The Portrait of an Englishman in His Chateau – Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues
The Portrait of an Englishman in His Chateau by Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues / ISBN 9781873982938 / 136-page paperback from Dedalus Books (UK)
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When the unnamed narrator crosses the causeway to the Chateau of Gamehuche, he enters a surrealist nightmare of debauchery and violence. The proceedings at the chateau are presided over by the master of Gamehuche, M. de Montcul, formerly the English diplomat, Sir Horatio Mountarse. With a cast of willing and not-so-willing acolytes, he serves up an over-refined cuisine of obscenity, sexual perversion and unspeakable cruelty. The book could be described as a dispatch written from the frontiers of depravity.
Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues was born in Paris in 1909. During the war he retreated to Monaco where in 1943 he published, Dans les annees sordides. He returned to Paris at the end of the war. In 1947 after meeting Andre Breton, he became involved in the activities of the Surrealists. As well as being a poet and novelist, Mandiargues has written plays, essays and art criticism. He won the Prix des Critiques in 1951 for Soleil des Loups and the Prix Goncourt in 1967 for Marge. His work has been featured in The Dedalus Book of Surrealism (Volumes 1 & 2), The Decadent Cookbook and The Decadent Gardener.
