What Makes a Beautiful Book?

Extract

[...] He expressed himself as well in the novel The Children of Paradise, that theatre, The Infernal Machine or even cinema, The Parents Terribles and The Testament of Orpheus. One cannot really link him to any literary current since he did not claim to belong to any school or movement. He claimed to be a poet above all in everything he undertook. He gives us the definition of what is beautiful book'. According to him, beautiful book is a book that sows many question marks'. What should we understand by beautiful book'? [...]

[...] When we think about a book that makes us ask questions, we are led to think about The Stranger of Albert Camus. In fact, from the beginning of the novel, we are completely taken aback by the character of Meursaut, the main character of the novel, who evokes the death of his mother in a extremely cold manner: 'today Mother is dead or yesterday I don't know'. At no point does the author intervene to explain the functioning of his character, leaving us in total perplexity. [...]

[...] Should we consider that a beautiful book is necessarily a book that makes the reader question? We will try to answer this problem through the study of three different literary examples: First, we chose to study the way the play Phèdre of Jean Racine can, with the different analyses that the play has been the subject of, be an example of a 'beautiful book' that has never ceased to raise questions among critics. Next, we will focus on studying a poem by Rimbaud, 'Voyelles' and the way in which poetry constantly escapes a firm and definitive interpretation to constantly raise questions. [...]

[...] Thus, we have been able to study different ways in which a 'beautiful book' can be a book that 'sows questions'. A work over time can lead to different analyses, as we have been able to study in the case of Phèdre by Jean Racine with the reluctance we have been able to formulate regarding these different analyses. Poetry, that of Rimbaud in particular, brings a plurality of interpretations without being able to determine which is the 'good' one, if there is one. [...]

[...] Can we not think, from then on, that a poem opens the way to the most extravagant interpretations without them being able to be denied by anyone? The example of Rimbaud's poem has led us to see how a 'beautiful book' could indeed 'sow questions in abundance' in that it is impossible to interpret it in a safe and traditional way. Let us now analyze a third and final example of a 'beautiful book ( . ) that sows questions in abundance'. What other interpretation can we make of Jean Cocteau's quote? [...]