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by Marcel Schwob,
translated by
Malcolm Parr
images by Keith Bayliss
2001
56pp
240 x 350mm (9.5 x 13.8in)
£195
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There will be few people who do not feel in some way moved, emotionally
involved even, when mention is made of The Children's Crusade.
Keith Bayliss has made large woodcut images of the children in
progress through the book -- as they did through Europe towards
Jerusalem. At intervals in the progress the text, in Malcolm Parr's
vivid translation, gives moving insight into the huge story --
by focussing on a number of individuals, who speak to us direct
. . . Pope Innocent III, a Goliard, little Allys, a leper &c.
Even the binding plays its part in the 'production'. A simple
modification to the normal slipcase design gives rise to a movingly
dramatic effect. Based on the historical incident of the thirteenth
century, this hauntingly original symbolist tale is testimony
to the powerful imagination and sensitivity to human suffering
of Marcel Schwob (I867-I905), essayist, critic and a man of immense
linguistic and scholarly accomplishments. His knowledge of literature,
especially English and German besides French, was wide and deep.
Among his friends and contemporary admirers were Anatole France,
George Meredith and Robert Louis Stevenson. |
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