{"product_id":"the-criminal-child-selected-essays-paperback","title":"The Criminal Child: Selected Essays - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJean Genet\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eCharlotte Mandell\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator), \u003cb\u003eJeffrey Zuckerman\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Criminal Child \u003c\/i\u003eoffers the first English translation of a key early work by Jean Genet. In 1949, in the midst of a national debate about improving the French reform-school system, Radiodiffusion Fran aise commissioned Genet to write about his experience as a juvenile delinquent. He sent back a piece that was a paean to prison instead of the expected horrifying expos . Revisiting the cruel hazing rituals that had accompanied his incarceration, relishing the special argot spoken behind bars, Genet bitterly denounced any improvement in the condition of young prisoners as a threat to their criminal souls. The radio station chose not to broadcast Genet's views. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"The Criminal Child\" appears here with a selection of Genet's finest essays, including his celebrated piece on the art of Alberto Giacometti.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJean Genet \u003c\/b\u003e(1910-1986) was born in Paris. Abandoned by his mother at seven months, he was raised in state institutions and charged with his first crime when he was ten. After spending many of his teenage years in a reformatory, Genet enrolled in the Foreign Legion, though he later deserted, turning to a life of thieving and pimping that resulted in repeated jail terms and, eventually, a sentence of life imprisonment. In prison Genet began to write--poems and prose that combined pornography and an open celebration of criminality with an extraordinary baroque, high literary style--and on the strength of this work found himself acclaimed by such literary luminaries as Jean Cocteau, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir, whose advocacy secured for him a presidential pardon in 1948. Between 1944 and 1948 Genet wrote four novels--\u003ci\u003eOur Lady of the Flowers\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMiracle of the Rose\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFuneral Rites\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eQuerelle\u003c\/i\u003e--and the scandalizing memoir \u003ci\u003eA Thief's Journal\u003c\/i\u003e. Throughout the 1950s he devoted himself to theater, writing the boldly experimental and increasingly political plays \u003ci\u003eThe Balcony\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Blacks\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Screens\u003c\/i\u003e. After a silence of some twenty years, Genet began his last book, \u003ci\u003ePrisoner of Love \u003c\/i\u003e(available as an NYRB Classic), in 1983. It was completed just before he died. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eCharlotte Mandell \u003c\/b\u003ehas translated nearly fifty books from the French, including works by Guy de Maupassant, Marcel Proust, Maurice Blanchot, Jonathan Littell, and Mathias Énard. She has been awarded a translation prize from the Modern Language Association and the National Translation Award in Prose. Her translation of \u003ci\u003eThe Magnetic Fields \u003c\/i\u003eby André Breton and Philippe Soupault will be published by NYRB Poets in 2020. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eJeffrey Zuckerman\u003c\/b\u003e's recent translations from the French include Ananda Devi's \u003ci\u003eEve Out of Her Ruins \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Living Days\u003c\/i\u003e, the diaries of the Dardenne brothers, and the short stories of Hervé Guibert. He is the digital editor of \u003ci\u003eMusic \u0026amp; Literature\u003c\/i\u003e, and his writing and translations have appeared in \u003ci\u003eBest European Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review Daily\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTin House\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eVice\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 128\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.4 x 7.9 x 4.9 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 21, 2020\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51770363478304,"sku":"9781681373614","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/747240a8298898cd896bfe000b2f5cda.webp?v=1780370257","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/the-criminal-child-selected-essays-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}