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Comte de Lautréamont (; ) was the '' nom de plume'' of Isidore Lucien Ducasse (; 4 April 1846 – 24 November 1870), a French poet born in
Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
. His only works, '' Les Chants de Maldoror'' and ''Poésies'', had a major influence on modern arts and literature, particularly on the Surrealists and the
Situationists The Situationist International (SI) was an Proletarian internationalism, international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and Political philosophy, political theorists. It was prominent in Eu ...
. Ducasse died at the age of 24.


Biography


Youth

Ducasse was born in
Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
,
Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
, to François Ducasse, a French
consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...
ar officer, and his wife Jacquette-Célestine Davezac. Very little is known about Isidore's childhood, except that he was baptized on 16 November 1847 in the Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral and that his mother died soon afterwards, possibly due to an epidemic. Jean-Jacques Lefrère suggests she may have committed suicide, although concludes there is no way to know for certain. In 1851, as a five-year-old, he experienced the end of the eight-year Siege of Montevideo in the
Uruguayan Civil War The Uruguayan Civil War, also known in Spanish as the ''Guerra Grande'' ("Great War"), was a series of armed conflicts between the leaders of Uruguayan independence. While officially the war lasted from 1839 until 1851, it was a part of armed ...
. He was brought up speaking three languages: French, Spanish, and English. In October 1859, at the age of thirteen, he was sent to high school in France by his father. He was trained in French education and technology at the Imperial Lycée in
Tarbes Tarbes (; Gascon language, Gascon: ''Tarba'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of southwestern France. It is ...
. In 1863 he enrolled in the Lycée Louis-Barthou in Pau, where he attended classes in rhetoric and philosophy. He excelled at arithmetic and drawing and showed extravagance in his thinking and style. Isidore was a reader of
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
and particularly favored
Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...
and
Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...
, as well as Adam Mickiewicz, Milton, Robert Southey, Alfred de Musset, and Baudelaire (see the letter of 23 October 1869 cited extensively below). At school he was fascinated by Racine and Corneille, and by the scene of the blinding in
Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...
' ''
Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' (, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles. While some scholars have argued that the play was first performed , this is highly uncertain. Originally, to ...
''. According to his schoolmate Paul Lespès, he displayed obvious folly "by self-indulgent use of adjectives and an accumulation of terrible death images" in an essay. After graduation he lived in Tarbes, where he started a friendship with Georges Dazet, the son of his guardian, and decided to become a writer.


Years in Paris

After a brief stay with his father in Montevideo, Ducasse settled in Paris at the end of 1867. He began studies in view of entering the
École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...
, only to abandon them one year later. Continuous allowances from his father made it possible for Ducasse to dedicate himself completely to his writing. He lived in the "Intellectual Quarter", in a hotel in the ''Rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires'', where he worked intensely on the first canto of ''Les Chants de Maldoror''. It is possible that he started this work before his passage to Montevideo, and also continued the work during his ocean journey. Ducasse was a frequent visitor to nearby libraries, where he read Romantic literature, as well as scientific works and encyclopaedias. The publisher Léon Genonceaux described him as a "large, dark, young man, beardless, mercurial, neat and industrious", and reported that Ducasse wrote "only at night, sitting at his piano, declaiming wildly while striking the keys, and hammering out ever new verses to the sounds". However, this account has no corroborating evidence, and is considered unreliable. In late 1868, Ducasse published (anonymously and at his own expense) the first canto of ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' (Chant premier, par ***), a booklet of thirty-two pages. On 10 November 1868, Ducasse sent a letter to the writer
Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...
, in which he included two copies of the first canto, and asked for a recommendation for further publication. A new edition of the first canto appeared at the end of January 1869, in the anthology ''Parfums de l'Âme'' in Bordeaux. Here Ducasse used his pseudonym "Comte de Lautréamont" for the first time. His chosen name may have been based on the title character of
Eugène Sue Marie-Joseph "Eugène" Sue (; 26 January 18043 August 1857) was a French novelist. He was one of several authors who popularized the genre of the serial novel in France with his very popular and widely imitated '' The Mysteries of Paris'', whi ...
's popular 1837
gothic novel Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean ...
', a haughty and blasphemous antihero similar in some ways to Isidore's Maldoror. The pseudonym was possibly paraphrasing , although it can also be interpreted as ''l'autre Amon'' (the other
Amon Amon may refer to: Mythology * Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra * Aamon, a Goetic demon People Mononym * Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah * Amon of Toul ( 375– 423 AD), second recorded Bishop of ...
) or "l'autre Amont" (the other side of the river: 'En amont' = French for: 'Upstream') or, finally, from '' The Count of Monte Cristo'', "L'autre Mond" (the other world's count). Lefrère considers another possibility: le Comte de Lautréamont = le compte de l'autre à Mont (the account of the other at Montevideo); this could be interpreted as a joke at his father's expense, who supported Ducasse with a generous allowance. Thanks to his father's money and the banker Darasse's good offices, a total of six cantos were to be published during late 1869, by Albert Lacroix in Brussels, who had also published Eugène Sue. The book was already printed when Lacroix refused to distribute it to the booksellers as he feared prosecution for
blasphemy Blasphemy refers to an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of Reverence (emotion), reverence concerning a deity, an object considered sacred, or something considered Sanctity of life, inviolable. Some religions, especially Abrahamic o ...
or
obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...
. Ducasse considered that this was because "life in it is painted in too harsh colors" (letter to the banker Darasse from 12 March 1870). Ducasse urgently asked Auguste Poulet-Malassis, who had published Baudelaire's '' Les Fleurs du mal'' (''The Flowers of Evil'') in 1857, to send copies of his book to the critics. They alone could judge "the commencement of a publication which will see its end only later, and after I will have seen mine". He tried to explain his position, and even offered to change some "too strong" points for future editions: Poulet-Malassis announced the forthcoming publication of the book the same month in his literary magazine ''Quarterly Review of Publications Banned in France and Printed Abroad''. Otherwise, few people took heed of the book. Only the ''Bulletin du Bibliophile et du Bibliothécaire'' noticed it in May 1870, saying: "The book will probably find a place under the bibliographic curiosities".


Death

During spring 1869, Ducasse frequently changed his address, from 32 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre to 15 Rue Vivienne, then back to Rue Faubourg Montmartre, where he lodged in a hotel at number 7. While still awaiting the distribution of his book, Ducasse worked on a new text, a follow-up to his "phenomenological description of evil", in which he wanted to sing of good. The two works would form a whole, a dichotomy of good and evil. The work, however, remained a fragment. In April and June 1870, Ducasse published the first two installments of what was obviously meant to be the preface to the planned "chants of the good" in two small brochures, ''Poésies'' I and II; this time he published under his real name, discarding his pseudonym. He differentiated the two parts of his work with the terms
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and
poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
, announcing that the beginning of a struggle against evil was the reversal of his other work: At the same time Ducasse took texts by famous authors and cleverly inverted, corrected and openly plagiarized for ''Poésies'': Among the works plagiarized were
Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal (19June 162319August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. Pascal was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. His earliest ...
's '' Pensées'' and La Rochefoucauld's ''Maximes'', as well as the work of Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers,
Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...
, Kant and La Fontaine. It even included an improvement of his own ''Les Chants de Maldoror''. The brochures of aphoristic prose did not have a price; each customer could decide which sum they wanted to pay for it. On 19 July 1870,
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
declared war on Prussia, and after his capture, Paris was besieged on 17 September, a situation with which Ducasse was already familiar from his early childhood in Montevideo. The living conditions worsened rapidly during the siege, and according to the owner of the hotel he lodged at, Ducasse became sick with a "bad fever". Lautréamont died at the age of 24, on 24 November 1870, at 8 am in his hotel. On his death certificate, "no further information" was given. Since many were afraid of epidemics while Paris was besieged, Ducasse was buried the next day after a service in Notre-Dame-de-Lorette in a provisional grave at the Cimetière du Nord. In January 1871, his body was put into another grave elsewhere. In his ''Poésies'' Lautréamont announced: "I will leave no memoirs", and as such, the life of the creator of ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' remains for the most part unknown.


''Les Chants de Maldoror''

''Les Chants de Maldoror'' is based on a character called Maldoror, a figure of unrelenting evil who has forsaken
God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
and mankind. The book combines a violent narrative with vivid and often surrealistic imagery. The critic Alex De Jonge writes: "Lautréamont forces his readers to stop taking their world for granted. He shatters the complacent acceptance of the reality proposed by their cultural traditions and makes them see that reality for what it is: an unreal nightmare all the more hair-raising because the sleeper believes he is awake". There is a wealth of Lautréamont criticism, interpretation and analysis in French (including an esteemed biography by Jean-Jacques Lefrère), but little in English. Lautréamont's writing has many bizarre scenes, vivid imagery and drastic shifts in tone and style. There is much " black humor"; De Jonge argues that Maldoror reads like "a sustained sick joke".


''Poésies''

''Poésies'' (Poems, Poetry) is Ducasse's other, minor surviving work, and is divided into two parts. Unlike ''Maldoror'', ''Poésies'' was published under Ducasse's given name. Both parts consist of a series of maxims or
aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...
s in prose, which express aesthetic opinions concerning literature and poetry. These statements frequently refer to authors of the
western canon The Western canon is the embodiment of High culture, high-culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly cherished across the Western culture, Western world, such works having achieved the status of classics. Recent ...
and compare their works and talents in rhetorical language; cited authors include the Greek tragedians,
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
, and especially many French authors of Ducasse's period, including
Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...
, Alexander Dumas, and
Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...
. ''Poésies'' is therefore not a collection of ''poetry'' as its title suggests, but instead a work of
literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...
, or poetics. ''Poésies'' also contrasts with the negative themes of ''Maldoror'' in the sense that it uses far more positive, uplifting, and
humanistic Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...
language. Goodness and conventional moral values are regularly praised, even as authors familiar to Ducasse are sometimes denigrated: Despite this, there are commonalities with ''Maldoror''. Both works regularly describe animals by way of
simile A simile () is a type of figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes are often contrasted with metaphors, where similes necessarily compare two things using words such as "like", "as", while metaphors often create an implicit c ...
or colorful analogy, and although
God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
is praised, other passages suggest on the contrary a humanism which places man above God: "Elohim is made in man's image."


Surrealism

In 1917, French writer Philippe Soupault discovered a copy of ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' in the mathematics section of a small Parisian bookshop, near the military hospital to which he had been admitted. In his memoirs Soupault wrote:
By the light of a candle that was permitted to me, I began reading. It was like an enlightenment. In the morning I read the ''Chants'' again, convinced that I had dreamed... The day after,
André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
came to visit me. I gave him the book and asked him to read it. The following day he brought it back, enthusiastic as I had been.
Due to this find, Lautréamont was introduced to the Surrealists. Soon they called him their prophet. As one of the '' poètes maudits'' (accursed poets), he was elevated to the Surrealist pantheon beside
Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...
and Arthur Rimbaud, and acknowledged as a direct precursor to Surrealism. In the first edition of the Manifeste du Surréalisme (1924) Breton wrote: "With ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' the Surrealism was born. Older examples can only be traced all the way back to the time of prophets and oracles". André Gide regarded him — even more than Rimbaud — as the most significant figure, as the "gate-master of tomorrow's literature", meriting Breton and Soupault "to have recognized and announced the literary and ultra-literary importance of the amazing Lautréamont". Louis Aragon and Breton discovered the only copies of the ''Poésies'' in the National Library of France, and published the text in April and May 1919 in two sequential editions of their magazine ''Literature''. In 1925, a special edition of the Surrealist magazine ''Le Disque Vert'' was dedicated to Lautréamont, under the title "Le cas Lautréamont" (The Lautréamont case). It was the 1927 publication by Soupault and Breton that assured him a permanent place in
French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by French people, French citizens; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of Franc ...
and the status of patron saint in the Surrealist movement. In 1930, Aragon called Lautréamont the "veritable initiator of the modern marvelous", with "the marvelous" being a primary feature of Breton's Surrealism. In 1940, Breton incorporated him into his ''Anthology of Black Humour''. The title of an object by American artist
Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...
, called ''L'énigme d'Isidore Ducasse'' (''The Enigma of Isidore Ducasse''), created in 1920, contains a reference to a famous line in Canto VI, Chapter 3. Lautréamont describes a young boy as "beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella". Similarly, Breton often used this line as an example of Surrealist dislocation. In direct reference to Lautréamont's "chance meeting on a dissection table",
Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
defined the structure of the surrealist painting as "a linking of two realities that by all appearances have nothing to link them, in a setting that by all appearances does not fit them". Referencing this line, the debut record by the experimental/ industrial music group Nurse with Wound is titled '' Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella''. ''Maldoror'' inspired many artists: Fray De Geetere,
Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
,
Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...
, Jacques Houplain, Jindřich Štyrský,
René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...
,
Georg Baselitz Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor and Graphic arts, graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his Figurative art, figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his ...
and Victor Man. Individual works have been produced by
Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
,
Victor Brauner Victor Brauner (, also spelled Viktor Brauner; 15 June 1903 – 12 March 1966) was a Romanian painter and sculptor of the surrealism (art), surrealist movement. Early life He was born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, the son of a Jewish timber manufac ...
, Óscar Domínguez, André Masson, Joan Miró,
Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He ...
, Roberto Matta, Wolfgang Paalen, Kurt Seligmann and Yves Tanguy. The artist
Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...
always carried a copy of the book with him and used to walk around Montparnasse quoting from it.
Félix Vallotton Félix Édouard Vallotton (; December 28, 1865December 29, 1925) was a Swiss and French painter and printmaker associated with the group of artists known as '. He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut. He painted portra ...
and Dalí made "imaginary" portraits of Lautréamont, since no photograph was available.


Influence on others

Kadour Naimi realized an adaptation of ''Les Chants de Maldoror'', in theater in 1984, and as a film in 1997. A portion of ''Maldoror'' is recited toward the end of
Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...
's 1967 film '' Week End''.
Situationist The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...
founder, filmmaker and author
Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...
developed a section from ''Poésies II'' as thesis 207 in ''
The Society of the Spectacle ''The Society of the Spectacle'' () is a 1967 work of philosophy and Marxist critical theory by Guy Debord where he develops and presents the concept of the Spectacle (critical theory), Spectacle. The book is considered a seminal text for the Si ...
''. The thesis covers plagiarism as a necessity and how it is implied by progress. It explains that plagiarism embraces an author's phrase, makes use of his expressions, erases a false idea, and replaces it with the right idea. His fellow Situationist
Raoul Vaneigem Raoul Vaneigem (; ; ; born 21 March 1934) is a Belgian writer known for his 1967 book ''The Revolution of Everyday Life''. Biography Vaneigem was born in Lessines (in Hainaut Province, Hainaut, Belgium) and studied romance philology at the Fre ...
placed considerable importance on the insights of Lautréamont, stating in the Introduction to '' The Revolution of Everyday Life'' that: "For as long as there have been men — and men who read Lautréamont — everything has been said and few people have gained anything from it." The writers Jean Paulhan and Henri Michaux have both counted Lautréamont as an influence on their work.
Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, February 3, 1927 – May 11, 2023) was an American Underground film, underground experimental filmmaker, actor, and writer. Working exclusively in short films, he produced almost 40 works beginning i ...
claimed to have tried to make a film based on ''Maldoror'', under the same title, but could not raise enough money to complete it. In recent years, invoking an obscure clause in the French civil code, Article 171, modern performance artist Shishaldin petitioned the government for permission to marry the author posthumously.
John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
, an American poet influenced by surrealism, entitled his 1992 collection '' Hotel Lautréamont'', and the English edition notes that Lautréamont is "one of the forgotten presences alive" in the book.
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
ian author Joca Reiners Terron depicts the character of Isidoro Ducasse as one of the seven angels of the
Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...
in his first novel, ''Não Há Nada Lá''. Ducasse's character becomes obsessed with an edition of '' Les Fleurs du mal'' in the novel, while taking a trip by train through Europe. Both Ducasse and his ''Chants de Maldoror'' are also briefly mentioned in Jô Soares' 1995 novel '' O Xangô de Baker Street'', and musician
Rogério Skylab Rogério Tolomei Teixeira (born September 2, 1956), known professionally as Rogério Skylab, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, lyricist, classical guitarist, author, blogger, record producer, actor and short-lived television presenter. Describi ...
has a song inspired by, and named after, the ''Chants of Maldoror'' in his 2021 album ''Caos e Cosmos, Vol. 1''. Isidore Ducasse is the given name of the fashion creator in William Klein's 1966 movie '' Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?''. Lautréamont, as an unnamed "South American", appears as a character in Julio Cortázar's short story "The Other Heaven", which also uses quotations from ''Maldoror'' as epigraphs.Cortázar, Julio. ''Cartas'' (tomo 4) p.415. French philosopher
Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze (18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes o ...
and psychiatrist
Félix Guattari Pierre-Félix Guattari ( ; ; 30 March 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze, and created ecosophy ...
cited Lautréamont twice over the course of their joint two-volume work, '' Capitalism and Schizophrenia'', once in each
volume Volume is a measure of regions in three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch) ...
. Róbert Wittinger composed a ''Maldoror Requiem'', for 8 soloists, mixed choir, narrator and large orchestra, Op.42 (1984-86).


Bibliography

* ''Les Chants de Maldoror - Chant premier'', par *** (1st canto, published anonymously), Imprimerie Balitout, Questroy et Cie, Paris, August 1868 * ''Les Chants de Maldoror - Chant premier'', par Comte de Lautréamont (1st canto, published under the pseudonym Comte de Lautréamont), in: "Parfums de l'Ame" (anthology, edited by Evariste Carrance), Bordeaux, 1869 * ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' (first complete edition, not delivered to the booksellers), A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven et Cie, Brussels, 1869 * ''Poésies I'', Librairie Gabrie, Balitout, Questroy et Cie, Paris, 1870 * ''Poésies II'', Librairie Gabrie, Balitout, Questroy et Cie, Paris, 1870 * ''Les Chants de Maldoror'', Typ. de E. Wittmann, Paris and Brussels, 1874 (1869's complete edition, with new cover) * ''Les Chants de Maldoror'', preface by Léon Genonceaux, with a letter by Lautréamont, Éditions Léon Genonceaux, 1890 (new edition) * ''Les Chants de Maldoror'', with 65 illustrations by Frans De Geetere, Éditions Henri Blanchetière, Paris, 1927 * ''Les Chants de Maldoror'', with 42 illustrations by
Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
; Albert Skira Éditeur, Paris, 1934 * ''Œuvres Complètes'', with a preface by
André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
und illustrations by
Victor Brauner Victor Brauner (, also spelled Viktor Brauner; 15 June 1903 – 12 March 1966) was a Romanian painter and sculptor of the surrealism (art), surrealist movement. Early life He was born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, the son of a Jewish timber manufac ...
, Óscar Domínguez,
Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
, Espinoza,
René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...
, André Masson, Joan Miró, Roberto Matta, Wolfgang Paalen,
Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...
, Kurt Seligmann and Yves Tanguy, G.L.M. (Guy Levis Mano), Paris, 1938 * ''Maldoror'', with 27 illustrations by Jacques Houplain, Société de francs-bibliophiles, Paris, 1947 * ''Les Chants de Maldoror''. with 77 illustrations by
René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...
; Éditions de "La Boetie", Brussels, 1948 * ''Œuvres complètes. Fac-similés des éditions originales'' (facsimiles of the original editions), La Table Ronde, Paris, 1970 * ''Œuvres complètes'', based on the edition of 1938, with all historical prefaces by Léon Genonceaux (Édition Genouceaux, Paris, 1890), Rémy de Gourmont (Édition de la Sirène, Paris, 1921), Edmond Jaloux (Éditions Librairie José Corti, Paris, April 1938), Philippe Soupault (Éditions Charlot, Paris, 1946) Julien Gracq (La Jeune Parque, Paris, 1947), Roger Caillois (Éditions Librairie José Corti 1947), Maurice Blanchot (Éditions du Club français du livre, Paris, 1949), Éditions Librairie José Corti, Paris, 1984 * ''Les Chants de Maldoror'', with 81 illustrations by Tagliamani; , Genève, 2012 * ''Lautréamont, Subject to Interpretation'', Brill/Rodopi, Amsterdam, 2015


Translations

* ''The Lay of Maldoror''. London: Casanova Society, 1924. First English translation, by John Rodker. Illustrated with 3 plates by Odilon Redon * ''Maldoror''. Translated by Guy Wernham; New Directions Publishing, 1943; 0-8112-0082-5 * ''Lautréamont's Maldoror''. Translated by Alexis Lykiard; London: Allison & Busby, 1970; vi+218 pp. Paperback 1972, * ''Maldoror (Les Chants de Maldoror)''. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1970; English translation by Alexis Lykiard * ''Maldoror''. Great Britain: Penguin Books, "Penguin Classics" series, 1977. Fourth English translation (after Rodker, Wernham and Lykiard) by Paul Knight. Also contains "Poesies" and several "lettres". Extensive introduction by translator. * ''Poésies and Complete Miscellanea'', translated by Alexis Lykiard. London: Allison & Busby, 1977. * ''Maldoror (and the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautréamont)''. Cambridge, MA: Exact Change, 1994; Translated into English by Alexis Lykiard with updated notes and bibliography; * ''Maldoror and Poems''. Translated, with Introduction, by Paul Knight. New York: Penguin Books, 1988. Cover illustration is a color reproduction of Antoine Wiertz' "Buried Alive" (detail); 288 pp.;


Notes


References


Further reading

There is a wealth of Lautréamont criticism, interpretation and analysis in French, including an esteemed biography by Jean-Jacques Lefrère, but little in English. * ''Le Cas Lautréamont'', special edition of "Le Disque Vert", with an introduction by André Gide, and texts by Philippe Soupault, René Crevel, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Herbert Read, Albert Thibaudet, André Breton, Marcel Arland, Maurice Maeterlinck, Paul Valéry, Paul Éluard, Henri Michaux, Jean Cocteau, Léon Bloy, Rémy de Gourmont, André Malraux a.o., and a portrait by Odilon-Jean Périer; René van den Berg, Paris/Brussels 1925 * Paul Zweig, ''Lautréamont: The Violent Narcissus'', Kennikat, 1972 * Gaston Bachelard, ''Lautréamont'', Dallas Institute, 1986 * Jeremy Reed (writer), Jeremy Reed, ''Isidore: A Novel about the Comte de Lautreamont'', London: Peter Owen Publishers, 1991 ("fictional biography") * Alex de Jonge, ''Nightmare Culture: Lautréamont and Les Chants de Maldoror'', London: Secker and Warburg, 1973. Creation Books, 2007 1840681268 * Maurice Blanchot, '' Lautreamont and Sade''. Meridian, Stanford University Press * Peter W. Nesselroth, "Lautréamont's Imagery: a stylistic approach" Geneva: Droz, 1969 * *
Fortunato Zocchi, ''L'Arte della Mistificazione e la Mistificazione nell'Arte di Lautréamont'', ''La Similitudine nei 'Chants de Maldoror, ''Il 'Bestiaire' di Lautréamont'', at athena.unige.ch
*

* Ruperto Long, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130525050418/http://www.prisaediciones.com/uploads/ficheros/libro/dossier-prensa/201204/dossier-prensa-no-dejare-memorias.pdf ''No dejaré memorias. El enigma del Conde de Lautréamont''], Aguilar, 2012


External links

* * * *
"Chronologie d’Isidore Ducasse"
*
Lautréamont on French wikisource
*

at athena.unige.ch *
Maldoror: Le Site
*


Lautréamont
illustrated by Ricardo Castro

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150626112606/http://www.kadour-naimi.com/e-film-movie-maldoror.htm Page about 1997 film adaptation of ''Les Chants de Maldoror'']
The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite, Avantgarde-Metal-Album of the band Schammasch, 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lautreamont, Comte de 1846 births 1870 deaths Writers from Montevideo Poètes maudits Uruguayan emigrants to France French surrealist writers Symbolist poets Symbolist writers 19th-century French writers Aphorists 19th-century French poets French male poets 19th-century French male writers Uruguayan writers in French