The Tale of the Girl with a disturbing imagination, 82.
The Tale of the Grandfather who shaved, 71.
The Tale of the Gratiolet Family, 21.
The Tale of the Hamster deprived of his favourite game, 81.
The Tale of the History Teacher who was cultural attaché in the subcontinent, 46.
The Tale of the Jazzman who was never satisfied, 75.
The Tale of the Jealous Violinist, 95.
The Tale of the Judge and his wife who took up thieving, 83.
The Tale of the Lady who made up nieces, 89.
The Tale of the Lady with the green beans, 35.
The Tale of the Landlord who played bagpipes and listened to the wireless, 95.
The Tale of the Last Expedition in search of Franklin, 44.
The Tale of the Lisbon Importer and his Egyptian agent, 70.
The Tale of the Lord who hid his secret passions beneath sham crazes, 90.
The Tale of the Man who bought the Vase of the Passion, 22.
The Tale of the Man who painted watercolours and had puzzles made from them, 26.
The Tale of the Man who stepped on a land mine in Algeria, 58.
The Tale of the Man who thought he had discovered how to synthesize diamond, 14.
The Tale of the Man who tried to make a fortune importing hides, 21.
The Tale of the Missionary whose wife taught gym, 72.
The Tale of the Misunderstood Anthropologist, 25.
The Tale of the Most Decorated Lance Corporal in all Oceania, 79.
The Tale of the NCO who died in Algeria, 35.
The Tale of the Neurasthenic Lawyer who settled in Indonesia, 54.
The Tale of the Officer who abandoned his patrol, 65.
The Tale of the Old Servant who accompanied his master around the world, 15.
The Tale of the One-Armed Skeleton, 67.
The Tale of the Overweight Girl and her mast, 40.
The Tale of the Painter who painted the building, 17.
The Tale of the Painter who practised necrophilia, 97.
The Tale of the Panarchist who got away, 73.
The Tale of the Poet Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, 22.
The Tale of the Portrait Painter and his systems, 59.
The Tale of the Previous Concierges, 35.
The Tale of the “Pyrotechnician” who lost his hand, 7.
The Tale of the Revellers who gave an early-morning concert, 92.
The Tale of the Saddler from Szczyrk, 60.
The Tale of the Saddler, His Sister, and Her Mate, 73.
The Tale of the Sceptical Civil Servant and his vindictive wife, 88.
The Tale of the Sect of the Three Free Men, 3.
The Tale of the Self-Taught Scholar, 20.
The Tale of the Single Mother whose grandfather alone did not disown her, 50.
The Tale of the Spanish Archivist, 80.
The Tale of the Stack Manager who collected evidence of Hitler’s survival, 91.
The Tale of the Thespian Cook, 55.
The Tale of the Tight-Fisted Boss, 61.
The Tale of the Three Murdered Hoods, 84.
The Tale of the Thrice-Murdered Jeweller, 50.
The Tale of the Two Giants of the hotel trade, 87.
The Tale of the Two Mean Traders, 54.
The Tale of the Wealthy Opera Buff, 52.
The Tale of the Woman who founded a printing press in Syria, 48.
The Tale of the Woman who made the devil appear eighty-three times, 65.
The Tale of the Woman who ran a gambling den, 21.
The Tale of the Young Man from Thonon who just stopped doing anything, 52.
The Tale of the Young Marrieds who bought a bedroom suite, 98.
The Tale of the Young Marrieds who lived with their in-laws, 30.
The Tale of Two Servants who met at the Universal Exhibition, 83.
The Television Producer’s Tale, 13.
The Unlucky Motorcyclist’s Tale, 75.
The Waiter’s Tale, 61.
The Wee Tunisian’s Tale, 58.
The Word-Snuffer’s Tale, 60.
Postscript
This book contains quotations, some of them slightly adapted, from works by: René Belletto, Hans Bellmer, Jorge Luis Borgès, Michel Butor, Italo Calvino, Agatha Christie, Gustave Flaubert, Sigmund Freud, Alfred Jarry, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Michel Leiris, Malcolm Lowry, Thomas Mann, Gabriel García Marquez, Harry Mathews, Herman Melville, Vladimir Nabokov, Georges Perec, Roger Price, Marcel Proust, Raymond Queneau, François Rabelais, Jacques Roubaud, Raymond Roussel, Stendhal, Laurence Sterne, Theodore Sturgeon, Jules Verne, Unica Zürn.
Translator’s Note
This translation contains quotations, occasionally somewhat modified, from published translations done by Robert Baldick, Anthony Bonner, Max Brod, J. M. Cohen, Ernest Jones, Anthony Kerrigan, Terence Kilmartin, Alban Krailsheimer, H. T. Lowe-Porter, Dmitri Nabokov, Vladimir Nabokov, Sir Malcolm Pasley, Alastair Reid, Francis Steegmuller, Helen Temple, Norman Thomas di Giovanni, Ruthven Todd, J. A. Underwood, Sir Thomas Urquhart, William Weaver, Barbara Wright.
Chapters 27 and 74 of Life A User’s Manual have appeared previously, in Grand Street (New York), Autumn 1983, and in Fiction International (San Diego), 1985, in translations by Harry Mathews, which are reused here, with minor modifications, with the kind permission of the translator.
This translation is greatly indebted to Ela Bienenfeld, Eugen Helmle, Bianca Lamblin, and Harry Mathews: without their help and encouragement I would have made many more errors than I have done.
My thanks go also to all those who have answered queries, solved puzzles, and helped with the material production of this translation: Jacques Beaumatin, Alexander Bellos, Philip Bennett, Vera Brice, Graham Chesters, Julian Kinderlerer, Una Kelly, Andy Leak, Susan Lendrum, Terry Lewis, Sylvia Richardson and especially Sarah Asquith, Ruth Sharman and Dorothy Straight.
DB
Sheffield, 1986–
Manchester, 1987.
www.randomhouse.co.uk/vintage
Index
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Aachen (Germany), 171, 298.
Aarhus (Denmark), 477.
Abbeville (Somme), 85.
ABEKEN, Bismarck’s councillor, 495.
Aberdeen (Scotland), 385.
Abidjan, 448.
Abigoz (Iowa), 316.
ABOUT (Edmond), French writer, 1828–1885, 216.
Abyssinia, 55.
Academy of Medicine, 476, 479.
Academy of Sciences, 50.
Acapulco (Mexico), 31, 449.
ACREMANT (Germaine), 211.
ADAM, 436.
Adamawa (Cameroon), 113.
ADELE, Bartlebooth’s former cook, 114.
Aden (Arabia), 45, 46.
Adventures of Babar, The, by Jean de Brunhoff, 367.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The, by Mark Twain, 467.
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The, by Mark Twain, 467.
Aeroe (Denmark), 424, 425.
Aescalupe, French medical journal, 195.
AETIUS, Roman general, c.390–459 AD, 85, 230.
Afghanistan, 249.
Africa, 45, 54, 174, 225, 245, 332, 333, 337.
Africa, Black, 45, 65, 251.
Africa, Central, 46, 290.
Africa, North, 44, 55, 486.
Africa, porcelain, 421.
Africa, West, 47.
African Gold, novel by Rémi Rorschach, 47, 48.
Agadir (Morocco), 55.
AGAMEMNON, character in Racine’s Iphigénie, 302.
Agamemnon, tragedy, by Nepomucène Lemercier, 364.
Age of Reason, The, novel by Jean-Paul Sartre, 442.
Agen (Lot-et-Garonne), 198, 472.
Agnate Will be Angry, The, detective novel, 206.
 
; AGRICOLA (Martin Sore, known as), German composer, Schiebus, 1486 – Magdeburg, 1556, 368.
AGUSTONI (Henri), Swiss director, 364.
Ahasverus, opera by H. Monpou (1837), 454.
AHMED III, Sultan, 87, 89.
Aigues-Mortes (Gard), 187.
AIMEE (Anouk), 465.
Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), 122.
Ajaccio (Corsica), 199, 406.
Akka, African pigmy tribe, 290.
Aktuelle Probleme aus der Geschichte der Medizin, 480.
Alamo, Battle of the, 260.
ALBERT (Stephen), 263.
Albi (Tarn), 198.
ALBIN (Flora, née Champigny), 127, 168, 169, 170, 197, 210–213, 228, 452, 471, 496, 500.
ALBIN (Raymond), 168, 169, 170, 210.
ALBIN (René), 210, 211.
ALDROVANDI (Ulysses), Bolognese naturalist, 1527–1605, 289.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, King of Macedon, c.356–c.323 BC, 369.
ALEXANDER III, Tsar of Russia, 1845–1894, 150.
Alexandria (Egypt), 332.
ALEXY I MIKHAILOVICH, 1629–1676, Tsar of Russia, 409.
al-Fatiha, Arabic incantation, 180.
ALFIERI (Vittorio), 1747–1803, 364.
Algeciras (Spain), 31.
Algeria, 198, 274, 401.
Algiers, 162, 180, 199, 373, 374, 377, 378, 379.
ALICE, character in Lewis Carroll, 380.
Alice’s Dream, stage adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, 380.
ALIKUT, Indian chief, 453.
ALKHAMAH, Emir, 9, 228.
ALLEGRET (Yves), 277.
Alliance Building Society, 390.
Alliance Française, 35, 65.
Allouis, 471.
Alnwick (England), 424, 425.
Alpine Climber’s Diorama, display at the Universal Exhibition, 404.
Alps, 370.
Alritam (river in Sumatra), 107.
Alsace, 152, 154, 415.
ALTAMONT (Blanche, née Gardel), 34, 40, 60, 66, 105, 106, 128, 153, 156, 163–164, 166, 214, 215, 227, 285, 295, 300, 343, 367, 436, 438–447, 496.
ALTAMONT (Cyrille), 34, 40, 60, 66, 105, 106, 128, 153, 156, 166, 214, 215, 227, 285, 296–297, 299, 300, 329, 331, 343, 367, 436, 440, 441, 442–447, 450, 496.
ALTAMONT (Véronique), 28, 112, 131, 133, 367, 437, 438–442, 496.
Ama, tribe of Japanese divers, 284.
AMANDINE, a wench, 394.
Amara (Iraq), 471.
AMATI, family of Cremonese lute-makers, 397.
Ambassadeurs, Paris cinema, 362.
AMBERT (Véronique), see Elizabeth de Beaumont, 146.
Ambition, print, 104.
America, 82, 232, 258, 291, 322, 374, 383–388, 410.
America, Central, 43, 54, 385, 436.
America, North, 43, 54, 298, 371, 388.
America, porcelain, 421.
America, South, 43, 54, 123, 251, 356, 357, 371, 422.
American Express, 142.
AMERICAN HORSE, Indian, 453.
American Journal of Cartography, 385.
American Journal of Fine Arts, 174.
Amiens, 499.
Amsterdam (Netherlands), 19, 82, 91, 280, 389.
ANACLETE II, antipope (1130–1138), 9.
Anadalams (or Orang-Kubus, or Kubus), Sumatran tribe, 107, 109–112.
Anadalams of Sumatra, The A Preliminary Approach, by M. Appenzzell, 109.
Anafi (Cyclades), 127, 424, 425.
Anamous et Pamplenas, television programme produced by R. Rorschach, 65.
Anatomy Lesson, The, painting by Rembrandt, 39.
Ancona (Italy), 350.
Andalusia, 8.
Andaman Islands, 54.
ANDERSSEN, chess player, 330.
Andes, 167.
ANDRUSSOV, a Russian engineer, 348.
ANGO OR ANGOT (Jean), Dieppe shipowner, c.1480–1551, 386.
Angola, 346.
ANGELICA, heroine of Arconati’s Orlando, 19.
Angelus, The, painting by Millet, 39.
Angkor Wat (Kampuchea), 37.
ANGST (Werner), 450.
Ankara (Turkey), 28, 310, 313, 314.
Annales, review of French history, 410.
Annals of Ear and Larynx Diseases, 326.
Annecy (Haute-Savoie), 199.
Antarctica, 382.
Anthology of Neo-Creative Painting, An, edited by S. Gogolak, 35.
Antigvarisk Tidsskrift, 90.
Antiquarian, The, brand of Scotch whisky, 445.
ANTON, Parisian tailor, 186, 188.
Apache, Indian tribe, 453.
Apis mellifica L., 396.
APOLLINAIRE (Guillaume), pen-name of Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitsky, French poet, Rome 1880 – Paris 1918, 292.
Apopka, lake, 412.
Apothecary, The, painting by J. T. Maston, 436.
Appalachians, 468.
APPENZZELL (Marcel), Austrian ethnologist, 59, 106, 107–112.
APPENZZELL (Madame), his mother, 108, 112, 214.
Arab Emirates, see UAE.
Arabia, 45, 371, 466.
Arabian Knights, The, by Charles Nunnely, 264.
ARAMIS, character in novels by A. Dumas, 467.
ARAÑA (Madame), first concierge at 11 Rue Simon-Crubellier, 59, 168, 217.
ARCHIMEDES, Greek scholar, Syracuse, c.287–c.212 BC, 369.
Archives internationales d’Histoire des Sciences, 479.
ARCONATI (Julio), Italian composer, 1828–1905, 19, 229.
Arctic Circle, 54.
Ardennes, Department of, 20, 143, 149, 230, 440.
Ares Resting, sculpture by Scopas, 132.
ARGALASTES, 289.
Argentina, 78, 95.
Argonne, forest, 33.
ARISTOTELES (Melchior), Venezuelan film producer, 283.
ARISTOTLE, Greek philosopher, C.384–c.322 BC, 289.
Arizona, 412.
Arkhangelsk (USSR), 228, 289.
Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône), 137, 144, 199.
Arlon (Belgium), 138, 139.
Armentières (Nord), 43.
ARMINIUS, figure in German mythology, 34.
ARMSTRONG’S, shipbuilders, 447.
Army Historical Review, 48.
ARNAUD DE CHEMILLE, French historian and hagiographer, 1407?–1448?, 84.
ARON (Raymond), French ideologist, 241.
ARONNAX (Pierre), French naturalist, 1828–1905, 289.
Arpajon (Essonne), 438.
Arras (Pas-de-Calais), 156, 273.
Ars vanitatis, 137.
ARTAGNAN, D’, character in novels by Alexandre Dumas père, 159, 256, 467.
ARTAUD (Antonin), French writer, 1896–1948, 292.
Arte brutta, 39.
Artesia (New Mexico), 425, 427, 428.
Art et Architecture Aujourd’hui, review, 48.
Artifoni, House of, Flower arrangers, 151.
Artigas (Uruguay), 425.
Artistic and Scientific Society (Utrecht), 89.
Art of Being Ever Joyful, The, didactic poem by J.-P. Uz, 288.
Asama, Japanese battleship-cruiser, 447.
ASCLEPIADES, Greek doctor, c.124–c.40 BC, 233, 478, 480.
Ascona (Switzerland), 172.
ASHBY (Jeremiah), 410, 411, 412, 413.
ASHBY (Ruben), 410, 411, 412, 413.
ASHTRAY (Anthony Corktip, Lord), 452, 453, 454.
Asia, 54, 250, 291, 374.
ASPREY’S, London leather-goods shop, 344.
ASQUITH (Sarah), 581.
ASTRAT (Henri), 234–236.
Asturias, 9.
ATHOS, character in novels by A. Dumas, 467.
Atlantic Ocean, 91, 234, 282.
Atlantic Ocean, South, 178.
ATLAS, figure of Greek mythology, 417.
Atri (Italy), 173.
ATTILA, King of the Huns, c.395–453, 85.
ATTLEE (Clement Richard), English politician, 1883–1967, 457.
AUBER (Daniel-François-Esprit), French composer, 1
782–1871, 198.
Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), 249.
Auckland Gazette and Hemisphere, New Zealand daily, 453.
AUGENLICHT (Arnold), Austrian racing cyclist, 351.
Au Pilori, French anti-Semitic newspaper of the 1940s, 112.
Auroch Hunt, The, by Fernand Cormon, 399.
Aurore, L’, French daily, 30.
AUSTEN (Jane), English novelist, 1775–1817, 328.
Australasia, 382.
Australia, 333, 381, 382, 389, 394.
Austria, 87, 151, 425.
Austro-Hungarian Empire, 88.
Autery, 437.
Auvergne, 178, 199.
Auvergne Messenger, The, 30.
Aux Délices de Louis XV, cake- and teashop, 27, 328, 405.
AUZERE (Lubin) and AUZERE (Noel), architects, 471.
Avalon (California), 336.
Aveynat, bridge, 350.
Avignon (Vaucluse), 144.
AVVAKUM, 409.
Axminster (England), 99.
Ayrshire (Scotland), for the best bacon, 85.
AYRTON, character in Jules Verne’s novels, 25.
Azincourt (Pas-de-Calais), 52.
AZIZA, 488.
Baatan (Philippines), 382.
BABAR, character invented by Laurent and Jean de Brunhoff, 367.
Bab-Fetouh (Morocco), 245.
BABILEE (Jean), pseudonym of Jean Gutmann, French ballet-dancer, 440.
BACCHUS, 421.
BACH (Johann-Sebastien), German composer, 1685–1750, 100.
BACHELET (Th.), lexicographer, 289.
BACHELIER (Henri), 263.
BACON (Francis), Irish painter, 429.
Bad Joke, A, decorated plate, 249.
Bagnols-sur-Cèze (Gard), 139, 140.
Bahamas, 394, 422.
Baignol & Farjon, brand of pencils, 243.
BAILLERGE (Florent), 410.
Balaton (Hungary), 293.
BALDICK (R), 581.
BALLARD (Florence), 103.
Ballets de Paris, 440.
Ballets Frère, 438, 439, 442.
Bal Mabille, a popular dance café, 403.
BALTARD (Victor), French architect, 1805–1874, 169.
Baltistan, 409.
Bamako (Mali), 222.
Bamberg (Germany), 206.
Banania, brand of breakfast cereals, 61.
B and A, Las Vegas nightclub, 449.
Bank of Australia, 389.
BAO DAÏ, 457.