The Child

(Paperback, Main)

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Description

The Child tells the story of a young boy who is scape-goated and abused, emotionally and physically, by his parents. But the young hero learns to stand up to them, and ultimately, even to love them. Yet for all the pain the book registers, it is one of the funniest in French literature, a triumph of insubordinate comedy over the forces of order and the self-appointed defenders of decency.

Reviews

"[Valls] is a more reliable witness of his society, or at least certain sectors of it, than many more renowned but less involved writers of his age."
Walter D. Redfern, Times Literary Supplement

"Essentially autobiographical, Vallss 19th-century novel charts the authors experience of growing up in an emotionally distant family obsessed with social status."
The Guardian

"The author of The Child is one of the masters of French prose. Theres no denying that. But his work shouldnt be considered an exercise in virtuosity. It has an exact and terrible significance. His work stands as an act of liberation. Valls is the man who liberates us from the family, who liberates us from our father and our mother, who says to us: 'judge them and, if there is cause to, condemn them'.
Maurice Barrs

"A true book, a book composed of the most exact, the most poignant human documents. Its been ten years since a work has moved me to such a degree."
mile Zola

Author Bio

Bohemian journalist and anarchist pamphleteer Jules Valles (1832 - 1885) wrote a trilogy of autobiographical novels, of which this is the first. Douglas Parmee has translated works by Flaubert, Zola, and Baudelaire. He lives in Australia.