Octave Mirbeau
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (October 2018) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
Octave Mirbeau | |
---|---|
Born | Trévières, France | 16 February 1848
Died | 16 February 1917 Paris, France | (aged 69)
Occupation | Novelist, playwright, journalist, pamphleteer |
Genre | Novel, comedy, chronicles, art critic |
Literary movement | Impressionism, expressionism, decadent, avant-garde |
Notable works | The Torture Garden (1899) The Diary of a Chambermaid (1900) |
Spouse |
Octave Mirbeau (16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French
Biography
Aesthetic and political struggles
The grandson of Norman notaries and the son of a doctor, Mirbeau spent his childhood in a village in
After his debut in journalism in the service of the
As an art critic, he campaigned on behalf of the "great gods nearest to his heart": he sang the praises of
As a literary critic and early member of Académie Goncourt, he 'discovered' Maurice Maeterlinck and Marguerite Audoux and admired Remy de Gourmont, Marcel Schwob, Léon Bloy, Georges Rodenbach, Alfred Jarry, Charles-Louis Philippe, Émile Guillaumin , Valery Larbaud and Léon Werth (cf. his Combats littéraires, 2006).
Mirbeau's novels
Autobiographical novels
Mirbeau
In 1888, Mirbeau published
Crisis of the novel
Mirbeau then underwent a grave
Death of the novel
In his last two novels, La 628-E8 (1907) – including La Mort de Balzac – and Dingo (1913), he strayed ever further from realism, giving free rein to clinical fantasy elements and casting his cat and his own dog as heroes. These last Mirbeau stories show a complete break with the conventions of realist fiction, also signifying a breakdown of reality.[15]
Mirbeau's theatre
In the theatre, Mirbeau made his first steps with a proletarian drama and modern tragedy,
In 1908 — at the end of a long legal and media battle[16]
— Mirbeau saw his play
He also wrote six
Posthumous fame
There has been no interruption in the publication of Mirbeau's works. Yet his immense literary production has largely been known through only three works, and he was considered as literally and politically incorrect.
But, more recently, Mirbeau has been rediscovered and presented in a new light. A fuller appreciation of the role he played in the political, literary, and artistic world of la Belle Époque is emerging.[18]
Mirbeau lies buried in the Passy Cemetery, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
References
- ^ Cf. « Rémalard » and « Vannes », in Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau.
- ^ Cf. « Bonapartisme », in Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau.
- ^ Cf. « Négritude », in Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau; and Pierre Michel, « Quelques réflexions sur la "négritude" », in Cahiers Octave Mirbeau, n° 12, 2005, p. 4-34.
- ^ English translation: The Voters strike, The Anarchist Library, 2012.
- ^ Cf. « Affaire Dreyfus », in Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau.
- ^ Pierre Michel, Lucidité désespoir et écriture, Presses de l'Université d’Angers, 2001.
- ISBN 1859958907
- ^ For instance, L'Écuyère, La Belle Madame Le Vassart and Dans la vieille rue.
- ISBN 978-1-134-97673-7.
- ^ Cf. Jean-Michel Guignon, « Aux sources du Calvaire – Qui était Judith/Juliette ? », Cahiers Octave Mirbeau, n° 20, 2013, p. 145-152.
- ^ Pierre Michel, « L'Abbé Jules : de Zola à Dostoïevski », Éditions du Boucher, 2003, p. 3-18.
- ^ Pierre Michel, « Sébastien Roch, ou le meurtre d'une âme d'enfant », Éditions du Boucher, 2003, p. 3-24.
- ^ « Pessimisme », in Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau.
- ^ Cf. « Collage », in Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau.
- ^ Cf. « Réalisme », in Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau; and Pierre Michel, Octave Mirbeau et le roman, Société Octave Mirbeau, 2005.
- ^ Pierre Michel, « La Bataille du Foyer », Revue d'histoire du théâtre, 1991, n° 3, p. 195-230.
- ^ Pierre Michel, « Octave Mirbeau et Eugène Ionesco », Cahiers Octave Mirbeau, n° 13, 2006, p. 163-174.
- ^ Cf. Société Octave Mirbeau.
Works
Novels
- Le Calvaire (1886) (Calvary, New York, 1922).
- L'Abbé Jules (1888) (Abbé Jules, Sawtry, Dedalus, 1996).
- Sébastien Roch (1890) (Sébastien Roch, Sawtry, Dedalus, 2000).
- Dans le ciel (1892–1893) (In the Sky).
- Le Jardin des supplices (1899) (Torture Garden, New York, 1931; The Garden of Tortures, London, 1938) .
- Le Journal d'une femme de chambre (1900) (A Chambermaid's Diary, New York, 1900 ; The Diary of a Lady's Maid, London, 1903 ; Célestine, Being the Diary of a Chambermaid, New York, 1930 ; Diary of a Chambermaid, New York, 1945).
- Les Vingt et un Jours d'un neurasthénique (1901).
- Dingo (novel) (1913).
- Un gentilhomme (1919).
- Les Mémoires de mon ami (1920).
- Œuvre romanesque, 3 volumes, Buchet/Chastel – Société Octave Mirbeau, 2000–2001, 4 000 pages. Website of Éditions du Boucher, 2003–2004.
Theatre
- Les Mauvais bergers(The Bad Shepherds) (1897).
- Les affaires sont les affaires (1903) (Business Is Business, New York, 1904).
- Farces et moralités, six morality plays (1904) (Scruples, New York, 1923 ; The Epidemic, Bloomington, 1949 ; The Lovers, translation coming soon).
- Le Foyer(1908) (Charity).
- Dialogues tristes, Eurédit, 1905.
Short stories
- Dans l'antichambre (Histoire d'une Minute) (1905).
- La Mort de Balzac (1889).
- Contes cruels, 2 volumes (1890 and 1900).
- Contes drôles (1895).
- Mémoire pour un avocat (2007).
Art chronicles
- Combats esthétiques, 2 volumes (1893).
- Premières chroniques esthétiques (1895).
- Combats littéraires (1906).
Travelogues
- La 628-E8 (1907) (Sketches of a journey, London, 1989).
Political and social chronicles
- Voters strike (1888)
- Combats politiques (1890).
- L'Affaire Dreyfus (1891).
- Lettres de l'Inde (1891).
- L'Amour de la femme vénale (1894).
- Chroniques du Diable (1895).
- Interpellations (1911).
Correspondence
- Lettres à Alfred Bansard des Bois (1989)
- Correspondance avec Rodin (1988), avec Monet (1990), avec Pissarro (1990), avec Jean Grave (1994), avec Jules Huret (2009).
- Correspondance générale, 3 volumes already published (2003-2005-2009).
Bibliography
- ISBN 9780719006685
- Pierre Michel and Jean-François Nivet, Octave Mirbeau, l'imprécateur au cœur fidèle, Séguier, 1990, 1020 pages.
- Pierre Michel, Les Combats d'Octave Mirbeau, Annales littéraires de l'université de Besançon, 1995, 386 pages.
- Christopher Lloyd, Mirbeau's fictions, Durham, 1996.
- Enda McCaffrey, Octave Mirbeau’s literary intellectual evolution as a french writer (1880-1914), Edwin Mellen Press, 2000, 246 pages.
- Pierre Michel, Lucidité, désespoir et écriture, Presses de l'Université d'Angers (2001).
- Samuel Lair, Mirbeau et le mythe de la nature, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2004, 361 pages.
- Pierre Michel Octave Mirbeau et le roman, Société Octave Mirbeau, 2005, 276 pages.
- Pierre Michel Bibliographie d'Octave Mirbeau, Société Octave Mirbeau, 2009, 713 pages.
- Pierre Michel Albert Camus et Octave Mirbeau, Société Octave Mirbeau, Angers, 2005, 68 pages.
- Pierre Michel Jean-Paul Sartre et Octave Mirbeau, Société Octave Mirbeau, Angers, 2005, 67 pages.
- Pierre Michel, Octave Mirbeau, Henri Barbusse et l'enfer, 51 pages.
- Robert Ziegler, The Nothing Machine : The Fiction of Octave Mirbeau, Rodopi, Amsterdam – Kenilworth, September 2007.
- Samuel Lair, Octave Mirbeau l'iconoclaste, L'Harmattan, 2008.
- Yannick Lemarié - Pierre Michel, Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau, L'Age d'Homme, 2011, 1,200 p.
- Anita Staron, L'Art romanesque d'Octave Mirbeau - Thèmes et techniques, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego, 2014, 298 p.
- Cahiers Octave Mirbeau, n° 1 to n° 21, 1994–2014, 7 700 pages.
External links
- Works by Octave Mirbeau at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Octave Mirbeau at Internet Archive
- Works by Octave Mirbeau at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- (in French) Website of Société Octave Mirbeau. More than 800 essays about Mirbeau, in twenty-three different languages.
- (in French) Other website of Société Octave Mirbeau
- (in French) Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau
- (in French) Pierre Michel's blog... and Octave Mirbeau's