Novels in Three LinesA NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS ORIGINAL Novels in Three Lines collects more than a thousand items that appeared anonymously in the French newspaper Le Matin in 1906—true stories of murder, mayhem, and everyday life presented with a ruthless economy that provokes laughter even as it shocks. This extraordinary trove, undiscovered until the 1940s and here translated for the first time into English, is the work of the mysterious Félix Fénéon. Dandy, anarchist, and critic of genius, the discoverer of Georges Seurat and the first French publisher of James Joyce, Fénéon carefully maintained his own anonymity, toiling for years as an obscure clerk in the French War Department. Novels in Three Lines is his secret chef-d’oeuvre, a work of strange and singular art that brings back the long-ago year of 1906 with the haunting immediacy of a photograph while looking forward to such disparate works as Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project and the Death and Disaster series of Andy Warhol. |
Contents
Section 1 | 2 |
Section 2 | 18 |
Section 3 | 33 |
Section 4 | 40 |
Section 5 | 100 |
Section 6 | 171 |
Section 7 | 172 |
Section 8 | |
Section 9 | |
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ALBERTO MORAVIA anarchist arrested attempted automobile believed blow bombing Bordeaux Brest broke bullet burglars called caught Colonial Constantine court crime crushed daughter dead death died drowned edited face falling fatal father feet Félix Félix Vallotton fell Fénéon Finistère fire fished five fled four fractured francs gendarmes GEORGES girl given hand hanged Haute-Saône head Henry horse husband injured jail Jules jumped killed knife knocked labor leaving Louis lover Marne Marseilles mayor military missing Mlle months morning mother murdered Nancy never night Paris persons police poor prison published Regiment rifle Rochefort Sarthe schools sentenced shot skull soldier stabbed station street streetcar strike struck suicide taken threw took Toulon train train station unknown Versailles Villejuif wife window woman wounded yesterday young