After Me Comes the Flood: From the author of The Essex Serpent

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The saying is frequently misattributed to Louis XV of France, the second-to-last ruler of France before the aristocracy-destroying French Revolution. Louis XV and his father, Louis XIV (the "Sun King"), were fond of great extravagance at court and fighting expensive wars which eventually bankrupted France, providing one of many catalysts for the French Revolution. Thus, "after me (Louis XV), the flood (the Revolution)." Louis XVI, his son, was executed at the guillotine. I've a feeling that Sarah Perry either draws readers in with her elusive symbolism or drives them away. As for me, I like that her ideas stay with me for days after finishing her books, offering up fresh interpretations that did not occur to me while I was reading. Her humour is subtle, too, and I found myself laughing after the fact, as I got some of the jokes (most especially in the form of word play and metaphors made literal) only hours after I'd read them. Perry was born, the youngest of five sisters, in Chelmsford, Essex, into a family of devout Christians who were members of a Strict Baptist church. Growing up with almost no access to contemporary art, culture, and writing, she filled her time with classical music, classic novels and poetry, and church-related activities. She says this early immersion in old literature and the King James Bible profoundly influenced her writing style. [1] She attended Chelmsford County High School for Girls. She married her husband Robert Perry at the age of 20. She graduated from Anglia Polytechnic University (now Anglia Ruskin University) with a degree in English Literature then worked briefly in the Civil Service. The phrase itself is in reference to the biblical flood [5] and is believed to date from after the 1757 Battle of Rossbach, which was disastrous for the French. [6] One account says that Louis XV's downcast expression while he was posing for the artist Maurice Quentin de La Tour inspired Madame de Pompadour to say: "Il ne faut point s'affliger; vous tomberiez malade. Après nous, le déluge." [7] [note 1] Another account states that the Madame used the expression to laugh off ministerial objections to her extravagances. [4] The phrase is also often seen as foretelling the French Revolution and the corresponding ruin brought to France. [8]

After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry review - The Guardian

The novel is set in a remote country house hidden away in Thetford Forest (close indeed to where I lived as a child, albeit the forest is relocated rather nearer than it is in reality to the marshlands of the North Norfolk coast), during a stifling summer drought. The more probable and slightly-less-romanticized story is that the words were uttered by Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's chief mistress. She supposedly said this after a particularly crushing military defeat at Rossbach - during one of those expensive wars, noted above - to console the king (i.e. "It's all right, after us, nothing matters"). Her second novel, The Essex Serpent, was also published by Serpent's Tail in 2016. Inspired by the myth of a sea serpent on the Essex coast, it tells the story of a Victorian widow, Cora Seaborne, and the friends who surround her after the death of her bullying husband. Cora is intrigued and compelled by the possibility of the serpent's return, but clashes with the local vicar, William Ransome, who is determined to lay superstition to rest in his rural parish. A mysterious fable about honesty and deceit, love and self-loathing, and our sometimes-doomed quests for inner peace.

après moi, le déluge

The author has said that one thing that inspired the book was the many Bible ideas of love and the community gives her the ability to explore this idea. And she makes wonderfully effective use of the haunting and ambiguous ancient-English poem, Wulf and Eadwacer: the full poem (not included in the novel) reads in the translation by Michael R. Burch: To my people he's prey, a pariah. But then nothing really happens. Their day to day interaction has a kind of a plot twist running through it to do with the danger of flood and disaster that may or may not be caused by an approaching storm, and some other things I suppose, but it kind of went a bit flat. Which was a shame really, because there was a great deal of potential here. Review originally published at Learn This Phrase, as part of a post about this and another of my favourite books of the year, Linda Grant's Upstairs at the Party. (This book was reviewed second in the post, so the review really makes more sense in its original context.) I know. And I don’t know which would be worst. Isn’t it odd,’ she said, smiling: ‘You turned up and I never for a minute thought it might be you, though even as strangers go, you’re fairly strange.’ Much later John was to remember that phrase, and wonder why it had felt so like an unexpected touch on the arm. Pressing her hands against the dip in her spine and turning her face to the sun she said, ‘Let’s not talk about it anymore.’ Then she ran to peer at the shadow on the broken sundial, swore beneath her breath, and vanished into the cool dark house. Clare stood, examining a bitten-down thumbnail, while the sound of a piano played in intricate swift patterns reached them across the lawn.

After Me Comes the Flood - Georgeta Dendrino After Me Comes the Flood - Georgeta Dendrino

The explanation of how John was expected comes relatively early and is rather dull : by a complete coincidence, someone connected with their group, but known only to Elijah (who doesn’t let on that it is the wrong person), and with a very similar name – Jonathan Coules – was expected to be joining the community in the coming days, but had had to cancel his trip..

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A dark, marvelous novel…pour yourself a cool drink and bask in a dazzling new writing talent." - Daily Telegraph (UK) Throughout, Perry uses two differing voices - the first person perspective of John, who is writing an account of his time in his house, and an omniscient third person narrative. John's voice drawns one in from the outset: 'I'm writing this in a stranger's room on a broken chair at an old school desk. The chair creaks if I move, and so I must keep very still'. He goes on to say, 'I wish I could use some other voice to write this story down. I wish I could take all the books that I've loved best and borrow better words than these, but I've got to make do with an empty notebook and a man who never had a tale to tell and doesn't know how to begin except for the beginning'.

After Me Comes the Flood – HarperCollins After Me Comes the Flood – HarperCollins

Elegant, sinister, and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by the bestselling author of The Essex Serpent and Melmoth. A phrase of similar meaning is attributed to the Arabic poet Abu Firas al-Hamdani who died in 968 AD. the phrase in the original text is "إذا مِتُّ ظمآنًا فلا نزلَ القطرُ". It roughly translates to: "If I died thirsty, it wouldn't matter for me if it rains ever again". [10] Usage [ edit ] Rowan Mantell, Norfolk author Sarah Perry tipped for stardom with debut novel After Me Comes The Flood, EDP24, 27 June 2014 Instead Perry gives us a fascinating psychological character study of co-dependence between a group of flawed people, including Cole himself, who soon belongs just as much as the rest of them. As one character says of another: Opens day six! There is a reservoir and dam very close and at the end of the book the heatwave ends with a heavy storm, throwing in the flood myth as well. There is also a running reference through the book to the Anglo-Saxon poem “Wulf and Eadwacer”, always difficult to interpret, but here basically love is a cage and nothing is what it seems. There is a sense of impending doom, but throughout John appears to be rather confused, not surprisingly as he is with a group of strangers. But John just goes with the flow:

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Karl Marx and Fyodor Dostoevsky apply the phrase in their writings to describe the selfishness and apathy of certain corrupting values.

Après Moi Lyrics | Genius Lyrics Regina Spektor – Après Moi Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

I have to admit to being a little disappointed with this one. Thats not to say it is a bad book but the blurb seemed to promise something different (in my opinion) to that which it delivered. When I started I thought there was going to be some mystery, perhaps something a little odd going on, but in the end it was all rather mundane. An original and haunting book…a mix of elegant, alluring, but subtly sinister characters…a talented writer." - Daily Mail (UK) In June 2018 Perry was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative. [7] Novels [ edit ] After Me Comes the Flood [ edit ] I read this book a long time ago, so this will be a difficult review to write. I suppose I was waiting for a heatwave to hit London so I can be in the right mood to write this and a heatwave is something you will wait for for a long time in the UK. But I did spend half of this week sitting in a puddle of my own sweat, so here we are. The story is full of Biblical imagery, perhaps especially the book of Genesis. There’s a character called Eve, people spend a lot of time walking round a garden, the story takes place over seven days, one chapter starts with the words On the morning of the sixth day…. And there’s always the threat of an imminent flood.

après moi le deluge

Russian-American singer and songwriter Regina Spektor included " Après moi, le déluge" in the chorus of her song "Après Moi" from her album Begin to Hope. The song was later covered by Peter Gabriel.