''The Narrow Waters'' (french: Les Eaux étroites) is a 1976 essay collection by the French writer

Julien Gracq Julien Gracq (; 27 July 1910 – 22 December 2007; born Louis Poirier in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, in the French ''département'' of Maine-et-Loire) was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were no ...

. The topic of the book is Èvre, a left

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

of the river

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

, located close to where the author grew up. The book was published by

José Corti José Corti is a bookshop and publishing house located in Paris, France, and was founded in 1925. It is named after its founder, José Corticchiato (14 January 1895 – 25 December 1984). José Corticchiato started his business by publishing the ...

. An English translation by Ingeborg M. Kohn was published in 2004.

Reception

Christine Thomas of ''

SFGate The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

'' wrote in 2004: "Gracq's literary associations abound, whether remarking that 'the deep black Evre resembled that bewitched ocean in " The Manuscript Found in a Bottle"' by Poe, or discussing a relation to Jules Verne's novel '' The House of Steam''. He also alludes to Nerval, Balzac,

Valery The French name Valery () is a male given name or surname of Germanic origin ''Walaric'' (see Walric of Leuconay), that has often been confused in modern times with the Latin name '' Valerius''—that explains the variant spelling Valéry (). The ...

and even Chinese painting and the work of

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

. Short, willful and celebratory, this meditation on nature and intellect is both a beginning and ending, a contained image with many brilliant facets to be digested slowly and purposefully."

References

External links

''The Narrow Waters''
at the French publisher's website
''The Narrow Waters''
at the American publisher's website 1976 non-fiction books French essay collections French-language books Works by Julien Gracq {{essay-stub