The Manuscript Found in Saragossa

BOOK: The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
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THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN SARAGOSSA

‘A Polish classic… constructed like a Chinese box of tales… It
reads like the most brilliant modern novel' – Salman Rushdie in
the
Guardian

‘One of the great masterpieces of European literature… this new
translation offers us the work as a whole in English for the first time,
in the dizzyingly elaborate form envisioned by the author's
extraordinary imagination' – Larry Wolff in
The New York Times
Book Review

‘The translation by Ian Maclean is crisp, lucid and unfussy… A
beautiful volume, underlining Potocki's forgotten masterpiece as a
work of real substance' – James Woodall in
The Times

‘A picaresque ramble through Islam and the inquisition… This is
the stuff of reading on a grand scale, fiction of enduring splendour'
– David Hughes in the
Mail on Sunday

‘Impossible to put down' - Katherine A. Powers in the
Boston Globe

‘A bravura translation… the 100 or so stories told over 66 “Days”
are fantastic, ghostly, erotic, comic, ghoulish, philosophical and
Munchausenly tall' - David Coward in the
Sunday Telegraph

‘This volume is excellent value, two dozen fresh and ingenious tales
for the price of a novel' - Julian Duplain in the
Times
Literary Supplement

‘At its most magical
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
reads like
The
Arabian Nights
, at its most italianate like something from
The
Decameron
… a masterwork of European romanticism' - Michael
Dirda in the
Washington Post Book World

‘One of the strangest books ever written can at last take its rightful
place in world literature' - Kola Krauze in the
Guardian

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR

JAN POTOCKI
was born in Poland in 1761 into a very great aristocratic family, which owned vast estates. He was educated in Geneva and Lausanne, served twice in the army and spent some time as a novice Knight of Malta. During his lifetime he was an indefatigable traveller and travel-writer, an Egyptologist and pioneering ethnologist, an occultist and an historian of the pre-Slavic peoples. He was a political activist and probably a freemason, although he seems to have espoused a bafflingly wide range of political causes, some of them patriotic. Among his other exploits were an ascent in a balloon over Warsaw with the aeronaut Blanchard and the provision of the first free press in that city.

Potocki was proficient in many different languages, and his extensive travels led him through the Mediterranean, the Balkans, the Caucasus and China. He married twice (the first marriage ending in divorce) and had five children: scandalous rumours surrounded both of his marriages. In 1812 he retired to his estates in Poland, suffering from chronic ill health, melancholia and disillusionment. He committed suicide in 1815. Although the exact details of his end are uncertain, the most credible story is that he blew his brains out with a silver bullet, which was modelled from the knob of his sugar-bowl and first blessed by the castle chaplain.

IAN MACLEAN
is Reader in French at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Queen's College.

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa

JAN POTOCKI

TRANSLATED BY IAN MACLEAN

PENGUIN BOOKS

in memoriam absentium
J. N. M. M.    J. W. M. E. M. D. E. M. M. W. B. H.

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Private Bag 102902, NSMC, Auckland, New Zealand

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

First modern edition published in French 1989
This translation first published by Viking 1995
Published in Penguin Books 1996
13

Copyright © José Corti, 1992
This translation copyright © Ian Maclean, 1995
All rights reserved

The moral right of the translator has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

Contents

Introduction

Translator's Note

A Note on the Geographical Location

Glossary

A Guide to the Stories

THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN SARAGOSSA

Foreword

The First Day

The story of Emina and her sister Zubeida

The story of the castle of Cassar Gomelez

The Second Day

The story of Pacheco the demoniac

The Third Day

The story of Alphonse van Worden

The story of Trivulzio of Ravenna

The story of Landulpho of Ferrara

The Fourth Day

The Fifth Day

Zoto's story

The Sixth Day

Zoto's story continued

The Seventh Day

Zoto's story continued

The Eighth Day

Pacheco's story

The Ninth Day

The cabbalist's story

The Tenth Day

The story of Thibaud de la Jacquière

The story of the fair maiden of the castle of Sombre

The Eleventh Day

The story of Menippus of Lycia

The story of Athenagoras the philosopher

The Twelfth Day

The story of Pandesowna, the gypsy chief

The story of Giulio Romati and the Principessa di Monte Salerno

The Thirteenth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

Giulio Romati's story continued

Principessa di Monte Salerno's story

The Fourteenth Day

Rebecca's story

The Fifteenth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

Maria de Torres's story

The Sixteenth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

Maria de Torres's story continued

The Seventeenth Day

Maria de Torres's story continued

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Eighteenth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Conde de Peña Vélez's story

The Nineteenth Day

Velásquez the geometer's story

The Twentieth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Twenty-first Day

The Wandering Jew's story

The Twenty-second Day

The Wandering Jew's story continued

The Twenty-third Day

Velásquez's story continued

The Twenty-fourth Day

Velásquez's story continued

The Twenty-fifth Day

Velásquez's story continued

The Twenty-sixth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Twenty-seventh day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Duchess of Medina Sidonia's story

The Twenty-eighth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Duchess of Medina Sidonia's story continued

The Marqués de Val Florida's Story

The Twenty-ninth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Duchess of Medina Sidonia's story continued

Hermosito's story

The Thirtieth Day

The Thirty-first Day

The Wandering Jew's story continued

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Thirty-second Day

The Wandering Jew's story continued

The gypsy chief's story continued

Lope Soarez's story

The story of the House of Soarez

The Thirty-third Day

The Wandering Jew's story continued

The gypsy chief's story continued

Lope Soarez's story continued

The Thirty-fourth Day

The Wandering Jew's story continued

The gypsy chief's story continued

Lope Soarez's story continued

The Thirty-fifth Day

The Wandering Jew's story continued

The gypsy chief's story continued

Lope Soarez's story continued

Don Roque Busqueros's story

Frasqueta Salero's story

The Thirty-sixth Day

The Wandering Jew's story continued

The gypsy chief's story continued

Lope Soarez's story continued

The Thirty-seventh Day

Velásquez's ideas on religion

The Thirty-eighth Day

The Wandering Jew's story continued

Velásquez's account of his system

The Thirty-ninth Day

The Wandering Jew's story continued

Velásquez's account of his system continued

The Fortieth Day

The Forty-first Day

The Marqués de Torres Rovellas's story

The Forty-second Day

The Marqués de Torres Rovellas's story continued

The story of Monsignor Ricardi and Laura Cerella, known as La Marchesa Paduli

The Forty-third Day

The Marqués de Torres Rovellas's story continued

The Forty-fourth Day

The Marqués de Torres Rovellas's story continued

The Forty-fifth Day

The Marqués de Torres Rovellas's story continued

The Forty-sixth Day

The Wandering Jew's story continued

The Forty-seventh Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Forty-eighth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

Cornadez's story as told by Busqueros

The story of Diego Hervas told by his son, the reprobate pilgrim

The Forty-ninth Day

The story of Diego Hervas continued

The Fifty-first Day

The story of Bias Hervas, the reprobate pilgrim

The Fifty-second Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The reprobate pilgrim's story continued

The Fifty-third Day

The reprobate pilgrim's story continued

The Commander of Toralva's story

The Fifty-fourth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Fifty-fifth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Fifty-sixth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Fifty-seventh Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Fifty-eighth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Fifty-ninth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Sixtieth Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Sixty-first Day

The gypsy chief's story continued

The Sixty-second Day

The Great Sheikh of the Gomelez's story

The Sixty-third Day

The Great Sheikh of the Gomelez's story continued

The Sixty-fourth Day

The Great Sheikh of the Gomelez's story continued

The Sixty-fifth Day

The Great Sheikh of the Gomelez's story continued

The story of the Uzeda family

The Sixty-sixth Day

The Great Sheikh of the Gomelez's story continued

Epilogue

BOOK: The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
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