Miracle Of The Rose

Miracle of the Rose — Jean Genet (Penguin, 1965)

ISBN: 0140033041 | Condition: Used | Sold by: Crappy Old Books

Welcome to the world according to Jean Genet, where prison corridors bloom like cathedrals, petty thieves become saints with good cheekbones, and the barbed wire keeps out the unimaginative. Miracle of the Rose is Genet’s incandescent mash-up of memory and myth, written in a style so lush you’ll want to underline entire pages and then apologise to the margins.

Part memoir, part fever dream, the book wanders between the Mettray penal colony of Genet’s youth and the adult prison where everything smells faintly of disinfectant and destiny. He writes about devotion as if it were a jailbreak, about criminality as if it were a liturgical rite, and about desire with the solemnity of a cathedral choir that’s nicked the collection plate. Harcamone, a condemned man, hovers like a black-haloed angel over the text—silent, beautiful, and inconvenient for prison administration.

Expect sentences that refuse to behave, pages that swoon into poetry, and ideas that climb the walls in search of better lighting. Genet polishes the grubbiest details until they glitter obscenely. He will make you doubt your distinctions between sin and sacrament, between the cell and the sanctuary, between a rose and a razor.

This Used Penguin has survived decades of being admired and slightly mis-shelved. The spine has that gentle curve that says “I’ve been read, not merely displayed.” The pages carry the noble patina of time, the occasional whisper of a past reader’s gasp, and perhaps a pencilled exclamation mark where Genet got a bit too Genet. Text remains perfectly legible; the aura is delightfully unrepentant.

Why this book, why now?

• Because beauty should be allowed day release.

• Because few writers can make transgression feel like theology and get away with it.

• Because it’s useful to remember that literature can still blush.

• Because Penguin paperbacks look great while corrupting your moral furniture.

Recommended for readers who enjoy baroque prose, existential smirks, and the sense that the author could pickpocket your wallet and hand you back an orchid. Read it on the bus if you enjoy confusing people. Read it at home if you enjoy confusing yourself.

Crappy Old Books proudly presents this gently weathered miracle, priced for sinners and saints alike. Adopt it, scuff it further, and let Genet redecorate your conscience in velvet and iron. The rose is waiting. Try not to bleed on it.

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