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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 thirty tales set in Paris, focusing 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

The English titles listed here are from the Wakefield Press edition.[2] An edition held by the Bibliothéque nationale appears to contain two additional stories, "L'appel du Gouffre" and "L'Ami des Bêtes," though the two are in fact excerpts from Bloy's novel The Poor Woman. Both pieces appear in the Snuggly Books edition.[3][4]

  1. "Herbal Tea" ("La Tisane")
  2. "The Old Man of the House" ("Le Vieux de la Maison")
  3. "The Religion of Monsieur Pleur" ("La Religion de Monsieur Pleur")
  4. "The Parlor of Tarantulas" ("Le Parloir des Tarentules")
  5. "Draft for a Funeral Oration" ("Projet d'Oraison funèbre")
  6. "The Prisoners of Longjumeau" ("Les Captifs de Longjumeau")
  7. "A Lousy Idea" ("Une Idée médiocre")
  8. "Two Ghosts" ("Deux Fantômes")
  9. "A Dentist's Terrible Punishment" (Terrible Châtiment d'un Dentiste, first appeared in the 22 September 1893 issue of Gil Blas)[5] A dentist murders a love rival, but after marrying the woman he killed for, he fathers a child with her only to discover that it resembles his victim, and so he strangles the baby.[6]
  10. "The Awakening of Alain Chartier" ("Le Réveil d'Alain Chartier")
  11. "The Stroker of Compassion" ("Le frôleur compatissant," first appeared in the 6 October 1893 issue of Gil Blas)[7]
  12. "Monsieur's Past" ("Le Passé du Monsieur")
  13. "Whatever You Want!" ("Tout ce que tu voudras!")
  14. "Well-Done" ("La dernière cuite")
  15. "The End of Don Juan" ("La Fin de don Juan")
  16. "A Martyr" ("Une Martyre")
  17. "Suspicion" ("Le Soupçon")
  18. "The Telephone of Calypso" ("Le Téléphone de Calypso")
  19. "A Recruit" ("Une Recrue")
  20. "Botched Sacrilege" ("Sacrilège raté")
  21. "It's Gonna Blow!" ("Le Torchon brûle!")
  22. "The Silver Lining" ("La Taie d'argent")
  23. "A Well-Fed Man" ("Un homme bien nourri")
  24. "The Lucky Bean" ("La Fève")
  25. "Digestive Aids" ("Propos digestifs")
  26. "The Reading Room" ("Le Cabinet de lecture")
  27. "Nobody's Perfect" ("On n'est pas parfait")
  28. "Let's Be Reasonable!" ("Soyons raisonnables")
  29. "Jocasta on the Streets" ("Jocaste sur le trottoir")
  30. "Cain's Luckiest Fine" ("La plus belle Trouvaille de Caïn")


English translations

Histoires Désobligeantes has been translated into English twice, first by Erik Butler for Wakefield Press in 2015,[2] and then by Brian Stableford, with an introduction and footnotes, 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]

The Complete Review and the Pan Review both praise Butler's translation.[8][9]

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. ^ a b "Disagreeable Tales". Wakefield Press. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  3. ^ Bloy, Léon (1846-1917) Auteur du texte (1890–1899). Histoires désobligeantes / Léon Bloy.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b "The Tarantula's Parlor and Other Unkind Tales - Léon Bloy". Snuggly Books. Retrieved 2023-08-30.
  5. ^ "Gil Blas / dir. A. Dumont". Gallica. 1893-09-22. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  6. ^ Ivry, Benjamin (2020-01-08). "The Catholic writer who rivalled Dostoyevky". Catholic Herald. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  7. ^ "Gil Blas / dir. A. Dumont". Gallica. 1893-10-06. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  8. ^ "Disagreeable Tales - Léon Bloy". www.complete-review.com. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  9. ^ Andresen, Mark (2015-08-01). "THE PAN REVIEW: Disagreeable Tales by Leon Bloy, (Translated by Erik Butler), Wakefield Press". THE PAN REVIEW. Retrieved 2023-08-31.

External links

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