Scenes of Bohemian Life

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Description

This book is a new translation of Henry Murger's influential Scnes de la vie de bohme, first published in French in 1851.

The book recounts the lives of a bohemian group of creative young people as they fall in and out of love, endure cold and hunger, enjoy drunken parties, see their friends suffer and die of poverty, and finally emerge as mature artists. The book's publication soon inspired many (mostly young) people to seek out a bohemian life in Paris and other cities around the world. Not only did it inspire people at the time to change their lives, it also inspired Puccini's beloved opera La Bohme(1896) and, a hundred years later, Jonathan Larson's phenomenally successful Rent (1996). Few works of literature have had such a social impact. Bohemian cultures and subcultures have been with us ever since and Murger's book remains an engaging and satisfying work of literature.

Reviews

Henry Murgers tales of bohemian life in Robert Holtons lively new translation continue to fascinate and to resonate. The haphazard, hand-to-mouth existence of Murgers bohemians, their vanities, their shifts and dodges, their amours, their self-deceptions, their wiles, their wit, their ever-fluctuating fortunes make for very agreeable and entertaining reading. The thoughtful introduction and informed annotations by Holton to Murgers text are a most welcome added benefit. Warmly to be recommended. Dr. Gregory Stephenson Associate professor emeritus at the University of Copenhagen. Author of the book "The Daybreak Boys: Essays on the Literature of the Beat Generation".

Robert Holton provides a modern version of Henri Murgers Scenes of Bohemian Life that captures the spirit of nineteenth-century Parisian bohemia while remaining accessible to contemporary readers. Holtons ability to translate double-entendre and provide well-researched sociohistorical and cultural context underscores Murgers oeuvre as a richly intertextual work of art. Eliza Jane Smith, University of San Diego.

If, like me, you thought the historical origins of Bohemia might be of modest, minor interest, then Robert Holton will make you think again. Framed by an informative and lively introduction, his new edition puts back into circulation the book that defined the subject and inspired or informed a wealth of cool cultural fashions and radical social experimentsfrom the garrets of Paris to the salons of the Bloomsbury Group, and from the Beat Generation to Bohemianisation as a form of urban gentrification. To evoke the trilby, an icon of cool which owes a debt to Murgersbohemiaby way of du Mauriers novel, a tip of my hat! Oliver Harris, Professor of American Literature and President of the European Beat Studies Network

This new translation of Scenes of Bohemian Life by Robert Holton is direct, clear, lively and highly readable, and (as far as I can determine with my somewhat eroded command of French) has been rendered into English with fidelity and felicity. Holton's Introduction and his annotations are instructive and serve very much to enhance the text. The translator informs readers of the relation of the tales to actual persons and events known to the author, and assesses possible causes for the extraordinary popularity of the book in France and elsewhere during the 19th century, treating various aspects of its allure and mystique, including the book's implicit offer to readers of "a powerful new sense of possibility, an alternative way of life outside the strictures of society." Midwest Book Review

Author Bio

Henry Murger was a nineteenth-century French writer whose Scnes de la vie de bohme launched an idea of bohemian life that has influenced cultures ever since.

Robert Holton, the translator/editor, is Emeritus Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He has taught literature for many years, including courses in bohemian cultures.