Two Novels: Jealousy and In the Labyrinth

Here, in one volume, are two remarkable novels by the chief spokesman of the so-called new novel” which has caused such discussion and aroused such controversy. Jealousy,” said the New York Times Book Review is a technical masterpiece, impeccably contrived.” It is an exhilarating challenge,” said the San Francisco Chronicle. The Times Literary Supplement of London called Robbe-Grillet an incomparable artist” and the Guardian termed Jealousy an extraordinary book.” In his native France, leading critic Maurice Nadeau wrote in France-Observateur that In the Labyrinth is better than an excellent novel: it is a great work of literature,” and fellow novelist and critic Claude Roy judged the same work Robbe-Grillet's best book,” while here in America the Parade of Books” column called In the Labyrinth a highly emotional experience for the reader” and went on to predict: Robbe-Grillet will take his place in world literature as a successor of Balzac and Proust.”This volume, which offers incisive essays on Robbe-Grillet by Professor Bruce Morrissette of the University of Chicago and by French critics Roland Barthes and Anne Minor, also contains a helpful bibliography of writings by and about the author.