The Shape of a City

Download or read book The Shape of a City written by Julien Gracq and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Julien Gracq, the most important writer in France, is also the only living writer whose complete works appear in a volume of the prestigious Pleiades editions. The most original of his later works is this book about Nantes, which is Gracq's personal and profound response to Proust's synthesis of memory, reverie, and realism. The work begins with a quote from Baudelaire: "The shape of a city, as we all know, changes more quickly than the mortal heart." The author writes of a child's experience of the hierarchy of urban spaces: the radial avenues walked during school recreation periods, the districts between the axes, and the relationship to Nantes of those who lived there, including Breton and Rimbaud.