First published in 1978, and widely considered to be the sequel to her masterpiece 'By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept', this remarkable book further established Smart's reputation as a brave and inspirational writer.

 A still beautiful woman, 31 years old with four children by a faithless lover, cannot break the habit of expectation. She must learn to submit to the cold, bare, unglamorous tenets of reality - the untenable position of love. She must learn to deflect Grand Passion into an acceptance of the rogues and rascals with their radiant faces, who buy her a bitter with borrowed cash. Out of a passionate youth, through pain and harsh revelation, she has attained a maturity - a certain knowledge that the cost of rapture is high and that there is no looking back.

 Hers is a voice that distils a woman's determination for survival - a voice that rises up from everyday life, from the bus queue, the Underground, the pub - and in Elizabeth Smart's hand is wrought into something magnificent.

The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

First published in 1945, Elizabeth Smart's By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept is an enigmatic and nearly indescribable book, a small classic of poetic prose whose author has been compared with Anaïs Nin and Djuna Barnes. In lushly evocative language, Smart recounts her love affair with the poet George Barker with an operatic grandeur that takes in the tragedy of her passion; the suffering of Barker's wife;the children the lovers conceived. Accompanied in this edition by The Assumption of the Rogues and Rascals, a short novel that may be read as its sequel, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept has been hailed by critics worldwide as a work of sheer genius.

À la hauteur de Grand Central Station je me suis assise et j'ai pleuré

Elizabeth Smart''s passionate fictional account of her intense love-affair with the poet George Barker, described by Angela Carter as ''Like MADAME BOVARY blasted by lightning ... A masterpiece''.
          One day, while browsing in a London bookshop, Elizabeth Smart chanced upon a slim volume of poetry by George Barker - and fell passionately in love with him through the printed word. Eventually they communicated directly and, as a result of Barker''s impecunious circumstances, Elizabeth Smart flew both him and his wife from Japan, where he was teaching, to join her in the United States. Thus began one of the most extraordinary, intense and ultimately tragic love affairs of our time. They never married but Elizabeth bore George Barker four children and their relationship provided the impassioned inspiration for one of the most moving and immediate chronicles of a love affair ever written - ''By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept''.
          Originally published in 1945, this remarkable book is now widely identified as a classic work of poetic prose which, seven decades later, has retained all of its searing poignancy, beauty and power of impact.

BY GRAND CENTRAL STATION I SAT DOWN AND WEPT

Dans la veine autobiographique d' " À la hauteur de Grand Central Station je me suis assise et j'ai pleuré", le premier livre d'Elizabeth Smart, ce texte révèle une jeune mère aux prises avec le rationnement et la pauvreté dans le Londres dévasté de l'immédiat après-guerre, en quête de réponses sur la finalité de l'amour, les compromis à faire et le sens de l'existence même. "L'arrogance des vauriens" est un véritable chef-d'oeuvre d'évocation poétique d'une existence redevenue ordinaire après avoir brillé de tous ses feux.

L'arrogance des vauriens

By Grand Central Station est l'une des oeuvres les plus dénudées, les plus écorchées vives qui aient jamais été écrites. C'est un cri de totale vulnérabilité. Le fait de la voir dans la légende du satyre écorché vif rejoint sa propre imagerie puisqu'un satyre, fusion de deux créatures, est lui.

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