Research Catalog

Title

Snake's nest, or, A tale badly told : a novel / by Lêdo Ivo ; translated by Kern Krapohl, with an introduction by Jon M. Tolman.

Author

Ivo, Lêdo

Publication

• New York : New Directions Publishing Corporation, [1981]
• ©1981

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Krapohl, Ken
• Tolman, Jon M., 1939-
• Laughlin, James, 1914-1997
• Strohbach, Hermann (Designer)
• Strohbach, Susan
• New Directions Publishing, publisher.
• James Laughlin's library of New Directions imprints.

Description

viii, 136 pages; 22 cm.

Summary

Brazilian poet Ledo Ivo's Snakes' Nest is a "tale badly told" in a most artful manner. Part political allegory, the novel explores the nature of good and evil in a provincial port in northeastern Brazil during World War II--all the ills of the repressive dictatorship then in power are reflected in the corrupt and violent society of Maceió. As Ivo says: "During a dictatorship, all narratives are poorly told, since a dictatorship is the Kingdom of Lies and cannot tolerate the truth." But to focus solely on the allegory would deny the richness of the book's many layers, the considerable skill with which the characters emerge from the narrator's false starts, the subtle and pervasive wit that skewers pomposity and pretension, the suspense created by the narrator's very unreliability, and the poetry with which the exotic setting is evoked. The last word in describing such a heady mixture belongs to the author, who calls it, "a story of terror and violence that is, surely, a sunny nightmare." Although Ledo Ivo is well known in his own country as a journalist and poetic spokesman of the "Generation of 1945," this edition of Snakes' Nest marks his first book-length appearance in English. Originally published in 1973 under the title Ninho de Cobras, Snakes' Nest won the prestigious Brazilian Walmap Prize for that year. The novel has been translated by Kern Krapohl who, for several years, lived in Brazil and worked closely with the author. Jon M. Tolman of the University of New Mexico has contributed an informative introduction which clearly places the story both historically and geographically.

Series Statement

New Directions paperbook ; NDP521

Uniform Title

Ninho de cobras. English

Alternative Title

Ninho de cobras.

Subject

• 1900-1999
• Dictatorship > Brazil > 20th century > Fiction
• Good and evil > Fiction
• Good and evil
• Dictatorship
• Brazil > History > 1930-1945 > Fiction
• Brazil

Genre/Form

• novels.
• Fiction.
• History.
• Novels.
• Dust jackets – New York (State) – New York – 1981.

Note

• Translation of: Ninho de cobras.
• "A New Directions book" -- title page.
• "New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin by New Directions Publishing Corporation" -- title page verso.

Indexed In (note)

• Harrison, J.A. Published for James Laughlin

Binding (note)

• bound in publishers' purple cloth; with original dust jacket designed by Hermann Strohbach.
• bound in publishers' paperback binding, cover designed by Hermann Strohbach.

Call Number

JFD 82-2213

ISBN

• 0811208060
• 9780811208062
• 0811208079
• 9780811208079

LCCN

81003956

OCLC

7462358

Author

Ivo, Lêdo, author.

Title

Snake's nest, or, A tale badly told : a novel / by Lêdo Ivo ; translated by Kern Krapohl, with an introduction by Jon M. Tolman.

Publisher

New York : New Directions Publishing Corporation, [1981]

Copyright Date

©1981

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

New Directions paperbook ; NDP521

Indexed In:

Harrison, J.A. Published for James Laughlin, page 105

Binding

Copy in Berg Coll 22-1077 bound in publishers' purple cloth; with original dust jacket designed by Hermann Strohbach. NN

Copy in Berg Coll 22-1078 bound in publishers' paperback binding, cover designed by Hermann Strohbach. NN

Local Note

Copy in Berg Coll 22-1077, 22-1078 acquired from Leila and Daniel Javitch, 2021.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Added Author

Krapohl, Ken, translator.

Tolman, Jon M., 1939- writer of introduction.

Laughlin, James, 1914-1997, publisher.

Strohbach, Hermann (Designer), cover designer, bookjacket designer.

Strohbach, Susan, illustrator.

New Directions Publishing, publisher.

Javitch, Leila Laughlin, donor.

Javitch, Daniel, donor.

Laughlin, James, 1914-1997, former owner.

James Laughlin's library of New Directions imprints.

Other Form:

Online version: Ivo, Lêdo. Ninho de cobras. English. Snake's nest, or, A tale badly told. New York : New Directions Pub. Corp., 1981 (OCoLC)1042802963

Publisher No.

NDP521

Research Call Number

Berg Coll 22-1077

Berg Coll 22-1078

JFD 82-2213