Jean de Bosschère, The City Curious, retold in English by F. Tennyson Jesse; New York and London, 1920 title page
The Land in The City Curious
Smaly and Redy reach this strange country while looking for three girls to share their home. Its pleasures have become building materials and living bodies: people and animals eat sweetmeats, dishes are sugar, and nearly every inhabitant is made from cake and confectionery. The sun takes pauses, birds wear hats and spurs, and an orchestra of swallows plays at midday. Yet the entrance gives the travellers an alarming experience of this abundance. A door that seems to be chocolate has a burning latch and hinge. Hedges close around them, their noses become beaks, and their cries linger in the air. The damaged fittings return without a mark. A gentle laugh shrinks the hedge and ends the moaning. Beyond the gate waits a kangaroo-like confectioner whose head mingles ice-cream and jelly. He calls himself the Architect, joining the making of food to the making of buildings. Once the visitors crawl through the grille, they meet tiny inhabitants distinguished by gigantic wigs. Their clothes continue the same material logic, combining caramel, jam, fruit and cake. The opening makes the country both enticing and disorienting: familiar treats offer little certainty about what a thing is or how it will behave.
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In the sources
A country made from confectionery
DocumentedThe opening describes a population and everyday objects made from sweets. The kangaroo-like confectioner identifies himself as the Architect, bringing building and cooking into one trade.
An unstable threshold
DocumentedThe apparently chocolate door has burning fittings. The travellers acquire beaks visible only to themselves and birds, while the damaged latch and hinge return without a trace of having been bitten.
The Wigs and their edible dress
DocumentedBeyond the gate, inhabitants wear enormous perukes. Their clothes are described as mosaics of caramel and jam with fruit and cake.
Abundance without reliable appearances
InterpretationThe movement from appetising materials to confinement, transformation and restored objects makes this country unsettling as well as attractive. Its strangeness comes from the failure of ordinary expectations about food, bodies and buildings.
Context & interpretation
The fictional country as introduced in complete Chapter I and the first two prose pages of Chapter II, printed pp. 1–16 of this 1920 English retelling. This entry does not summarise the later fourteen chapters or identify an actual location.
Original passages
Source 1
The City Curious
both men and beasts lived upon nothing but sweetmeats and pastry.Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The City Curious, printed p. 5
Exact cleared Reader page visually inspected. Complete Chapter I, printed pp. 1–14, and opening prose of Chapter II, pp. 15–16, reviewed. Documents a fictional portrayal; later chapters and an actual geographic identification are outside this entry.
- Edition
- IMJ-0259-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0259-E001-P0018
- Original scan leaf
- 25
- Recorded leaf number
- 25
- Current Reader position
- 18
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
The City Curious
made of chocolateOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The City Curious, printed p. 6
Exact cleared Reader page visually inspected. Complete Chapter I, printed pp. 1–14, and opening prose of Chapter II, pp. 15–16, reviewed. Documents a fictional portrayal; later chapters and an actual geographic identification are outside this entry.
- Edition
- IMJ-0259-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0259-E001-P0019
- Original scan leaf
- 26
- Recorded leaf number
- 26
- Current Reader position
- 19
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 3
The City Curious
the beaks were invisible to all save themselves and the birds.Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The City Curious, printed p. 8
Exact cleared Reader page visually inspected. Complete Chapter I, printed pp. 1–14, and opening prose of Chapter II, pp. 15–16, reviewed. Documents a fictional portrayal; later chapters and an actual geographic identification are outside this entry.
- Edition
- IMJ-0259-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0259-E001-P0021
- Original scan leaf
- 28
- Recorded leaf number
- 28
- Current Reader position
- 21
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 4
The City Curious
Neither the latch nor the hinge bore any trace of having been bittenOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The City Curious, printed p. 10
Exact cleared Reader page visually inspected. Complete Chapter I, printed pp. 1–14, and opening prose of Chapter II, pp. 15–16, reviewed. Documents a fictional portrayal; later chapters and an actual geographic identification are outside this entry.
- Edition
- IMJ-0259-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0259-E001-P0023
- Original scan leaf
- 30
- Recorded leaf number
- 30
- Current Reader position
- 23
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 5
The City Curious
a mingling of ice-cream and jellyOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The City Curious, printed p. 12
Exact cleared Reader page visually inspected. Complete Chapter I, printed pp. 1–14, and opening prose of Chapter II, pp. 15–16, reviewed. Documents a fictional portrayal; later chapters and an actual geographic identification are outside this entry.
- Edition
- IMJ-0259-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0259-E001-P0025
- Original scan leaf
- 32
- Recorded leaf number
- 32
- Current Reader position
- 25
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 6
The City Curious
I am the Architect.Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The City Curious, printed p. 13
Exact cleared Reader page visually inspected. Complete Chapter I, printed pp. 1–14, and opening prose of Chapter II, pp. 15–16, reviewed. Documents a fictional portrayal; later chapters and an actual geographic identification are outside this entry.
- Edition
- IMJ-0259-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0259-E001-P0026
- Original scan leaf
- 33
- Recorded leaf number
- 33
- Current Reader position
- 26
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 7
The City Curious
They nearly all wore gigantic wigsOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The City Curious, printed p. 15
Exact cleared Reader page visually inspected. Complete Chapter I, printed pp. 1–14, and opening prose of Chapter II, pp. 15–16, reviewed. Documents a fictional portrayal; later chapters and an actual geographic identification are outside this entry.
- Edition
- IMJ-0259-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0259-E001-P0028
- Original scan leaf
- 35
- Recorded leaf number
- 35
- Current Reader position
- 28
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 8
The City Curious
mosaics of caramel and jamOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The City Curious, printed p. 16
Exact cleared Reader page visually inspected. Complete Chapter I, printed pp. 1–14, and opening prose of Chapter II, pp. 15–16, reviewed. Documents a fictional portrayal; later chapters and an actual geographic identification are outside this entry.
- Edition
- IMJ-0259-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0259-E001-P0029
- Original scan leaf
- 36
- Recorded leaf number
- 36
- Current Reader position
- 29
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
