Remy de Gourmont (4 April 1858 – 27 September 1915) 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 ...
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars and
Georges Bataille
Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...
. The spelling ''Rémy'' de Gourmont is incorrect, albeit common.
Life
Gourmont was born at
Bazoches-au-Houlme
Bazoches-au-Houlme () is a commune in the Orne department in northwestern France.
Geography
The commune of Bazoches-au-Houlme is part of the area known as Suisse Normande.
The commune is made up of the following collection of villages and ha ...
publishing
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
family from Cotentin. He was the son of Count Auguste-Marie de Gourmont and his countess, born Mathilde de Montfort. In 1866 he moved to a manor close to Villedieu near La Manche. He studied law at
Caen
Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Bibliothèque nationale. He began to write for general circulation periodicals such as '' Le Monde'' and '' Le Contemporain''. He took an interest in ancient literature, following the footsteps of Gustave Kahn. During this period, he also met
Berthe Courrière
Saint Bertha or Saint Aldeberge (c. 565 – d. in or after 601) was the queen of Kent whose influence led to the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England. She was canonized as a saint for her role in its establishment during that period of Eng ...
, model for, and heir of, the sculptor
Auguste Clésinger
Jean-Baptiste Auguste Clésinger (22 October 1814 – 5 January 1883) was a 19th-century French sculptor and painter.
Life
Auguste Clésinger was born in Besançon, in the Doubs department of France. His father, Georges-Philippe, was a scu ...
, with whom he formed a lifelong attachment, he and Berthe living together for the rest of their lives.
Gourmont also began a literary alliance with Joris-Karl Huysmans, to whom he dedicated his prose work ''Le Latin mystique'' (Mystical Latin). In 1889 Gourmont became one of the founders of the '' Mercure de France'', which became a rallying point of the Symbolist movement. Between 1893 and 1894 he was the co-editor, along with
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics.
Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...
, of L'Ymagier, a magazine dedicated to symbolist wood carvings. In 1891 he published a polemic called ''Le Joujou Patriotisme'' (Patriotism, a toy) in which he argued that France and Germany shared an aesthetic culture and urged a rapprochement between the two countries, contrary to the wishes of nationalists in the French government. This political essay led to his losing his job at the Bibliothèque Nationale, despite Octave Mirbeau's chronicles.
During this same period, Gourmont was stricken with lupus vulgaris. Disfigured by this illness, he largely retired from public view appearing only at the offices of the ''Mercure de France''. In 1910, Gourmont met
Natalie Clifford Barney
Natalie Clifford Barney (October 31, 1876 – February 2, 1972) was an American writer who hosted a salon (gathering), literary salon at her home in Paris that brought together French and international writers. She influenced other authors throu ...
, to whom he dedicated his ''Lettres à l'Amazone'' (Letters to the Amazon).
Gourmont's health continued to decline and he began to suffer from locomotor ataxia and be increasingly unable to walk. He was deeply depressed by the outbreak of World War I and died in Paris of cerebral congestion in 1915. Berthe Courrière was his sole heir, inheriting a substantial body of unpublished work which she sent to his brother Jean de Gourmont, and dying within the year. Gourmont and Courrière are buried Chopins tomb in Père-Lachaise Cemetery.
Works
Gourmont was a literary critic and essayist of great importance, most notably his ''Le Problème du Style''. Created in response to
Antoine Albalat
Antoine Albalat (1856-1935) was a French people, French writer and literary critic.
Works
Fiction
* (1877). ''Nella, Simple Histoire en Vers''. Brignoles: Impr. de A. Vian.
* (1882). ''Inassouvie, Roman Intime''. Paris: Paul Ollendorff.
* (1883) ...
's ''The Art of Writing in Twenty Lessons'' (1899), ''Le Problème du Style'' was a source book for many of the ideas that inspired the literary developments in both England and France and was also admired by
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...
and
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
in that capacity.
His novels, in particular ''Sixtine'', explore the theme of SchopenhauerianIdealism with its emphasis on individual
subjectivity
Subjectivity in a philosophical context has to do with a lack of objective reality. Subjectivity has been given various and ambiguous definitions by differing sources as it is not often the focal point of philosophical discourse.Bykova, Marina F ...
, as well as the Decadent relationship between sexuality and artistic creativity. In 1922 Aldous Huxley translated Gourmont's novel ''A Virgin Heart''.
Gourmont's poetic works include ''Litanies de la Rose'' (1892), ''Les Saintes du Paradis'' (1898), and ''Divertissements'' (1912). His anthology ''Hieroglyphes'' (1894), contains his experiments with the possibilities of sound and rhythm. It plunges from perhaps ironic piety to equally ironic blasphemy, reflecting, more than anything else, his interest in medieval Latin literature, and his works led to a fad for late Latin literature among authors like Joris-Karl Huysmans. Pound observed in 1915 that the English Imagist poetic movement derived from the French Symbolistes, Eliot describing Gourmont as the "critical conscience of his generation".Eliot, T.S. (1928). Preface to ''The Sacred Wood.'' London: Methuen & Co.
Bibliography
Poetry
* ''Litanies de la Rose'' (1892).
* ''Fleurs de Jadis'' (1893).
* ''Hiéroglyphes'' (1894).
* ''Les Saintes du Paradis'' (1899).
* ''Oraisons Mauvaises'' (1900).
* ''Simone'' (1901).
* ''Divertissements'' (1912).
* ''Poésies Inédites'' (1921).
* ''Rimes Retrouvées'' (1979).
* ''L'Odeur des Jacynthes'' (1991).
Fiction
* ''Merlette'' (novel, 1886).
* ''Sixtine'' (novel, 1890).
* ''Le Fantôme'' (1893).
* ''Le Château Singulier'' (1894).
* ''Proses Moroses'' (short stories, 1894).
* ''Histoire Tragique de la Princesse Phénissa'' (1894).
* ''Histoires Magiques'' (1884).
* ''Le Pèlerin du Silence'' (1896).
* ''Phocas'' (1895).
* ''Les Chevaux de Diomède'' (novel, 1897).
* ''D'un Pays Lointain. Miracles. Visages de Femmes'' (1898).
* ''Le Songe d'une Femme'' (novel, 1899).
* ''Une Nuit au Luxembourg'' (1906).
* ''Un Cœur Virginal'' (1907).
* ''Couleurs, Contes Nouveaux Suivi de Choses Anciennes'' (1908).
* ''Lettres d'un Satyre'' (1913).
* ''Lettres à l'Amazone'' (1914).
* ''Monsieur Croquant'' (1918).
* ''La Patience de Grisélidis'' (1920).
* ''Lettres à Sixtine'' (1921).
* ''Le Vase Magique'' (1923).
* ''Fin de Promenade et Trois Autres Contes'' (short stories, 1925).
* ''Le Désarroi'' (novel, 2006).
* ''Un Volcan en Éruption'' (1882).
* ''Une Ville Ressuscitée'' (1883).
* ''Bertrand Du Guesclin'' (1883).
* ''Tempêtes et Naufrages'' (1883).
* ''Les Derniers Jours de Pompéi'' (1884).
* ''En Ballon'' (1884).
* ''Les Français au Canada et en Acadie'' (1888).
* ''Chez les Lapons, Mœurs, Coutumes et Légendes de la Laponie Norvégienne'' (1890).
* ''Le Joujou Patriotisme'' (1891).
* ''Le Latin Mystique. Les Poètes de l'Antiphonaire et la Symbolique au Moyen Âge'' (with a preface by
J. K. 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 rebours ...
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics.
Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...
, 1896).
* ''La Poésie Populaire'' (1896).
* ''Le Livre des Masques'' (1896).
* ''Almanach de "L'Ymagier", Zodiacal, Astrologique, Littéraire, Artistique, Magique, Cabalistique et Prophétique'' (1897).
* ''Le Deuxième Livre des Masques'' (1898).
* ''Esthétique de la Langue Française'' (1899).
* ''La Culture des Idées'' (1900).
* Preface to ''Les Petites Revues'' (1900).
* ''Le Chemin de Velours'' (1902).
* ''Le Problème du Style'' (1902).
* ''Épilogues: Réflexions sur la Vie, 1895-1898'' (1903).
* ''Physique de l'Amour. Essai sur l'Instinct Sexuel'' (1903).
* ''Promenades Littéraires'' (1904).
* ''Judith Gautier'' (1904).
* ''Promenades Philosophiques'' (1905).
* ''Dante, Béatrice et la Poésie Amoureuse. Essai sur l'Idéal Féminin en Italie à la Fin du XIIIe Siècle'' (1908).
* ''Le Chat de Misère. Idées et Images'' (1912).
* ''La Petite Ville'' (1913).
* ''Des pas sur le Sable'' (1914).
* ''La Belgique Littéraire'' (1915).
* ''Pendant l'Orage, Bois d'André Rouveyre'' (1915).
* ''Dans la Tourmente (Avril-juillet 1915)'' (with a preface by , 1916).
* ''Pendant la Guerre. Lettres pour l'Argentine'' (with a preface by Jean de Gourmont, 1917).
* ''Les Idées du Jour'' (1918).
** Vol. I: ''(Octobre 1914-avril 1915)''.
** Vol. II: ''(Mai 1915-septembre 1915)''.
* ''Trois Légendes du Moyen Âge'' (1919).
* ''Pensées Inédites'' (with a Preface by Guillaume Apollinaire, 1920).
* ''Le Livret de "L'Ymagier"'' (1921).
* ''Petits Crayons'' (1921).
* ''Le Puits de la Vérité'' (1922).
* ''Dernières Pensées Inédites'' (1924).
* ''Dissociations'' (1925).
* ''Nouvelles Dissociations'' (1925).
* ''La Fin de l'Art'' (1925).
* ''Les Femmes et le Langage'' (1925).
* ''Deux Poètes de la Nature: Bryant et Emerson'' (1925).
* ''Le Joujou et Trois Autres Essais'' (1926).
* ''Lettres Intimes à l’Amazone'' (1926).
* ''Promenades Littéraires'' (1929).
Arthur Ransome
Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...
:Que tes mains soient bénies, car elles sont impures!
:Elles ont des péchés cachés à toutes les jointures;
:Leur peau blanche s'est trempée dans l'odeur âpre des caresses
:Secrètes, parmi l'ombre blanche où rampent les caresses,
:Et l'opale prisonnière qui se meurt à ton doigt,
:C'est le dernier soupir de Jésus sur la croix.
:::::---Oraisons mauvaises
JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...