Léon Bloy

C' tait une impossible rencontre. A un si cle de distance, celle d'un empereur, Napol on, et d'un crivain maudit, L on Bloy. L'un croyait peine au ciel, l'autre, pour ainsi dire, y vivait. L'un voyait dans la religion un simple instrument de gouvernement, un adjuvant de son ambition toute terrestre; l'autre pratiquait l'extase et l'oubli de soi dans un catholicisme mystique, sombre et flamboyant. L'un mena sa vie comme un m t ore dont l' clat illumine encore les imaginations; l'autre fut un vaincu de l'existence, vivant mis rablement dans les emportements vains et les fureurs impuissantes, crivant faute de vivre et ne vivant jamais bien d'une criture pourtant magnifique. L'un voyait les humains comme la p te qu'on mod le pour construire son destin, indiff rent aux autres et tout entier dans sa propre l gende; l'autre puisait dans sa foi une immense compassion pour le pauvre, le laid, l'oubli , pr f rant toujours les humbles aux puissants, apercevant le salut dans le regard des r prouv s. L'un croyait la force, l'autre la faiblesse. Et pourtant Napol on fournit L on Bloy le sujet d'un de ses grands livres, l'un des plus tranges et des plus beaux qu'on ait crits sur l'homme in puisable. Dans l'oc anique bibliographie imp riale, L'Ame de Napol on figure parmi la poign e de curiosit s fascinantes, la gerbe de textes hors du commun que le petit g n ral corse a suscit s chez les grands crivains.

Blood of the Poor (originally Le Sang du pauvre), by Catholic writer L on Bloy, is perhaps the hardest to read of L on Bloyʼs writings, as it goes straight to the heart of the matter of what is wrong in the world. It is hard to read, emotively, because it gives the honest reader no room for cover, no space for shelter, no shadow of a tree to hide behind. With avarice as its subject, it is a dark poem in prose, a sermon in the style of Savonarola, with the biting satire of a Jonathan Swift." The Blood and the Flesh of the Poor are the only aliments that can nourish, the substance of the rich being a poison and a putrefaction. It is therefore a necessity of hygiene that the poor be devoured by the rich who find that very good, and who ask for it again. Rich children are fortified by the juice of the poorsʼ flesh, and the rich manʼs cuisine is endowed with concentrate of the poor.""You believe yourselves to be innocent because you have not slit somebodyʼs throat, as yet, I want to believe; because you have not forced open somebodyʼs door nor scaled his wall in order to despoil him of his possessions; because finally you have not transgressed human laws too visibly. You are so gross, so carnal, for you do not conceive of a crime that cannot be seen. But I say to you, my very dear brother, that you are a plant, and that that assassin is your flower." "It is true that there are refuges: drunkenness, prostitution of the body, suicide, or madness. Why would the dance not continue?"

L on Bloy's Ex g se des lieux communs-first published in 1902-appears here in English for the first time through Wiseblood Books. Among the novels, essays, biographies, and journals composed by Bloy, there is one work whose only appropriate classification was given directly in its title: Exegesis of Commonplaces-a peculiar foray into a genre normally reserved for theologians. And yet, as Albert B guin notes in his sublime L on Bloy: A Study in Impatience, Bloy's entire output may be seen as a labor of exegesis: "...it became Bloy's aim to make his mind as transparent as possible to the light of grace and to penetrate further and further into the mysteries hidden beneath the surface of history and the state of mankind." In the present volume, this "light of grace" is refracted upon the infallibly trite and rigorously unexamined language of the bourgeoisie. Banalities such as "Business is business," "You can't have everything," "I'll believe it when I see it," "Money can't buy happiness," etc., are treated with the gravity of sacred incantation and provide the framework for Bloy's dissections. As a matter of structure, Exegesis recalls Flaubert's Dictionary of Received Ideas or Bierce's Devil's Dictionary, but whereas the latter are largely satirical (and cynical) attacks on an emerging class of acquisitive conformists, Bloy's project excavates the spiritual content of what might otherwise be dismissed as mere vapidities. Though he despises the bourgeoisie for its greed and vanity, for its hypocrisies and cruelties, Bloy nevertheless recognizes that "the most inane representatives of the bourgeoisie are themselves fearsome prophets," and that, "in the form of Commonplaces, they continually and unwittingly advance truly impressive claims, the implications of which, to them, remain unknown." Those implications, the supernatural blood invigorating an otherwise superficial and often incoherent idiom, are Bloy's true subject, and it is the purpose of his Exegesis to distill their essence.

The Words of a Demolitions Contractor (originally Propos d'un Entrepreneur de D molitions), published in 1884, is a collection of articles written by French author L on Bloy, previously published in the columns of various Parisian journals between the years 1882 and 1884 - the Chat Noir journal principally, but also the Gils Blas, the Figaro, the Nouvelle Revue, and Le Petit Caporal. Selected by the author himself, they represent L on Bloy at his earliest and fiery best as a thunderous, irascible, intransigeant Catholic pamphleteer and polemicist. These are the articles that earned him his reputation, and these are the articles that essentially torpedoed his career. So maligned and hated was he from the start, that his reputation as an author still suffers. But as the dust settles after nearly 150 years, in retrospect, L on Bloy stands out as a beacon of righteousness, a Parisian Diogenes, shedding the light of his genius and rancor on the ills plaguing Paris and France at the time - during the Belle Epoque years and the years leading up to the two world wars. Itʼs hard to discover a writer of such intensity, love and disgust, pathos, anger, and parody - in any language, at any period of time in the history of Western literature. Imagine the gloom and despair of Dostoevsky, mixed with the prophesy and thunder of an Old Testament prophet, throw in the biting wit of Jonathan Swift - shake it up and let it sit for a minute - and there you have him: L on Bloy.

Han infattar avföring i guld; på ädelstenar monterar han svarta salivpärlor. När han lyckas med sådant guldsmedsarbete och ciselering blir själva avföringen en juvel.” Octave Mirbeau. Otrevligheter är en novellsamling om död, vansinne och religiös ångest, skrivna på lika grym som oförliknelig taggtrådsprosa av Léon Bloy (1846-1917), det ”ständiga raseriets författare” och ”invektivens geni”. Här presenteras - för första gången på svenska - denne smädelsernas smältugn som sliter upp onda blommor på modernismens dynghög. Men Bloys fradgande misantropi propelleras av en djup förtvivlan inför människornas dövhet inför Gud. ”Präster är latriner. De finns där för att mänsklighetens vidrighet ska forsa ut.” Utgåvan ingår i serien Alastor Klassiker där förlaget Alastor Press samlar sina mest oumbärliga dekadensklassiker.

Clothilde est n e dans la mis re ouvri re du Second Empire et a toujours t inspir e par sa foi chr tienne. Mari e un ivrogne qui l'oblige se prostituer pour subvenir aux besoins du couple, elle rencontre Leopold, un peintre qui n'h site pas jouer le r le de protecteur aupr s de la jeune femme. Mais la mort pr matur e de celui-ci entra nera Clothilde au fond de la mis re...

Ce roman crit la fin du 19 me si cle d crit la vie de Clothilde, jeune femme, n e dans la mis re ouvri re du Second Empire, mais inspir e par sa foi chr tienne. Son compagnon, un ivrogne, l'oblige se prostituer pour subvenir leurs besoins. Elle se retrouve sous la protection de Leopold, peintre et bienfaiteur. Ce dernier meurt dans des circonstances obscures. Clothilde toucha le fond de la mis re et de la souffrance et meurt avec une aur ole de saintet ...

La femme pauvre: episode contemporain / Leon BloyDate de l'edition originale: 1897Ce livre est la reproduction fidele d'une oeuvre publiee avant 1920 et fait partie d'une collection de livres reimprimes a la demande editee par Hachette Livre, dans le cadre d'un partenariat avec la Bibliotheque nationale de France, offrant l'opportunite d'acceder a des ouvrages anciens et souvent rares issus des fonds patrimoniaux de la BnF. Les oeuvres faisant partie de cette collection ont ete numerisees par la BnF et sont presentes sur Gallica, sa bibliotheque numerique. En entreprenant de redonner vie a ces ouvrages au travers d'une collection de livres reimprimes a la demande, nous leur donnons la possibilite de rencontrer un public elargi et participons a la transmission de connaissances et de savoirs parfois difficilement accessibles. Nous avons cherche a concilier la reproduction fidele d'un livre ancien a partir de sa version numerisee avec le souci d'un confort de lecture optimal. Nous esperons que les ouvrages de cette nouvelle collection vous apporteront entiere satisfaction. Pour plus d'informations, rendez-vous sur www.hachettebnf.fr

Le D sesp r est la fois une autobiographie romanc e et un pr texte m ditations lyriques et mystiques. Le h ros Ca n Marchenoir y raconte sa vie avec V ronique. L'histoire est librement inspir e de la vie de L on Bloy qui se r v le un romancier singulier: les v nements et l'intrigue, chez lui, comptent moins que les grands th mes int rieurs que d veloppent d'immenses digressions.

”Han infattar avfo¨ring i guld; pa° a¨delstenar monterar han svarta salivpa¨rlor. Na¨r han lyckas med sa°dant guldsmedsarbete och ciselering blir sja¨lva avfo¨ringen en juvel.” Octave Mirbeau. Otrevligheter a¨r en novellsamling om do¨d, vansinne och religio¨s a°ngest, skrivna pa° lika grym som ofo¨rliknelig taggtra°dsprosa av Le´on Bloy (1846-1917), det ”sta¨ndiga raseriets fo¨rfattare” och ”invektivens geni”. Ha¨r presenteras - fo¨r fo¨rsta ga°ngen pa° svenska - denne sma¨delsernas sma¨ltugn som sliter upp onda blommor pa° modernismens dyngho¨g. Men Bloys fradgande misantropi propelleras av en djup fo¨rtvivlan info¨r ma¨nniskornas do¨vhet info¨r Gud. ”Pra¨ster a¨r latriner. De finns da¨r fo¨r att ma¨nsklighetens vidrighet ska forsa ut.”