Bolesław Prus, plus Robert Walser depending on how wide your "Central" definition grows. And their German, Italian, Dutch and French resurrections are pretty good too.

But yes, those Penguin Central European books were great, and I wish they had been followed up with more.

on what level does the term 'classic' in 'nyrb classics' operate

i guess if they called it 'nyrb hiply curated list of sort of interesting mostly novels' i wouldn't have any problems

I think it has the same meaning it has for every other publisher in the known world, ie 'books that have been published before, and are now being reprinted/translated i to english because we think they're good'

The other non-Hungarian Central Europeans I'm thinking of are Gregor von Rezzori, Aleksander Wat, Aleksandar Tišma, Peter Handke, Bolesław Prus, plus Robert Walser depending on how wide your "Central" definition grows. And their German, Italian, Dutch and French resurrections are pretty good too.

Its erratic for me.

I've looked at some of that and I dunno, its kinda interesting-ish stuff I'll never get round to. Don't see the big deal with Handke (so he's some kind of fascist like Celine without the writing). Love Walser and there is a new volume of his stuff this year (and I like how they just bother with the short fragments/stories).
I've kinda avoided lots of their German stuff for similar reasons. Don't know if I'll ever care for Jakov Lind.
Issued the wrong Gadda, also hate the Selected works of Pavese. That's no way to treat a master - Peter Owen editions are the way.

Positives:

The Doblin reissues are looking good.
Reissuing Genet's The Prisoner of Love (although I don't own it) was a great move. Balzac's Unknown Masterpiece is one of the great early books from them (lol don't know if I need anything else by him). It was great reading Simenon's Tropic Moon. All the Serge (lol idk what I feel about the rescuing him from the Commie press vibe tho').
Malaparte revival! Nice to see Sciascia although I own these in different covers.

yeah ok james very good, now analyse 'we' and 'good'

zzz

nyrb classics: you could get to grips with the canon, but the binding on these is so much nicer

Oh thompaws

it's a step up from Capuchin Classics

where does prynne stop being parseable? asking for a friend

I don't know his stuff super-well, but the difficulty seems to ramp up over the 70s & turn into a different kind of opacity - by The Oval Window I think you're somewhere else.

http://nyrbclassics.tumblr.com/post/142078260707/a-fresh-look-for-nyrb-classics

:/

NYRB young adult classics

Note the date.

hmm

lol smh @ me

Black Wings Has My Angel rocked my world. Thanks James

Yay!

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/04/07/what-a-good-book-can-be-an-interview-with-edwin-frank/

For those who wanted to know how they choose their books

Any new plans?

We are doing something we don’t do very often which is reissuing all of a writer’s work—in this case the novels of Henry Green.

Not sure why - all of them are available. iirc Dalkey issued them all already in the US?

Not a bad interview, and I love how he recognises some of my favourite writers in the series: Pavese, Krudy (I'd love it if they commissioned more translations from him), the modern Russians.

Plenty of stuff that I won't get around -- at some point you know The Door and Stoner might be fine and accomplished but not something you'll ever need. Time is short.

man you read like 6 books for every one i read lol

shame Paris Review didn't ask Frank to unpack "we" and "good"

I don't think did Dalkey did all the Henry Greens - just the later ones? Still, seems an odd choice, but maybe I am just getting old and have seen too many Henry Green pushes. Or it's more that I thought the internet had helped flatten out the sudden attention spikes he used to get - like most people who should know about Henry Green will probably run into him nowadays.

(but people should read Henry Green, obviously)

i read party going last year, it was pretty hard to find. wonder if the nyrb editions will give the burst of interest needed to get NRQ's film adaptation off the ground

woof - sorry yes the last four of his books have been issued by Dalkey. Really one of the very best things they've done.

Agree Henry Green has to be read but idk, rather they translated more Krudy. I was just thinking "great if you like Krudy so much why don't you issue more". I told 'em to put together a translation of Rosa's Grande Sertão: Veredas but they won't listen to me.

What's "NRQ's film adaptation", flopson?

ANNOUNCEMENT - CALL FOR PITCHES - MAX AND LAMP FILM PRODUCTION COMPANY LLC

LOL, gotta say that would get a Henry Green revival going far more than re-issuing these in NYRB covers.

Spring sale---so far I'm most inclined towards getting the Giono and Gallant (good?)

http://www.nyrb.com/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Hill%20Houses%20A%20Fairly%20Good%20Time%20Paris%20Vagabond&utm_content=Hill%20Houses%20A%20Fairly%20Good%20Time%20Paris%20Vagabond+CID_54d98723aad4646840d67a9d9547a763&utm_source=Newsletter

I want the Gallant, and have ordered Houses. The Giono looks good, but I already have several by him I haven't got round to, so it will have to wait.

I am going to read The Door, because wahay Hungarian, but definitely back xyzzzz in his calls for more Krudy

shame Paris Review didn't ask Frank to unpack "we" and "good"

you're all aesthetically bankrupt whores. hey xyzzzz thanks for the heads up on the gower st waterstones, i'd been meaning to pick up a copy of lolly willowes on this trip and hadn't even realised it was in nyrb. very fortuitous.

They do her Summer Will Show, too, if you can lower yourself

And "Mr Fortune's Maggot", though they called it "Mr Fortune" (I think they appended another related short story?).

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0726/9203/products/Memories_from_Moscow_to_the_Black_Sea_2048x2048.jpg?v=1460057487

EMORIES
FROM MOSCOW TO THE BLACK SEA
by Teffi, a new translation from the Russian by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler, Irina Steinberg, and Anne Marie Jackson, introduction by Edythe Haber

$11.87 $16.95
(30% off)
Available as E-BookBiography & MemoirInternational LiteratureRussian Literature
PAPERBACK

Available as an e-book from these retailers
An NYRB Classics Original

Considered Teffi’s single greatest work, Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea is a deeply personal account of the author’s last months in Russia and Ukraine, suffused with her acute awareness of the political currents churning around her, many of which have now resurfaced.

In 1918, in the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Teffi, whose stories and journalism had made her a celebrity in Moscow, was invited to read from her work in Ukraine. She accepted the invitation eagerly, though she had every intention of returning home. As it happened, her trip ended four years later in Paris, where she would spend the rest of her life in exile. None of this was foreseeable when she arrived in German-occupied Kiev to discover a hotbed of artistic energy and experimentation. When Kiev fell several months later to Ukrainian nationalists, Teffi fled south to Odessa, then on to the port of Novorossiysk, from which she embarked at last for Constantinople. Danger and death threaten throughout Memories, even as the book displays the brilliant style, keen eye, comic gift, and deep feeling that have made Teffi one of the most beloved of twentieth-century Russian writers.
PRAISE

I never imagined such a memoir could be possible, especially about the Russian Civil War. Teffi wears her wisdom lightly, observing farce and foible amid the looming tragedy, in this enthralling book.
—Antony Beevor

Teffi demonstrates a profound sympathy for the ordinary people among whom she counts herself, swept along by cataclysmic events. While she sympathises with those who cannot help themselves, she is not afraid to look into the depths of what human beings can do to one another and what happens when civilisation breaks down.
—Virginia Rounding, Financial Times

The book is expertly and collectively translated by Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson and Irina Steinberg. It reads extremely easily and well in English and is furnished with an introduction, translators’ afterword and copious notes to explain references and allusions now lost to time.
—William Boyd, Sunday Times

Memories is an astonishing work that, like Sholokhov’s Quiet Flows the Don, and for many of the same reasons, deserves to be turned into a film. It is both a thriller and an unforgettably personal account of one of the worst periods in Russian history.
—Catherine Brown, Literary Review

An] astonishingly vivid memoir...Wittily, wryly, wistfully, but never self-indulgently, Teffi tells the story of her escape from Moscow to Kiev to Odessa and onto a dodgy boat to cross the Black Sea as the country she loves is turned upside down in the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution.
—Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Country Life

A vividly idiosyncratic personal account of the disintegration - moral, political, strategic - of Tsarist Russia after the Revolution, as alive to the farcical and the ridiculous as it is to the tragic; a bit like what Chekhov might have written if he had lived to experience it.
—Michael Frayn

Related Books
SALE

TOLSTOY, RASPUTIN, OTHERS, AND ME
THE BEST OF TEFFI
by Teffi, a new translation from the Russian by Robert Chandler, Rose France, and Anne Marie Jackson

$10.47 $14.95
(30% off)
Available as E-BookInternational LiteratureRussian Literature
PAPERBACK

Available as an e-book from these retailers
Early in her literary career Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya, born in St. Petersburg in 1872, adopted the pen-name of Teffi, and it is as Teffi that she is remembered. In prerevolutionary Russia she was a literary star, known for her humorous satirical pieces; in the 1920s and 30s, she wrote some of her finest stories in exile in Paris, recalling her unforgettable encounters with Rasputin, and her hopeful visit at age thirteen to Tolstoy after reading War and Peace. In this selection of her best autobiographical stories, she covers a wide range of subjects, from family life to revolution and emigration, writers and writing.

Like Nabokov, Platonov, and other great Russian prose writers, Teffi was a poet who turned to prose but continued to write with a poet’s sensitivity to tone and rhythm. Like Chekhov, she fuses wit, tragedy, and a remarkable capacity for observation; there are few human weaknesses she did not relate to with compassion and understanding.

PRAISE

Nearly all her portraits – both of ‘famous historical figures’ and of ordinary people – are sharp and vivid. There is only one person in Teffi’s autobiographical prose who we are not really allowed to see. This is Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya, carefully concealed by her witty, observant and humane alter ego –Teffi.
—Masha Karp, The World Today

Teffi is an inimitable presence in Russian literature, a genuine wonder.
—Georgy Ivanov

Teffi can write in more registers than you might think, and is capable of being heartbreaking as well as very funny. I wish she were still alive, and I could have met her. But then I realised she would have seen right through me. I can’t recommend her strongly enough.
—Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian

Haven't read that one, but based on the collection of her stuff that came out last year from Pushkin Press, 'Subtly Worded', it would be well worth getting

Summer Sale

40% off 44 titles

http://www.nyrb.com/pages/nyrb-summer-sale

New translation of Walser collection:
https://www.nyrb.com/collections/robert-walser/products/girlfriends-ghosts-and-other-stories?variant=16505116615&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Walser%20and%20Alas&utm_content=Walser%20and%20Alas+CID_3a5bfad4ae3496f1065199041ecfcf36&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=READ%20MORE

Ditto Leopoldo Alas:
https://www.nyrb.com/collections/classics/products/his-only-son?variant=19019678471&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Walser%20and%20Alas&utm_content=Walser%20and%20Alas+CID_3a5bfad4ae3496f1065199041ecfcf36&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=READ%20MORE

Also wondering about this one:

The English biographer, naturalist, philosopher and convivial wit John Aubrey (1626-97) did not leave a diary behind, to the dismay of those who admire his writing about other people. In an ingenious new book titled “John Aubrey: My Own Life,” the historian Ruth Scurr has made one for him, and it is a thoroughgoing delight. Ms. Scurr has rummaged through Aubrey’s letters, books and unpublished manuscripts. She has isolated his writing about his own life and set it in chronological order, modernizing spellings and adding discreet commentary when necessary...She has done the world a service in compiling “John Aubrey: My Own Life.” This is a funny book, and a wise and moving one, that delivers to us a man in full.
—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

quoted here:
http://www.nyrb.com/products/john-aubrey-my-life?variant=16330445255&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Ruth%20Scurr%202&utm_content=Ruth%20Scurr%202+CID_f57492bfc3db8da5e050bf3840e94475&

That come out last year in the UK, was raved about everywhere

Got my eye on Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto: proto-Bolano. I certainly need it.