''Our Lady of the Flowers'' (''Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs'') is the
debut novel of
French writer
Chronological list of French language authors (regardless of nationality), by date of birth. For an alphabetical list of writers of French nationality (broken down by genre), see French writers category.
Middle Ages
* Turold (eleventh centur ...
Jean Genet
Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's ...
, first published in 1943. The free-flowing, poetic novel is a largely
autobiographical account of a man's journey through the Parisian underworld. The characters are drawn after their real-life counterparts, who are mostly homosexuals living on the fringes of society.
Plot summary
The novel tells the story of Divine, a
drag queen who, when the novel opens, has died of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
and been
canonised as a result. The narrator tells us that the stories he is telling are mainly to amuse himself whilst he passes his sentence in prison – and the highly erotic, often explicitly sexual, stories are spun to assist his
masturbation
Masturbation is the sexual stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve hands, fingers, everyday objects, sex toys such as vibrators, or combinatio ...
.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
called it "the epic of masturbation".
Divine lives in an attic room overlooking
Montmartre
Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...
cemetery, which he shares with various lovers, the most important of whom is a
pimp
Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...
called Darling Daintyfoot ("Mignon-les-Petits-Pieds" in French). One day Darling brings home a young hoodlum and murderer, dubbed Our Lady of the Flowers. Our Lady is eventually arrested and tried, and executed. Death and ecstasy accompany the acts of every character, as Genet performs a
transvaluation of all values, making betrayal the highest moral value, murder an act of virtue and sexual appeal.
Publication history and reception
''Our Lady of the Flowers'' was written in prison. Genet wrote it on sheets of brown paper which prison authorities provided to prisoners – with the intention that they would make bags of it. As recounted by Sartre in his foreword to ''Our Lady of the Flowers'', a prison guard discovered that the prisoner Genet had been making this "unauthorized" use of the paper, confiscated the manuscript and
burned it. Undaunted, Genet wrote it all over again. The second version survived and Genet took it with him when leaving the prison.
[Sartre Forward to the 1951 Gallimard edition, here quoted from the 1964 Bantam English translation.]
Largely completed in 1942, the book was first published anonymously by Robert Denoël and Paul Moribien at the end of 1943, though only about 30 copies of the first edition were bound in that year (most began to be bound and sold in August 1944, during
the Liberation). The first printing was designed for sale to well-to-do collectors of erotica; it circulated by private sales lists and under the counter. But Genet never intended his work as mere pornography and later excised more graphic passages. In November 1943, he sent a copy of the first printing to Marc Barbezat, publisher of the literary journal ''L'Arbalete'', who published the book in 1944 and again in 1948. Genet revised the novel when it was published by Gallimard in 1951; the Gallimard edition omits some of the more pornographic passages in the novel. Later L'Arbalete editions include a number of smaller revisions.
The novel is dedicated to the convicted and executed murderer
Maurice Pilorge.
Literary influence
The novel was an enormous influence on the
Beats, with its free-flowing, highly
poetic language
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...
mixed with argot/slang, and its celebration of lowlifes and explicit descriptions of homosexuality. It is elegantly transgressive, and its self-reflexive nature prefigures the approach to language developed later by the
post-structuralists
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
.
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
wrote on Genet in his book ''Glas'', and
Hélène Cixous celebrated his work as an example of ''écriture feminine''.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
wrote his famous
Saint Genet
''Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr'' (french: Saint Genet, comédien et martyr) is a book by the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre about the writer Jean Genet, especially on his ''The Thief's Journal''. It was first published in 1952. Sartre descr ...
as an analysis of Genet's work and life but most especially of ''Our Lady of the Flowers''. ''Our Lady of the Flowers'' made Genet, in Sartre's mind at least, a poster child of
existentialism
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
and most especially an embodiment of that philosophy's views on freedom.
Adaptations
Lindsay Kemp created a production called 'Flowers - A pantomime for Jean Genet' (based on ''Our Lady of the Flowers'' by Jean Genet) in 1974 at the Bush Theatre, London, inspired by Genet's words "The saga of Divine should be danced or mimed". This production had evolved from earlier versions beginning in 1969 in Edinburgh. "Flowers" subsequently transferred to New York, Australia, Japan and all over Europe and South America... its last performance being in 1992 in Buenos Aires.
In popular culture
In
Nigel Williams' ''
Scenes from a Poisoner's Life
Scene (from Greek σκηνή ''skēnḗ'') may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
*Scene (subculture), a youth subculture from the early 2000s characterized by a distinct music and style. Groups and performers
* The Scene who recor ...
'' (1994), the main protagonist gives ''Our Lady of the Flowers'' to his homosexual brother as a Christmas present.
The performer, actor, and drag queen
Divine
Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.[divine ...](_blank)
was named after the main character of the book. Filmmaker
John Waters gave her this nickname after reading Genet's novel.
The Pogues
The Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in Kings Cross, London in 1982, as "Pogue Mahone" – the anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic ''póg mo thóin'', meaning "kiss my arse". T ...
have a song titled "
Hell's Ditch
''Hell's Ditch'' is the fifth studio album by The Pogues, released in November 1990, and the last to feature frontman Shane MacGowan as a member.
Overview
''Hell's Ditch'' continued the group's slow departure from Irish music, giving more em ...
," which contains references to the novel.
Placebo
A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures.
In general ...
's self-titled
debut album features a song called "Lady Of The Flowers."
Cocorosie's song "Beautiful Boyz" is believed to be about it.
Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows
Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows (Latin: ''sopor aeternus'' "eternal slumber"; also referred to or stylized as Sopor Aeternus or Sopor) is a darkwave musical project based in Frankfurt, founded in 1989 by a multidiciplinary artist who us ...
' album ''
Les Fleurs du Mal – Die Blumen des Bösen'' was greatly inspired by the book.
Pete Doherty
Peter Doherty (born 12 March 1979) is an English musician, songwriter, actor, poet, writer, and artist. He is best known for being co-frontman of The Libertines, which he formed with Carl Barât in 1997. His other musical projects are indie b ...
used a quote from the book in his song, "Last Of The English Roses."
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Jim Beattie. The band's current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes (guitar), Simone Butler (bass), and Darrin Mooney (drums) ...
have a song titled "Dolls (sweet Rock 'n' Roll)" in which the name of the novel is mentioned.
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
was under the influence of this novel and referred to it in his song 'The Jean Genie'.
References
*''Our Lady of the Flowers'' (Bernard Frechtman, tr.); Paul Morihien, Paris (April 30, 1949) in a subscribers' edition of 500 copies; Olympia Press, Paris, (1957) in a mass market edition (Traveller's Companion Series n°36); Grove Press (1963)
*Michael Lucey, "Genet's Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs: Fantasy and Sexual Identity", ''Yale French Studies'', No. 91, Genet: In the Language of the Enemy (1997)
*Mathieu Lindon, "Genet regenere," ''Liberation'' (Paris), 30 September 1993
See also
*
''Le Mondes 100 Books of the Century
{{Authority control
1944 French novels
1940s in LGBT history
Novels by Jean Genet
Novels with gay themes
Prison writings
French autobiographical novels
Novels set in Paris
1940s LGBT novels
1943 debut novels
Novels about French prostitution
French LGBT novels
Books about imprisonment
Novels set in prison