''Hell'' (french: L'Enfer) is

Henri Barbusse Henri Barbusse (; 17 May 1873 – 30 August 1935) was a French novelist and a member of the French Communist Party. He was a lifelong friend of Albert Einstein. Life The son of a French father and an English mother, Barbusse was born in Asnièr ...

's second novel, written in 1908, in which the unnamed narrator spies on his fellow house guests through a peephole in his wall.

Plot summary

The narrator, unmarried and friendless, books a room in a Paris boarding house. By chance he finds a hole in his wall, through which he can see the adjoining room and its inhabitants. From the other side, he witnesses lesbianism,

adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...

, thievery, vicious proselytizing and death, musing to the reader on the philosophical implications of the events he witnesses. His voyeurism eventually convinces him to quit his room and find a fulfilling life of his own, but as he attempts to leave he is crippled with backache and blindness.

Literary criticism

''Hell'' was notably popular and widely discussed in France, selling more than a hundred thousand copies in 1917 alone.

Colin Wilson Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his phil ...

gave considerable attention to Barbusse's novel in his influential work ''The Outsider''.

English translations

''L'Enfer'' has been translated into English several times, first as ''The Inferno'' by

Edward J. O'Brien Edward Joseph Harrington O'Brien (1890–1941) was a U.S. writer, poet, editor and anthologist. As Edward J. O'Brien, he created a series of annual anthologies containing his selection of the previous year's best short stories by U.S. authors, ...

for

Boni and Liveright Boni & Liveright (pronounced "BONE-eye" and "LIV-right") is an American Publishing#Book publishing, trade book publisher established in 1917 in New York City by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright. Over the next sixteen years the firm, which chan ...

in 1918 in a heavily

abridged An abridgement (or abridgment) is a condensing or reduction of a book or other creative work into a shorter form while maintaining the unity of the source. The abridgement can be true to the original work in terms of mood and tone, capturing the ...

form, then again as ''The Inferno'' by

John Rodker John Rodker (18 December 1894 – 6 October 1955) was an English writer, modernist poet, and publisher of modernist writers. Biography John Rodker was born on 18 December 1894 in Manchester, into a Jewish immigrant family. The family moved t ...

for Joiner & Steele in 1932, and then in full as ''Hell'' 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. ...

for

Chapman and Hall Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 184 ...

in 1966 - later reissued by

Turtle Point Press Turtle Point Press, founded in 1990, publishes new fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, memoirs, works in translation, and rediscovered classics. History Jonathan D. Rabinowitz established Turtle Point Press in 1990. During his tenure the press ...

in 1995.

References

1908 French novels 1900s LGBT novels Novels with lesbian themes French erotic novels Adultery in novels Chapman & Hall books Symbolism (arts) Novels set in Paris {{1900s-LGBT-novel-stub

Plot summary

Literary criticism

English translations

See also

References