Furcy is a special case which the record is solid

"The case of slave Furcy" of Mohammed Aïssaoui

Gallimard, 195 pages, 16,90 euros.

Is this history What literature It is an astonishing true story that Mohammed Aïssaoui, journalist with the "literary Figaro" discovered random a dispatch of the AFP related sale at Drouot of a part of the archives of "L'affaire de Furcy slave." At the Bourbon Island (now the meeting), a slave of Indian origin osa, in 1817, Sue to demand his freedom. Furcy is a special case which the record is solid. Her mother should be enfranchised long if the wishes of its first "owners" had been met. The surprise comes from the tenacity of the complainant - he will obtain satisfaction after twenty-seven years - and especially the reactions that the legal action. It is between the first abolition of slavery, that of the French revolution in 1794, and the second, the right one, that of 1848. In the meantime, there was the Napoleonic restoration. Settlers feel threatened in their economy and the alleged Furcy owner arrives to mobilize the notables of the island on that it pass as a matter of principle. Just as surprising, he is a prosecutor come to the city immediately take Furcy defence and follow the folder even after his departure from the island until his death. It is therefore the complexity of the political and social history of slavery and abolition that renders this case (for example simply be passed in France, where no one could not be the time of slavery, slave should have legally given liberty Furcy mother). To tell all this vividly the author mixes scenes imagined by him and personal memories of his long investigation with historical documents that he cited extensively. Love it or not this mode of narration. In both cases the material found by the investigator remains exciting.

"The trip to Venice" and "Travel in Egypt", of Jean-Claude Simoën

I have read in images, 240 and 300 pages, 9.90 euros.

Publisher vibrionnant he is among the creation, 10 years ago, in love with dictionaries, Jean-Claude Simoën republished in paperback both exception books by him: "The journey to Egypt" and "the trip to Venice. If you are weary of the prosaic thoughts tourists posted before the Campanile of St Mark's square, flip through your copy to discover what said André Suarès: "Without Campanile, it is point of Venice." The highlight of the Bell Tower in needle, alone, red gold fixed changing siren. It bites the heedless mad hour. At daybreak, he shore the floating blue morning Venice; and the evening, the Campanile is the mast brocard pink and gold to the barque moored to Venus on the lagoon. "And compare the performances that give Bernardo Bellotto circa 1740 or William Turner in the 19th century. In contemplating the pyramids, made abstraction of the crackling of cameras and think of Théophile Gauthier: "They are there for so long that the stars have changed place;" and their points sink in the past so amazingly fabulous behind them it seems that we see glow the first days of the world. "When completing your suitcases for Venice and Alexandria, don't forget your Simoën. Drag without fault between the Routard and the blue Guide.

T G.

"Dictionnaire encyclopédique Wagner" under the direction of Timothée Picard

Acts South-Cité de la Musique, 2.469 pages, 79 euros.

Two thousand five hundred pages, two kilos, thirty-five specialists, one thousand four hundred entries: it was no less needed to apprehend one of the most fascinating phenomena in the history of art. Indeed, more than any other composer Wagner sought a literature which exceeds far the simple love of music. Musicologists, playwrights, psychoanalysts, philosophers, political scientists and other historians have discussed, analyzed, dissected his work and its resonances. Wagner certainly revolutionized the Opera thinking it as a total art, dedicating a theatre that he himself had designed in Bayreuth. But it also leaves many theoretical works such as "The Art and the revolution" or the pamphlet infamous "Judaism in music" which backed unforgivable behaviour. Very early on, the music of Wagner has attracted more vivid reactions, the more suspicious idolatry in the most abject rejection. Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Claudel, Valéry, Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, Hesse has provided insightful judgments on Wagner. This encyclopedic amount naturally presents each of the works, identifies the main interpreters of yesterday and today, to monitor the composer through his travels, his political commitments (Dresden, Zurich), its offspring (note that his grandson Wolfgang just died March 21) or even her clothing tastes. This monumental book also allows to understand the various readings of Wagnerian thought through articles such as "Antiwagnérisme", "Communism", "Nationalism, patriotism,", "Nazism" and "Schopenhauer". He recalled that the debate is not closed, that divisions remain (his music remains prohibited in concert in Israel), that contemporary artists "have always case to Wagner" and that remains intact "hypnotic power" of his work.

Ph. V.