Doug Skinner read from (and signed copies of) his sparkling translation of Alphonse Allais’s Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks at the Jalopy Theater in Brooklyn tonight. By all accounts it was a delightful performance and Alphonse would have been proud—not to mention inebriated, as Captain Cap cocktails were on the house.
If you missed the performance, don’t miss the book which is available on Amazon here.
<< Photographs by Farewell Debut. >>
FEATURING a selection of poems by one of Italy’s most highly-regarded poets, Patrizia Valduga; a portfolio of controversial images by artist Brett Stout; an illuminating take on Harold Jaffe‘s Paris 60 by Andy O’Clancy; Mark Axelrod on the secret origins of jai alai; Shane Roeschlein navigates the Void OST; Captain Cap plays a trick on Alphonse Allais (or vice versa); and Samy Sfoggia treats us to a very strange wedding indeed. Plus a kick-ass cover by the great Nile Southern.
Available in print and digital editions.
Get 10% off our huge, Cap-sized edition of Alphonse Allais‘s CAPTAIN CAP: HIS ADVENTURES, HIS IDEAS, HIS DRINKS. This is the complete and unabridged translation of the original 1902 French classic, plus eight uncollected “Captain Cap” stories and a “Cappendix” of rare historical pictures. The book is illustrated throughout with witty drawings by Doug Skinner, in addition to his extensive notes and lively introduction.
“It is upon this one comedy that Balzac can lay any claims as a dramatic artist.”
—The New York Times
The literary event of the season has arrived—Mark Axelrod’s sublime translation of this obscure (but highly influential) comedy by Honoré de Balzac.
Originally presented under the title Mercodet or The Good Businessman, this play in three acts was perhaps the inspiration for the unseen character in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.
102 years before Godot ‘s debut, Mercodet opened at the Theatre du Gymnase-Dramatique in Paris on August 24, 1851. Curiously enough, it featured a character named “Godeau” who never appears.
A comic coincidence? One of life’s little absurdities? Translator Mark Axelrod was determined to find out.
He met and corresponded with Beckett. And in Waiting for Godeau we present a rare, unpublished letter from Beckett in which the burning question is answered.
Or is it?
You be the judge.
Waiting for Godeau
by Honoré de Balzac
Translated from the French by Mark Axelrod
Absurdist Texts & Documents – No. 22
138 pp. Edition limited to 250 copies
$25.00
Allais was going to Breuil with Gandillot, who had a trunk. Allais only had a shirt. “You can put it in my trunk,” says Gandillot. “What?” says Allais. “And I, do I ask you to put your trunk in my shirt?
—Jules Renard
You’ll find more wit and wisdom in CAPTAIN CAP: HIS ADVENTURES, HIS IDEAS, HIS DRINKS by Alphonse Allais, translated from the French with an introduction & illustrations by Doug Skinner.
from CAPTAIN CAP: HIS ADVENTURES, HIS IDEAS, HIS DRINKS by Alphonse Allais, translated from the French by Doug Skinner.
We’ve jumped the gun and released our mammoth deluxe trade paperback edition of Alphonse Allais’s CAPTAIN CAP: HIS ADVENTURES, HIS IDEAS, HIS DRINKS—translated by Doug Skinner. This is the complete & unabridged edition of the original 1902 French classic. 370 pages, including eight uncollected “Captain Cap” stories, plus a “Cappendix” of rare historical pictures.
The book is profusely illustrated with witty drawings by Doug Skinner, in addition to his extensive notes on the translation and swashbuckling introduction.
If you missed any of the limited edition capsized Captain Cap chapbooks in our Absurdist Texts & Documents series, you can get the whole kit and caboodle now, plus oodles more.
***
ALPHONSE ALLAIS (1854-1905) was a peerless French humorist, celebrated posthumously by the Surrealists for his elegant style and disturbing imagination. In addition to composing absurdist texts for newspapers such as Le Chat Noir and Le Journal, he experimented with holorhymes, invented conceptual art, and created the earliest known example of a silent musical composition: Funeral March for the Obsequies of a Deaf Man (1884). Truly ahead of his time (as well as ours), Allais is needed now more than ever. His mischievous work remains fresh, funny, and always surprising.
DOUG SKINNER has written numerous scores for theater and dance, particularly for actor/clown Bill Irwin (The Regard of Flight). His articles, cartoons, and translations have appeared in The Fortean Times, Fate, The Anomalist, Nickelodeon, Weirdo, Black Scat Review, and other periodicals. His translation of Isidore Isou’s Considerations on the Death and Burial of Tristan Tzara was published by Black Scat Books.
***
ARE YOU IN THE UK? CLICK HERE TO ORDER
ARE YOU IN FRANCE? CLICK HERE TO ORDER
ARE YOU IN GERMANY? CLICK HERE TO ORDER
Scat addicts (of which I’m one) will get their fix and kicks in the coming months. What would winter be without a stack of Scat on the bedside table? Bleak indeed. So cheer up & gear up… good reading is on the way.
On October 15th we’re releasing a limited edition of the play that may have influenced Samuel Beckett’s WAITING FOR GODOT. This deluxe edition of Balzac‘s 3-act comedy WAITING FOR GODEAU (Original title Mercodet) is translated from the French by Mark Axelrod. This launch is bound to make waves so circle the date in red.
In November, we’re publishing two Black Scat Classic Interim Editions.
First, a portfolio of cool nudes by the Austrian painter Monika Mori (known internationally as “Moo”). These dazzling abstract forms are at once playful, moody & seductive. Don’t miss MOO NUDES—a lush, erotic celebration of the female body.
Also in November, the legendary Opal Nations returns with some wicked (and we do mean wicked) visual black humor: EMBRYO WORLD. It’s sure to piss off the Right-to-Lifers and thrill the rest of us.
December, we raise the curtain on the Théâtre de l’Absurde—a limited edition of a hilarious little Patchenesque drama: ‘S A BIRD by Eckhard Gerdes. No spitting in the balcony.
Finally, for fans of Alphonse Allais, our sublime trade edition is AVAILABLE HERE.
For those who may have missed our editions of Alphonse Allais‘s CAPTAIN CAP, here’s a treat: Doug Skinner‘s introduction to Vol. IV, THE SANATORIUM OF THE FUTURE:
* * * *
Dorothy Parker once remarked that most humorists “milk a formula until it moos in pain.” After so many years of turning in several columns a week, Allais may have been feeling the strain. He admitted in one piece that the punning names he used for his characters were not really that funny. In a series of rather glum installments in 1901 (July 25, July 31, August 9), he simply listed recent patent applications. Contemplating such genuine inventions as the luminous hat, the pedal-operated fan, the combination fishing pole and bicycle pump, the hail parasol, the gloves made from intestinal membranes, the multicolored cane, the sea soap, the summer fez, the metal legs for wooden horses, the powdered cheese, “etc., etc., etc.,” he could only remark, “The fantasists who think they’re so clever when they imagine a dust-catcher for submarines, or a rubber muzzle to prevent snails from dribbling on the salad, are small beer beside certain serious and licensed inventors.” Fact, all too often, trumps fiction, to the eternal despair of humorists.
Samuel Beckett’s classic absurdist play Waiting for Godot was first presented in Paris on January 5, 1953.
Flashback: Paris, 102 years earlier, where Honoré de Balzac ‘s comedy Mercadet had its inaugural performance at the Theatre du Gymnase-Dramatique on August 24, 1851.
Mercadet features a character named “Godeau” who never appears.
Hmm.
Beckett claimed he never read Balzac’s play.
We think not. Thus, next month, Black Scat Books is publishing Balzac’s three-act comedy—translated from the French by Mark Axelrod. This unique limited edition includes an unpublished letter from Samuel Beckett to the translator.
On October 15, 2013, you be the judge.
blackscatbooks.com 