{"product_id":"victims-of-the-book-reading-and-masculinity-in-fin-de-sicle-france-9781487505479","title":"Victims of the Book: Reading and Masculinity in Fin-De-Si?cle France","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eVictims of the Book\u003c\/em\u003e uncovers a long-neglected but once widespread subgenre: the fin-de-si?cle novel of formation in France. In the final decades of the nineteenth century, social commentators insistently characterized excessive reading as an emasculating illness that afflicted French youth. Novels about and geared toward adolescent male readers were imbued with a deep worry over young Frenchmen's masculinity, as evidenced by titles like \u003cem\u003eCrise de jeunesse\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eYouth in Crisis\u003c\/em\u003e, 1897), \u003cem\u003eLa Crise virile\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eCrisis of Virility\u003c\/em\u003e, 1898), \u003cem\u003eLa Vie st?rile\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eA Sterile Life\u003c\/em\u003e, 1892), and \u003cem\u003eLa Mortelle Impuissance\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eDeadly Impotence\u003c\/em\u003e, 1903). In this book, Fran?ois Proulx examines a wide panorama of these novels, as well as polemical essays, pedagogical articles, and medical treatises on the perceived threats posed by young Frenchmen's reading habits. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eFin-de-si?cle writers responded to this pathologization of reading with a profusion of novels addressed to young male readers, paradoxically proposing their own novels as potential cures. In the early twentieth century, this corpus was critically revisited by a new generation of writers. \u003cem\u003eVictims of the Book\u003c\/em\u003e shows how Andr? Gide and Marcel Proust in particular reworked the fin-de-si?cle paradox to subvert cultural norms about literature and masculinity, proposing instead a queer pact between writer and reader.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eProulx, Francois:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cb\u003eFrançois Proulx\u003c\/b\u003e is an associate professor in the Department of French and Italian at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Toronto Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50850965717266,"sku":"9781487505479","price":101.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_4403642a-fcfe-4a31-9a64-71b30b344f8a.jpg?v=1737421824","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/victims-of-the-book-reading-and-masculinity-in-fin-de-sicle-france-9781487505479","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}