René Leys

Victor Segalen

Editions

Review

In the very praiseworthy, but oft-neglected series, Quartet Encounters, one can find such translated treasures as Giorgio Bassani’s Garden Of The Finzi-Continis pbk £8 and Louis Couperus’ The Hidden Force pbk £6.95.  This book is another.  Published posthumously in 1922, the novel takes place in 1911, just as Yat-sen is fomenting the revolution that will end the Manchu Dynasty and change China forever.

The narrator (also called Victor Segalen) desperately seeks the entrance to and knowledge of the Forbidden City.  He is abetted by his language tutor, a young Belgian, René Leys, who provides him with complex and seductive narratives of the life ‘within’.  As the byzantine world of the Child-Emperor, the Dowager Empress and the Regent crumbles, the narrator is forced to examine the nature of his obsession.  Even more compelling in this strikingly modern novel are the reflections on fiction-making itself.

I found it quite brilliant – exciting to read and satisfying to ponder. - review by Karen Wadman