A Dantesque Debut Takes On Family History and the State of France
Élise Lespade's first novel, Paradisi gloria, draws on Dante's architecture of hell to tell a family story set against a bleak vision of contemporary France, according to a review in En attendant Nadeau.
En attendant Nadeau has published a review of Paradisi gloria, the debut novel by Élise Lespade, part of this autumn's rentrée littéraire. The review's title borrows a line from Dante's Inferno — "Par moi l'on va en dolente cité", the inscription over the gate of hell — signalling the scale of the book's ambition.
According to the review, Lespade's novel reaches a force that matches that ambition. The critic describes it as combining tragic power with a family narrative and what is called a portrait in negative of present-day France, and names it among the most striking successes of this autumn's publishing season.
Paradisi gloria, premier roman dantesque d'Élise Lespade, atteint une force à la hauteur de son ambition extrême.
En attendant Nadeau
No further details of plot, publisher, or length are given in the material available. Readers curious about the book will need to turn to the full review or the novel itself for more.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.
