Decades after the publication of Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique, Michel Tournier’s rendering of the 1719 classic, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, remains a narrative tour de force. Tournier’s very first novel, Vendredi bespoke such virtuosity that it was awarded the highly prestigious Grand Prix du roman de l’Académie française [French Academy’s Grand Prize for a Novel] in 1967. Not one text, but many, it transposes Daniel Defoe’s Enlightenment-era tale into a postmodern reflection on the Self and the Other in a remarkably compelling, multifaceted way. In fact, so fascinated was Tournier with the story that he reworked his novel into Vendredi ou la vie …
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Citation: EVANS, Beverly. "Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 June 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=31710, accessed 23 November 2024.]