A Voyage to India

Fiction & Literature, Literary
Cover of the book A Voyage to India by Goncalo M. Tavares, Dalkey Archive Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Goncalo M. Tavares ISBN: 9781628972030
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press Publication: December 9, 2016
Imprint: Dalkey Archive Press Language: English
Author: Goncalo M. Tavares
ISBN: 9781628972030
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Publication: December 9, 2016
Imprint: Dalkey Archive Press
Language: English

A Voyage to India is the story of Bloom, our hero, as he makes his way from Lisbon to India in a decidedly non-heroic age. Gone are the galleons, gone is god; so too the swords of the swashbuckler and sacerdotal certainty. In such an era, where is wisdom to be found? Bloom—ever deliberate, ever longwinded—takes his time getting to India, stopping first in London, then Paris and elsewhere in Europe, making friends, encountering enemies, recounting his life story, revealing the reasons for his flight from Lisbon and his vague hopes for and nagging fears about what he might find in India. Or within himself. His is a melancholic itinerary, an attempt to learn and forget. As our narrator flatly declares: “Life proceeds and is monstrous.” Parodying The Lusiads, Luis de Camões’s sixteenth-century Portuguese epic of seafaring exploration and naval prowess, Tavares’s poem is a solemn requiem of sorts, an investigation into the psyche of humankind in a world where the advance of technology outpaces our ability (or desire) to theorize it, the search for wisdom has been abandoned, and old imperialist dreams have revealed themselves to be a postcolonial nightmare.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A Voyage to India is the story of Bloom, our hero, as he makes his way from Lisbon to India in a decidedly non-heroic age. Gone are the galleons, gone is god; so too the swords of the swashbuckler and sacerdotal certainty. In such an era, where is wisdom to be found? Bloom—ever deliberate, ever longwinded—takes his time getting to India, stopping first in London, then Paris and elsewhere in Europe, making friends, encountering enemies, recounting his life story, revealing the reasons for his flight from Lisbon and his vague hopes for and nagging fears about what he might find in India. Or within himself. His is a melancholic itinerary, an attempt to learn and forget. As our narrator flatly declares: “Life proceeds and is monstrous.” Parodying The Lusiads, Luis de Camões’s sixteenth-century Portuguese epic of seafaring exploration and naval prowess, Tavares’s poem is a solemn requiem of sorts, an investigation into the psyche of humankind in a world where the advance of technology outpaces our ability (or desire) to theorize it, the search for wisdom has been abandoned, and old imperialist dreams have revealed themselves to be a postcolonial nightmare.

More books from Dalkey Archive Press

Cover of the book Errors of Young Tjaz by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book A Perfect Disharmony by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book Our Dead World by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book Absinth by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book Bodies of Summer by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book Best European Fiction 2013 by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book Warrenpoint by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book French Fiction Today by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book La Belle Roumaine by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book Beauty Looks Down on Me by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book Whole of Life by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book Awakening to the Great Sleep War by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book George Anderson by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book The Sovereign by Goncalo M. Tavares
Cover of the book At Least We Can Apologize by Goncalo M. Tavares
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy