An edition of Le calvaire (1887)

Le calvaire

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Last edited by Drini
June 13, 2024 | History
An edition of Le calvaire (1887)

Le calvaire

  • 0 Ratings
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  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

Le Calvaire is a thinly veiled autobiographical novel, which recounts the tortured and traumatic coming of age of the narrator Jean Mintie. It paints a nightmarish picture of late nineteenth century French society: from the stultifying boredom of bourgeois provincialism, to the horrors of the Franco-Prussian war, the grotesque avarice of shameless women and the moral bankruptcy of their compliant victims.

Mintie's progress through life is a descent into Hell, a plumbing of the lower depths, the martyrdom of a godless man in a godless age. The publication of Le Calvaire in 1886 marked a brilliant beginning for the Angry Young Man of the Age, who went on to flay the Establishment in Torture Garden and The Diary of a Chambermaid.

Publish Date
Publisher
Dedalus, Hippocrene
Language
English
Pages
223

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Previews available in: English French

Edition Availability
Cover of: Calvary
Calvary
2024, Standard Ebooks
in English
Cover of: Le calvaire
Le calvaire
1995, Dedalus, Hippocrene
in English
Cover of: Calvary
Calvary: (a novel)
1922, Lieber & Lewis
Cover of: Le calvaire
Le calvaire
1887, P. Ollendorff
in French - 16e édition.

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Published in
Sawtry, New York, NY
Series
Empire of the senses

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
843/.912
Library of Congress
PQ2364.M7 C313 1995, PQ2364.M7C313 1995

The Physical Object

Pagination
223 p. ;
Number of pages
223

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL1165013M
Internet Archive
lecalvaire0000mirb
ISBN 10
0946626995
LCCN
94145532
OCLC/WorldCat
34546259
Library Thing
1547461
Goodreads
702737

Work Description

Despite a troubled youth and harrowing experiences in the Franco-Prussian war, Jean Mintié is on the rise in Paris. He mingles in artistic circles and has modest success with his first writings.

That all changes when he meets socialite Julie Roux. Feeling both intrigued and unsettled by her extravagance and outspokenness, he can’t shake her from his thoughts. Their ensuing affair, initially captivating, takes a sharp turn as other aspects of Julie’s personality come to the fore.

Calvary, also commonly referred to by its French title Le Calvaire, is a tale of ruin, obsession and redemption. It marked Octave Mirbeau’s debut under his own name, after he anonymously penned no less than ten works for others. He didn’t have to look far for inspiration: the novel’s portrayal of Jean and Julie’s relationship parallels Mirbeau’s own disastrous love affair with the notorious Judith Vinmer. He would later revisit this exercise in “writing as trauma therapy” in his third book Sebastien Roch, a novel about sexual abuse at a Jesuit school for boys.

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
June 13, 2024 Edited by Drini Edited without comment.
June 13, 2024 Edited by Drini merge authors
June 13, 2024 Edited by Drini Merge works
August 13, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot remove fake subjects
December 9, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page