Don Juan raz jeszcze / Don Juan Revisited is Andrzej Bart's bold reinterpretation of the legend of Don Juan the seducer, intertwined with the macabre story of the love of Queen Joanna of Castile for the corpse of King Philip the Handsome. The background for the tale is provided by the byways, castles and monasteries of Spain, taverns full of cutpurses, cursed places, torture chambers, but also a library on a par with the one from The Name of the Rose as well as an alchemist's laboratory where heresy and magic flourish next door to the terror of the Inquisition.
The story unfolds in the early 16th century - crazed after her husband's death, the queen transports his body across Spain for months. Don Juan, brought in from a monastery where he took refuge after a debauched life, is tasked with persuading Joanna to end her journey.
The novel abounds in sudden turns of the plot, complicated intrigues, original duel scenes, horror worthy of a gothic novel as well as masterly theological disputes and cutting dialogues. All this is seasoned with a dash of irony and a generous helping of intelligent humour. Don Juan raz jeszcze / Don Juan Revisited by Andrzej Bart is a veritable feast for admirers of postmodernist adventure novels, from Umberto Eco, through Dan Brown, to Arturo Perez-Reverte.
Andrzej Bart is a great figure in Polish literature. As a person, he does not seek publicity and avoids the media, sometimes hiding behind a pen name, but still is recognized as one of the most interesting contemporary novelists. The first edition of Rien ne va plus had to wait for the political system to change, but as soon as it was published, the book immediately won favour with the critics and the Koscielski prize. Apart from the reissued and revised Rien ne va plus, Andrzej Bart has published two other novels under his own name: Człowiek za którym nie szczekały psy / The Man Dogs did not Bark at and Pociąg do podrozy / A Train to Travel. He also created the eccentric persona of Paul Scarron Junior, a pen name under which he wrote the demonic novel Piaty jezdziec apokalipsy / The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse.
Source of Polish version: www.wydawnictwoliterackie.pl
- Andrzej Bart
Don Juan raz jeszcze / Don Juan Revisited
Wydawnictwo Literackie, Krakow 2006
145 x 205, 342 pages, paperback
ISBN 83-08-03904-9
www.wydawnictwoliterackie.pl
The book has been nominated for the 2007 Nike Literary Award.
A MAD QUEEN WITH A CORPSE [Excerpts from the described book are translations made for the purpose of this article; for the original text go to the
link*Polish version*http://www.culture.pl/pl/culture/artykuly/dz_bart_don_juan_raz_jeszcze**]**This novel is an example of a rare brand of Polish literature, the ambitious adventure story. It is written with attention to historical details but also with an ironic distance to events and characters. Bart has fictionalised real events from 500 years ago, providing familiar historical figures with many and diverse companions, and building a plot that falls within historical probability. All this serves to provide ambitious entertainment and never pretends to be anything else than brilliantly constructed entertainment. We have a duel, secret plotting at the top levels of the church hierarchy, a mysterious murder, disguises, melancholy and madness, ominous discussions between imperious inquisitors, and a love interest.
The story is set in the early 16th century, after the sudden death of Philip the Handsome, king of Castile. Instead of burying her husband, Queen Joanna sets off on a journey with the ruler's remains. The situation worries Rome, because "leaving Castile in hands that know not what they do poses a serious danger". The Inquisition is worried - in Spain, the European mainstay of Christianity, the queen is mad and is driving around with a corpse. Special papal envoys are sent on a secret mission to the queen - to persuade Joanna to agree to a funeral. Among them is the monk Don Juan de Valesco. The persuasion must be careful, but at any cost and using all means, even if Joanna ultimately has to be seduced. But, contrary to the title, Bart's prose does not invoke the rich literary tradition of the famous Spanish seducer. Don Juan almost does not resemble his famous predecessors, to mention but the most famous one from Molière.
Actually, the matter of the madness of Joanna the Mad is not all that obvious, and Bart leaves readers plenty of room for interpretation. Perhaps it is true love that prevents Joanna from parting with her dead husband? Perhaps delaying the burial is an escape from the pressuring of the Habsburgs, who gained the right to inherit Castile after Philip's death, or a sly trick against her father, who would be happy to seize power after Philip's funeral and declare his daughter legally incapacitated?
All these questions need to be taken seriously, but only to a certain extent, because in Don Juan... - and this may well be the book's most important feature - Bart has undertaken an interesting play with convention. He has invented a narrator who knows much more than his characters, sometimes playing with them, offering malicious comments, and revealing details from a different era. For example, he writes about one of the castles where the queen's retinue stays: "Today there is no trace of the castle... The last mention of this place was made by José Mendez during the civil war. This is where the unit of General Cabanis was ambushed, the general later being immortalized by Ernest Hemingway in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' under an uglier name and lower military rank". Elsewhere, he comments on the result of a dramatic duel: "it is hard to tell what's going on in someone else's head, especially when it's punctured". In yet another place, he refers to some old records in which he found this story.
Autor: Marek Radziwon, wiadomosci.gazeta.pl, June 2007 - Polish version