A captivating and wide-ranging interpretation of accidental
dismounting.
In Pascal Quignard's writing, philology hunts for wild game in a dark
forest. The Unsaddled, which features horses as its central figure, is
no exception. Taking off from puns, multifarious imagery, and
metaphorical meanings--"to be baffled," "to be thrown"--that the book's
title provides, Quignard focuses on life-changing moments. We meet
George Sand (whose father died after being thrown from his horse), Saint
Paul, Abelard, Agrippa d'Aubigné, and countless other writers,
philosophers, theologians, or kings who fell off their horses--not to
forget Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was knocked over by a dog. Being
"unsaddled" can also be associated, as Quignard shows in regard to
Nietzsche, with an "overturning" of values. Scenes of war, hunting,
"fleeing" or sexuality--"When lovers have a horse ride, they gallop in
another world"--come before our eyes, each time from those unsettling
vantage points that Quignard knows how to find. As ever, he ranges far
and wide in his intense quest, taking examples from across human
history, from the neolithic age to his own childhood memories of postwar
Le Havre in northern France.
