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Disagreeable Tales

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Disagreeable Tales
Title page
AuthorLéon Bloy
Original titleHistoires désobligeantes
TranslatorErik Butler
LanguageFrench
PublisherDentu
Publication date
1894
Publication placeFrance
Published in English
2015
Pages369

Disagreeable Tales (French: Histoires désobligeantes) is an 1894 short story collection by the French writer Léon Bloy. It consists of 30 tales set in Paris, focused on criminality, perversions, and other subject matters typical of the decadent movement. The common theme is the faith in God in a time of human spiritual crisis.[1]

Stories

English titles listed here are from the Wakefield Press edition.

  1. "Herbal Tea"
  2. "The Old Man of the House"
  3. "The Religion of Monsieur Pleur"
  4. "The Parlor of Tarantulas"
  5. "Draft for a Funeral Oration"
  6. "The Prisoners of Longjumeau"
  7. "A Lousy Idea"
  8. "Two Ghosts"
  9. "A Dentist's Terrible Punishment"
  10. "The Awakening of Alain Chartier"
  11. "The Stroker of Compassion" ("Le frôleur compatissant," first appeared in Gil Blas from July 1893 to April 1894)[2]
  12. "Monsieur's Past"
  13. "Whatever You Want!"
  14. "Well-Done"
  15. "The End of Don Juan"
  16. "A Martyr"
  17. "Suspicion"
  18. "The Telephone of Calypso"
  19. "A Recruit"
  20. "Botched Sacrilege"
  21. "It's Gonna Blow!"
  22. "The Silver Lining"
  23. "A Well-Fed Man"
  24. "The Lucky Bean"
  25. "Digestive Aids"
  26. "The Reading Room"
  27. "Nobody's Perfect"
  28. "Let's Be Reasonable!"
  29. "Jocasta on the Streets"
  30. "Cain's Luckiest Fine"


English translations

Histoires Désobligeantes has been translated into English twice, first by Erik Butler for Wakefield Press in 2015,[3] and then by Brian Stableford as The Tarantula's Parlor and Other Unkind Tales for Snuggly Books in 2016.[4]

Reception

Erik Morse wrote for The Paris Review in 2015, "What distinguishes Bloy's 'tales' from those written by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Poe, and Lautréamont is the marked absence of any sensualist or proto-surrealist tone with its ecstatic invocations of the flesh, like those that characterize Romantic literature since William Blake. Rather, Bloy's bilious allusions to excrement ('ordure'), genitalia, rot, disease, and waste descend from a negative theology, which extols a mystical, self-mortification[.] ... For Bloy, all physical pleasures are diversion or, worst yet, satanic temptation, so it is only through intense suffering and punishment that his characters can expiate their sins."[1]

References

French Wikisource has original text related to this article:
  1. ^ a b Morse, Erik (2015-07-14). "Léon Bloy's Decadent, Perverse 'Disagreeable Tales'". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  2. ^ Bloy, Léon. "Le frôleur compatissant". agora.qc.ca (in French). Retrieved 2023-08-30.
  3. ^ Disagreeable tales. OCLC 898530582. Retrieved 2015-10-27. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "The Tarantula's Parlor and Other Unkind Tales - Léon Bloy". Snuggly Books. Retrieved 2023-08-30.

External links

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