''Le Fou d'Elsa'' is a 1963 novel written by

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He wa ...

Synopsis

In this book Aragon's intellectual work is reflected through the description of Arabic and Muslim culture in both poetry and prose. Aragon describes the relationships between the Muslim and Catholic world at the time of Inquisition in Spain by using the fall of

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

and the escape of

Boabdil Abu Abdallah Muhammad XII ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد الثاني عشر, Abū ʿAbdi-llāh Muḥammad ath-thānī ʿashar) (c. 1460–1533), known in Europe as Boabdil (a Spanish rendering of the name ''Abu Abdallah''), was the ...

in front of

Isabella the Catholic Isabella I ( es, Isabel I; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504), also called Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: ''la Católica''), was Queen of Castile from 1474 until her death in 1504, as well as Queen consort of Aragon from 1479 until 1504 by ...

as a background. As most of the books of Aragon, ''Le Fou d'Elsa'' is a book about love. Aragon announces a new woman to come, a woman called Elsa, in the quote "Woman is the future of man". But ''Le Fou d'Elsa'' is not only about love. The book is also a description of the beginnings of the depression of the Muslim world, first with the fall of Granada until the colonization. ''Le Fou d'Elsa'' represents a political opinion as the book was written at the time of decolonization in France. Nowadays, ''Le Fou d'Elsa'' is still a great book talking about tolerance and the treasures of all the different cultures.

References

Novels by Louis Aragon 1963 novels Novels set in the 15th century Novels set in Spain Postcolonial novels {{postcolonialism-stub