HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (7 November 1838 – 19 August 1889) was a French
symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...
writer. His family called him Mathias while his friends called him Villiers; he would also use the name Auguste when publishing some of his books.


Life

Villiers de l'Isle-Adam was born in
Saint-Brieuc Saint-Brieuc (, Breton: ''Sant-Brieg'' , Gallo: ''Saent-Berioec'') is a city in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. History Saint-Brieuc is named after a Welsh monk Brioc, who Christianised the region in the 6th c ...
,
Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
, to a distinguished aristocratic family. His parents, Marquis Joseph-Toussaint and Marie-Francoise (née Le Nepvou de Carfort) were not financially secure and were supported by Marie's aunt, Mademoiselle de Kerinou. In attempt to gain wealth, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's father began an obsessive search for the lost treasure of the Knights of Malta, formerly known as the
Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...
, of which
Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam Fra' Philippe de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam (1464 – 21 August 1534) was a prominent member of the Knights Hospitaller at Rhodes and later Malta. Having risen to the position of Prior of the ''Langue of Auvergne'', he was elected 44th Grand ...
, a family ancestor, was the 16th-century Grand Master of the order. The treasure had reputedly been buried near Quintin during the French Revolution. Consequently, Marquis Joseph-Toussaint spent large sums of money buying and excavating land before selling unsuccessful sites at a loss. The young Villiers' education was troubled—he attended over half a dozen different schools—yet from an early age his family were convinced he was an artistic genius, and as a child, he composed poetry and music. A significant event in his childhood years was the death of a young girl with whom Villiers had been in love, an event which would deeply influence his literary imagination. Villiers made several trips to Paris in the late 1850s, where he became enamoured of artistic and theatrical life. In 1860, his aunt offered him enough money to allow him to live in the capital permanently. He had already acquired a reputation in literary circles for his inspired, alcohol-fuelled monologues. He frequented the Brasserie des Martyrs, where he met his idol
Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...
, who encouraged him to read the works of
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
. Poe and Baudelaire would become the biggest influences on Villiers' mature style; his first publication, however (at his own expense), was a book of verse, ''Premières Poésies'' (1859). It made little impression outside Villiers' own small band of admirers. Around this time, Villiers began living with Louise Dyonnet. The relationship and Dyonnet's reputation scandalised his family; they forced him to undergo a retreat at
Solesmes Abbey Solesmes Abbey or St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes (''Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes'') is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes (Sarthe, France), famous as the source of the restoration of Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper Guà ...
. Villiers would remain a devout, if highly unorthodox, Catholic for the rest of his life. Villiers broke off his relationship with Dyonnet in 1864. He made several further attempts at securing a suitable bride, but all ended in failure. In 1867, he asked
Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rem ...
for the hand of his daughter, Estelle, but Gautier — who had turned his back on the bohemian world of his youth and would not let his child marry a writer with few prospects — turned him down. Villiers' own family also strongly disapproved of the match. His plans for marriage to an English heiress, Anna Eyre Powell, were equally unsuccessful. Villiers finally took to living with Marie Dantine, the illiterate widow of a Belgian coachman. In 1881, she gave birth to Villiers' son, Victor (nicknamed "Totor"). An important event in Villiers' life was his meeting with
Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
at Triebschen in 1869. Villiers read from the manuscript of his play ''La Révolte'' and the composer declared that the Frenchman was a "true poet". Another trip to see Wagner the next year was cut short by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, during which Villiers became a commander in the Garde Nationale. At first, he was impressed by the patriotic spirit of the Commune and wrote articles in support of it in the ''Tribun du peuple'' under the pseudonym "Marius", but he soon became disillusioned with its revolutionary violence. Villiers' aunt died in 1871, ending his financial support. Though Villiers had many admirers in literary circles (the most important being his close friend
Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...
), mainstream newspapers found his fiction too eccentric to be saleable, and few theatres would run his plays. Villiers was forced to take odd jobs to support his family: he gave boxing lessons and worked in a funeral parlour and was employed as an assistant to a mountebank. Another money-making scheme Villiers considered was reciting his poetry to a paying public in a cage full of tigers, but he never acted on the idea. According to his friend
Léon Bloy Léon Bloy (; 11 July 1846 – 3 November 1917) was a French Catholic novelist, essayist, pamphleteer (or lampoonist), and satirist, known additionally for his eventual (and passionate) defense of Catholicism and for his influence within French C ...
, Villiers was so poor he had to write most of his novel '' L'Ève future'' lying on his belly on bare floorboards, because the bailiffs had taken all his furniture. His poverty only increased his sense of aristocratic pride. In 1875, he attempted to sue a playwright he believed had insulted one of his ancestors, Maréchal Jean de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. In 1881, Villiers stood unsuccessfully for parliament as a candidate for the
Legitimist The Legitimists (french: Légitimistes) are royalists who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession to the French crown of the descendants of the eldest branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They re ...
party. By the 1880s Villiers' fame began to grow, but not his finances. The publishers Calmann-Lévy accepted his ''Contes cruels'', but the sum they offered Villiers was negligible. The volume did, however, come to the attention of
Joris-Karl Huysmans Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel ''À rebou ...
, who praised Villiers's work in his highly influential novel ''
À rebours ''À rebours'' (; translated ''Against Nature'' or ''Against the Grain'') is an 1884 novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans. The narrative centers on a single character: Jean des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive, ailing aesthete. The l ...
''. By this time, Villiers was very ill with stomach cancer. On his deathbed, he finally married Marie Dantine, thus legitimising his beloved son "Totor". He is buried in
Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figures ...
.


Writings

Villiers' works, in the Romantic style, are often fantastic in plot and filled with mystery and horror. Important among them are the drama ''
Axël ''Axël'' is a drama by French writer Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, published in 1890. It was influenced by his participation in the Paris Commune, the Gnostic philosophy of Hegel as well as the works of Goethe and Victor Hugo. It begins in an o ...
'' (1890), the novel ''
The Future Eve ''The Future Eve'' (also translated as ''Tomorrow's Eve'' and ''The Eve of the Future''; french: L'Ève future) is a symbolist science fiction novel by the French author Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. Begun in 1878 and originally published i ...
'' (1886), and the short-story collection ''Contes cruels'' (1883, tr. Sardonic Tales, 1927). ''Contes cruels'' is regarded as an important collection of horror stories, and the origin of the short story genre
conte cruel The conte cruel is, as ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'' by Brian Stableford states, a "short-story genre that takes its name from an 1883 collection by Villiers de l'Isle-Adam", although previous examples had been provided by such writers as Ed ...
. ''
The Future Eve ''The Future Eve'' (also translated as ''Tomorrow's Eve'' and ''The Eve of the Future''; french: L'Ève future) is a symbolist science fiction novel by the French author Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. Begun in 1878 and originally published i ...
'' greatly helped to popularize the term " android" (''Androïde'' in French, the character is named "Andréide").Shelde, Per (1993). ''Androids, Humanoids, and Other Science Fiction Monsters: Science and Soul in Science Fiction Films''. New York: New York University Press. Villiers believed the imagination has within it much more beauty than reality itself, existing at a level in which nothing real could compare.


Axël

Villiers considered ''Axël'' to be his masterpiece, although critics preferred his fiction. He began work on the play around 1869, and had still not completed it when he died. It was first published posthumously in 1890. The work is heavily influenced by the Romantic theatre of
Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
, as well as
Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
's ''
Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
'' and the music dramas of
Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
. The play's most famous line is Axël's ''"Vivre? les serviteurs feront cela pour nous"'' ("Living? Our servants will do that for us").
Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...
used the title ''Axel's Castle'' for his study of early Modernist literature.


Works

* ''Premières Poésies ''(early verse, 1859) * ''Isis'' (novel, uncompleted, 1862) * ''Elën'' (drama in three acts in prose, 1865) * ''Morgane'' (drama in five acts in prose, 1866) * ''La Révolte'' (drama in one act, 1870) * ''Le Nouveau Monde'' (drama, 1880) * ''Contes Cruels'' (stories, 1883; translated into English as ''Sardonic Tales'' by Hamish Miles in 1927, and as ''Cruel Tales'' by
Robert Baldick Robert André Edouard Baldick, FRSL (9 November 1927 – April 1972), was a British scholar of French literature, writer, translator and joint editor of the Penguin Classics series with Betty Radice. He was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. ...
in 1963) * '' L'Ève future'' (novel, 1886; translated into English as ''Tomorrow's Eve'' by Robert Martin Adams) * ''L'Amour supreme'' (stories, 1886; partially translated into English by
Brian Stableford Brian Michael Stableford (born 25 July 1948) is a British academic, critic and science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped ...
as ''The Scaffold'' and ''The Vampire Soul'') * ''Tribulat Bonhomet'' (fiction including "Claire Lenoir", 1887; translated into English by Brian Stableford as ''The Vampire Soul'' ) * ''L'Evasion'' (drama in one act, 1887) * ''Histoires insolites'' (stories, 1888; partially translated into English by Brian Stableford as ''The Scaffold'' and ''The Vampire Soul'') * ''Nouveaux Contes cruels'' (stories, 1888; partially translated into English by Brian Stableford as ''The Scaffold'' and ''The Vampire Soul'') * ''Chez les passants'' (stories, miscellaneous journalism, 1890) * ''
Axël ''Axël'' is a drama by French writer Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, published in 1890. It was influenced by his participation in the Paris Commune, the Gnostic philosophy of Hegel as well as the works of Goethe and Victor Hugo. It begins in an o ...
'' (published posthumously 1890; translated into English by June Guicharnaud)


Notes


Sources

* Jean-Paul Bourre, ''Villiers de L'Isle Adam: Splendeur et misère'' (Les Belles Lettres, 2002) * Natalie Satiat's edition of ''L'Ève future'' (Garnier-Flammarion)


External links

* * *
Black Coat Press
publisher of American translations of Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. {{DEFAULTSORT:Villiers de lIsle-Adam, Auguste 1838 births 1889 deaths Writers from Saint-Brieuc French monarchists 19th-century French dramatists and playwrights Symbolist poets Symbolist writers Symbolist dramatists and playwrights Poètes maudits French horror writers 19th-century French novelists Deaths from stomach cancer Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery French male novelists French male short story writers French male poets 19th-century French poets 19th-century French short story writers 19th-century French male writers