Richard Sieburth reads from THE SALT SMUGGLERS NYC event

Translator Richard Sieburth will read from and discuss The Salt Smugglers this Thursday in Greenwich Village

Where: The Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia Street, Manhattan, 10014

When: Thursday, October 22nd at 6PM

Come Thirsty: There is a $7/one-drink minimum

"Every intelligent English-speaking reader must be grateful to Richard Sieburth and Archipelago Books for rescuing from oblivion this gem of factual fiction, revealing a Nerval poised somewhere between the subversive Diderot and the vitriolic Voltaire. The Salt Smugglers now has pride of place in my ideal library." —Alberto Manguel

Read an excerpt from The Salt Smugglers

First published as a sprawling feuilleton in the newspaper Le National in 1850, Les Faux Saulniers was political and topical. With nods to Diderot and Sterne, this protean digressive satire deals less with contraband salt smugglers and more with questions of subversion, transgression, censorship, and marginality. The Salt Smugglers is an unearthed pre-postmodern gem. By writing a first-person narrative detailing his dizzying quest for a elusive book holding the history of the Abbé de Bucquoy, Nerval was able dance with the censors of the day who forbid fiction to appear in newspaper serials while questioning and opening the borders between fact and fiction.