Jean Richepin (1849–1926)

The ebook has an enormous number of typos! This makes little sense, because it is a fairly new translation--not a scan of a decades old book, but I'm not sure there is a single page without a typo, and there are often several per page. It isn't hard to make out what the word should be, so while it is annoying, it doesn't stop you from reading this interesting collection.

I first encountered Jean Richepin in French Decadent Tales, translated by Stephen Romer, which I highly recommend. It is really an indispensable volume if you like this kind of stuff. This book, which I note was "adapted" rather than "translated" by prolific British author Brian Stableford, is less vital, but still quite enjoyable. I can't say exactly what Stableford has done with (or to) the texts, since I don't read French. Another reviewer felt that these short pieces, originally written for a newspaper, were less than satisfying. I disagree. While I wouldn't want to read them all in one sitting, and while all are not equally interesting, they constantly surprise with just how nasty, misogynistic, weird, and explicit they are. While taking us into a lost world of Paris or London, the sensibility is more modern. Whether this is due to Mr. Stableford's "adaptations" I can't say. In any case, I enjoyed this book and this type of French writer in general. The ebook isn't expensive, but I hope they will fix the typos. I certainly submitted enough of them to Amazon as errors before I just gave up from exhaustion.… (altro)

Tall, broad-shouldered, with a head of curly black hair and full curly black beard framing large, blazing gold-blue eyes, dressed in velvet jacket, scarlet sash and pants and boots of a Hussar soldier, French poet, dramatist, novelist, short-story writer Jean Richepin (1839-1926) cut quite the dashing figure. And I have to admit – I love his cruel, horrible tales and that’s cruel as in tales with nasty climatic twists, usually the result of obsession – oh, those dark horrors of the mind!

As by way of example of tales cruel, dark and horrific, an old doctor, judged imbecilic, turns out to be quite handy with inflicting deadly microbes; a murderer is compelled to share his secret crimes with a prosecuting judge; a young man pursues the full story of a brutal slaying he witnessed as a boy only to discover he has a sinister split-personality; a hideously ugly wife strips naked and dances erotically to arouse her husband, the ultraconservative village parson; an art-lover detects seething obsessive hatred in the eyes of portraits painted of a long dead aristocratic couple, enough hatred to lash out at one another through the paint.

Jean Richepin did not simply want to be a romantic, he wanted to be the ultimate romantic; he not only claimed he was a descendent of mysterious tribes in Central Asia but fashioned himself a rebel most heroic as he moved through the world as a flamboyant eccentric: in his mid-20s he published a collection of poems judged obscene and was fined and sentenced to a month in prison; while in prison he wrote his first collection of classic short stories entitled “Bizarre Deaths”; at times he traveled extensively and wrote colorful newspaper articles about his hair-raising adventurers; at other times he woke early, cycled energetically for two hours, enjoyed a vigorous rubdown and spent the remainder of the day and evening at his desk writing furiously; and once he even appeared on the stage with Sarah Bernhardt, who admired Richepin since, in her own words, “He is even a bigger ham actor then I am.” You have to love our larger-than-life French artiste.

Again, his short stories are filled with characters living at the extremes, highly unusual characters - for instance, an extraordinary parrot described as old, ugly, thin, bald, scrawny, featherless, bleak, dull, colorless, misshapen, pitiful, wretched, shabby, dilapidated, lamentable, implausible, asthmatic, phantasmal, emaciated and problematic. That’s twenty qualities – for a parrot!

Lastly, here are a few brief strokes from one vintage Jean Richepin tale entitled “The Gaze”: A doctor leads the narrator down a hallway to the room of a patient he describes as a lackluster case, a sufferer of paralysis and delusions of grandeur. When the door opens, the narrator observes the man standing motionless, arms spread wide, his eyes fixed on the blackest point in the darkest corner of the room and his entire being radiating ecstasy. As it turns out, according to the doctor, the patient’s madness was caused by becoming transfixed by the gaze of eyes painted in a portrait he was shown in an antique ship, the portrait of a sea captain whose eyes revealed the very soul of gold, an entire city of gold contained in those eyes. As we read further, the narrator discovers the doctor is also under the spell of gold and then the narrator is given occasion to gaze at those gold filled sailor eyes himself and is moved to wonder if the ecstatic patent he observed earlier is, in fact, truly mad.

Final word: it appears this edition is hard to locate. The tales I noted above are also part of “Crazy Corner” published by Black Coat Press and available through Amazon.

… (altro)

Tall, broad-shouldered, with a head of curly black hair and full curly black beard framing large, blazing gold-blue eyes, dressed in velvet jacket, scarlet sash and pants and boots of a Hussar soldier, French poet, dramatist, novelist, short-story writer Jean Richepin (1839-1926) cut quite the dashing figure. And I have to admit – I love his cruel, horrible tales. Also, I feel a personal connection to the author – in a way, I see him as my spiritual older brother. Thus, my review in English of his book written in French. So, if you can read French, you are in luck – there is a URL on the Goodreads page for ‘Les Morts Bizarres’ (Bizarre Deaths) where you can access the entire book. If you can only read English, I have noted below how you can access the 5 tales in my review. Sidebar: Brian Stableford told me he plans to translate this collection at some point. Also, Brian Stableford translated another collection of Jean Richepin stories: ‘Crazy Corner’. I wrote a review of this fine book.

Constant Guignard
His mother died giving birth to him; his grief-stricken father hanged himself; he received repeating beating at school for wrongs committed by others students, and then, if you can believe it, his luck really turned bad. Ah, the ruthless, cruel, ill fortune of Constant Guignard! Such terrible luck would have caused a less noble heart to harden and become spiteful, but Constant Guignard was a man with a higher, more upright soul and a staunch believer that happiness will follow virtue. Thus, he made the decision to master his bad luck by a total dedication to an honorable, courageous life. Does this 19th century French version of ‘Truth, Justice and the American Way’ sound good? It should, since these are precisely the values conventional society drills into us.

But, but, but . . . although Constant Guignard holds the values and world-view most dear to conventional society, alas, his tale is told by Jean Richepin, a man more than familiar with nasty twists of fortune befalling a noble soul. After all, Richepin wrote ‘Bizarre Deaths’ whilst serving a month’s prison term for publishing poems offending public taste. So, the more decent and honorable and charitable Constant Guignard becomes, the more fate drags him down. And this brutal dragging down continues at every step of his life’s journey (may the reader of these words never be shackled with 1% of his bad fortune!) right up until he is unjustly sentenced to death and he faces his last dark days. Can his equally decent, charitable friend save Constant Guignard’s reputation and let the world know what a fine man he truly was by having his tombstone inscribed with an honorable epitaph? Well, let’s just say Jean Richepin is a storyteller with a lively sense of humor – black humor, that is.

Deshoulieres
Deshoulieres, French aesthete par excellence, had a single-minded obsession with being original; his ideal was to always be unpredictable, indeed, to be the ‘dandy of the unpredictable’, not only in the spheres of art and literature but every aspect of his life. And he judged there is only originality in constant change, thus he said one should never look like oneself – cloths, manners, voice, body – and to this end Deshoulieres used make-up and false hair to emerged on the streets of Paris with a different head every day.

Deshoulieres possessed all the qualities needed to become a great poet, accomplished musician or a world-class painter, but rejected such aspirations since he saw these accomplishments as too vulgar and altogether beneath him. So, what did this ‘dandy of the unpredictable’ do? He murdered his mistress, had her embalmed, and continued to be her lover. Then, living up to his creed of unpredictability, he confessed his crime and spent the last hours of his life in jail inventing an original dance-step and creating a new oyster sauce. And what did the ‘dandy of the unpredictable’ do immediately before the release of the guillotine? Too good to be true! Vintage Jean Richepin.

The Metaphysical Machine
Instead of an inquisitive English scientist exploring the future as we find in H.G. Well’s ‘The Time Machine’, this short tale features an obsessed French madman exploring metaphysical truth by a machine that looks something like the Englishman’s time machine but with two important differences: a dentist’s drill rigged up to produce excruciating pain in his hollow tooth and a mechanized scroll enabling the Frenchman to write as he undergoes his torment. Sounds crazy? It is crazy, although the narrator repeatedly insists he is not mad. At one point in his frenzied telling, our philosophical pioneer exclaims how in addition to our external and internal senses, we have another sense – ‘THE SENSE OF THE ABSOLUTE’. But how to reach this other sense? Why, of course: through agonizing pain inflicted by the metaphysical machine. Now, where does all this lead? Does the French visionary survive his adventure as does Well’s English scientist? We are well to remember Jean Richepin didn’t entitled his collection ‘Bizarre Deaths’ for nothing.

Wet Dungeon Straw
An unforgettable tale of perseverance and purpose, of a nasty stroke of fate and even nastier death. Actually, nasty is an understatement. Perhaps we could term such a stroke of fate as ghastly, horrid, sickening and such a death as disgusting, appalling, revolting, vile and, most especially, stomach-churning.

A Masterpiece of Crime
Literary identity, a yearning for fame and the desire of a mediocre writer to leave the world one masterpiece are explored in this intriguing tale. And, of course, another key piece of the literary puzzle Jean Richepin would never overlook: madness.


‘Constant Guignard’ and ‘Deshoulieres’ are published in ‘French Decadent Tales’, Stephen Romer, editor and translator.

‘Metaphysical Machine’ is published in ‘News from the Moon’, Brian Stableford, editor and translator.

‘Wet Dungeon Straw’ can be retrieved via a Google search: Wet Dungeon Straw PDF

‘A Masterpiece of Crime’ also can be retrieved via a Google search: A Masterpiece of Crime PDF




… (altro)

Tall, broad-shouldered, with a head of curly black hair and full curly black beard framing large, blazing gold-blue eyes, dressed in velvet jacket, scarlet sash and pants and boots of a Hussar soldier, French poet, dramatist, novelist, short-story writer Jean Richepin (1839-1926) cut quite the dashing figure. And I have to admit – I love his cruel, horrible tales and that’s cruel as in tales with nasty climatic twists, usually the result of obsession – oh, those dark horrors of the mind!

As by way of example of tales cruel, dark and horrific, an old doctor, judged imbecilic, turns out to be quite handy with inflicting deadly microbes; a murderer is compelled to share his secret crimes with a prosecuting judge; a young man pursues the full story of a brutal slaying he witnessed as a boy only to discover he has a sinister split-personality; a hideously ugly wife strips naked and dances erotically to arouse her husband, the ultraconservative village parson; an art-lover detects seething obsessive hatred in the eyes of portraits painted of a long dead aristocratic couple, enough hatred to lash out at one another through the paint.

Jean Richepin did not simply want to be a romantic, he wanted to be the ultimate romantic; he not only claimed he was a descendent of mysterious tribes in Central Asia but fashioned himself a rebel most heroic as he moved through the world as a flamboyant eccentric: in his mid-20s he published a collection of poems judged obscene and was fined and sentenced to a month in prison; while in prison he wrote his first collection of classic short stories entitled “Bizarre Deaths”; at times he traveled extensively and wrote colorful newspaper articles about his hair-raising adventurers; at other times he woke early, cycled energetically for two hours, enjoyed a vigorous rubdown and spent the remainder of the day and evening at his desk writing furiously; and once he even appeared on the stage with Sarah Bernhardt, who admired Richepin since, in her own words, “He is even a bigger ham actor then I am.” You have to love our larger-than-life French artiste.

Again, his short stories are filled with characters living at the extremes, highly unusual characters - for instance, an extraordinary parrot described as old, ugly, thin, bald, scrawny, featherless, bleak, dull, colorless, misshapen, pitiful, wretched, shabby, dilapidated, lamentable, implausible, asthmatic, phantasmal, emaciated and problematic. That’s twenty qualities – for a parrot!

Lastly, here are a few brief strokes from one vintage Jean Richepin tale entitled “The Gaze”: A doctor leads the narrator down a hallway to the room of a patient he describes as a lackluster case, a sufferer of paralysis and delusions of grandeur. When the door opens, the narrator observes the man standing motionless, arms spread wide, his eyes fixed on the blackest point in the darkest corner of the room and his entire being radiating ecstasy. As it turns out, according to the doctor, the patient’s madness was caused by becoming transfixed by the gaze of eyes painted in a portrait he was shown in an antique ship, the portrait of a sea captain whose eyes revealed the very soul of gold, an entire city of gold contained in those eyes. As we read further, the narrator discovers the doctor is also under the spell of gold and then the narrator is given occasion to gaze at those gold filled sailor eyes himself and is moved to wonder if the ecstatic patent he observed earlier is, in fact, truly mad.

Final word: it appears this edition is hard to locate. The tales I noted above are also part of “Crazy Corner” published by Black Coat Press and available through Amazon.

… (altro)