Léon Hennique Novel
Complete Novel 'A Character' & Rare French Literary Translations
Category: Octave Mirbeau – Les Écrivains
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Octave Mirbeau, portrait From: Bibliothèque de Octave Mirbeau (auction catalogue, 1919) Journalism Octave Mirbeau’s scathing reflection on journalism exposes the degradation of truth in Parisian media—cronyism, sensationalism, and lost integrity—calling for a radical rebirth of sincerity, bold criticism, and moral courage. I spent eight months away from Paris, living in a Breton village amongst farmers…
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Octave Mirbeau, portrait From: Bibliothèque de Octave Mirbeau (auction catalogue, 1919) Paris Playthings Mirbeau delivers a biting satire of Parisian spectacle, where fleeting fame, media frenzy, and Sarah Bernhardt’s cult collide in a dazzling parade of playthings. A scornful portrait of a city enamored with noise, novelty, and narcissism. It takes remarkably little to amuse…
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Octave Mirbeau, portrait From: Bibliothèque de Octave Mirbeau (auction catalogue, 1919) The Dream Mirbeau champions the poetic dream against naturalist precision, celebrating Émile Bergerat’s Enguerrande as a bold stand for artistic imagination, idealism, and lyrical revolt in an age of soulless documentation. At a time when all literature syndicates itself into a commercial enterprise under…
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Octave Mirbeau, portrait From: Bibliothèque de Octave Mirbeau (auction catalogue, 1919) Publicity Mirbeau denounces publicity as literature’s ruin—mocking its grotesque theatrics, cynical self-promotion, and cronyism—while celebrating silent artistic integrity, forgotten virtues, and the enduring honour of true creators. As soon as the news of M. Jean Richepin’s madness spread along the boulevard, everyone exclaimed with…
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Octave Mirbeau, portrait From: Bibliothèque de Octave Mirbeau (auction catalogue, 1919) Academiana Mirbeau skewers the Académie Française for rewarding mediocrity over genius, lamenting Leconte de Lisle’s neglect while mocking Halévy’s ascent—an immortal triumph of charm and connections over literary greatness. God forbid I should speak ill of the Académie Française which, at heart, despite its…
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Octave Mirbeau, portrait From: Bibliothèque de Octave Mirbeau (auction catalogue, 1919) Literature in the dock Mirbeau tears into literary obscenity and naturalist vice, scorning sensationalists like Mendès while defending sincerity, dignity, and the moral imperative to separate art from filth. There exists, courtesy of naturalism, one M. Desprez, who has just been sentenced to a…
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Octave Mirbeau, portrait From: Bibliothèque de Octave Mirbeau (auction catalogue, 1919) Decorations Mirbeau contrasts cowardice rewarded and heroism forgotten: while Maginard earns the Legion of Honour through flattery and petty courtisanship, a mutilated war hero begs for dignity and is denied, wandering France with only hope and burnt wounds. Maginard never leaves the ministerial antechambers;…
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Octave Mirbeau, portrait From: Bibliothèque de Octave Mirbeau (auction catalogue, 1919) A civil burial Mirbeau laments the pomp and godlessness of M. About’s civil burial, casting satire on patriotic spectacle and atheist pride while invoking the dignity of humble death, faith, and forgotten consolation. Murger was dying. A friend informed him that a priest was…