In the French-speaking literary world, it is one of the events of the year: the complete works of the Vaudois writer, poet and photographer Gustave Roud are now available from Zoé editions. A contemplative and timeless work that can be savored over 5,000 pages.
It will have taken four years of work to assemble the complete work of the man who is considered to be one of the greatest poets of French-speaking Switzerland. In four volumes and some 5,000 pages, any reader now has access to all of Gustave Roud’s work: collections of poems, texts published in journals, unpublished texts, translations, but also various notes, notebooks, diaries , reflections, typescripts and critical articles devoted to others than him.
“It is an editorial event insofar as it sheds a new light on this poet, rejoices Claire Jaquier, co-director of “Complete Works” and professor at the University of Neuchâtel, interviewed in the program “Forum”. work has been to bring together the different dimensions of Roud’s writing, which are numerous and as rich as each other.”
A prolific man
If Gustave Roud devoted his life to poetic writing, he also practiced with passion translation, art criticism and journalistic criticism, as well as photography which is not included in this publication, but will soon be available online for the public. “He really has a profile of his own, notes Daniel Maggetti, director of the Center for Literature in French-speaking Switzerland (CLSR) and co-director of the “Complete Works”. Not to mention that he was a major cultural player of his time.”
Born in Saint-Légier in 1897, Gustave Roud lived most of his life in Carrouge in the canton of Vaud. A great walker and contemplator of landscapes, he maintained a very close link with nature and the rural environment, particularly through the Haut-Jorat region. “A relationship that he explores with metaphysical, existential questions”, specifies Claire Jaquier.
>> To listen: The interview with Claire Jaquier, co-director of the “complete works” in the program “Forum”
A melodious and structured language
Considered a successor of Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, Gustave Roud did not invent his own language. “Ramuz, as we know, invented a style, a language. Roud did not really invent a language, but he has his own writing, analyzes Claire Jaquier. A writing of a language that is both melodious and structured. His best critics spoke ofbewitchment and D’haunting sweetness.”
“Gustave Roud is an open window on the world, a poetic consciousness that merges with this world shaped in a kind of immediacy and necessity, adds Daniel Maggetti. It is a very seductive contemplative and timeless work. , of indisputable literary quality.”
“Complete works” of the Vaudois poet and writer Gustave Roud, Editions Zoé. [Keystone – DR]
four years of work
This critical edition “Gustave Roud, Complete Works” required four years of work by a team of six researchers, co-directed by Daniel Maggetti and Claire Jaquier. It is accompanied by indexes, introductions, notices and notes. The project has benefited from the support of the Swiss National Fund (SNSF), for a budget of around one million francs.
The sources come for more than half from a rich collection of archives kept at the CLSR, if not from the library of La Chaux-de-Fonds and the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern. Only a few rare documents have been found in private homes and it is not impossible that there are still one or two manuscripts hidden here or there.
What to start with?
For people who do not yet know Gustave Roud, Daniel Maggetti recommends reading the collection of poetry and other stories “Air of Solitude”, the book “Lost Campaign” and the poem “Blindness”. Claire Jaquier, for her part, recommends leafing through the entire box first. And, for poetry, to taste “Dragon” and “Epaule”, the first two texts of “Pour un moissonneur”.
Comments collected by the program Forum
Web adaptation: Charlotte Frossard with ats
“Complete Works. Gustave Roud”, under the direction of Claire Jaquier and Daniel Maggetti, 4 volumes, Zoé editions