Sardonic tales: <Contes cruels> (Blue jade library)

The Contes Cruels (Cruel Tales), comprising 27 stories, are sure to delight any reader with an interest in French literature, particularly the so-called 'Symbolist' school of the 19th century. Villiers' works, however, unlike much Symbolist prose fiction, have a great deal of irony and biting wit which the author uses to mock and satirize bourgeois affectations and popular taste, as in 'Two Augurs' and 'The Glory Machine'. Also, unlike many Symbolist works, Villiers' stories are not merely art for art's sake, exercises in mood or impression; they almost always have a provocative point, reflecting Villiers' opinions or attitudes on a particular issue (attitudes which are almost always opposed to the prevailing feelings of the time). He also applies his genius to the depiction of tragic, self-involved artists and libertines as in 'Sentimentality' and 'Vera'. The closest comparison that one can make in literature to Villiers is that of Poe, although Villiers, in my opinion, is more pleasurable to read. Without the excessive, dreary morbidity of Poe, he fires the imagination in much the same way; compare, for example, Villiers' Vera and Poe's Ligeia, both masterpieces in their own right and similar in some ways, but at the same time strikingly different in tone and mood. The Contes Cruels are wonderful, consistently surprising works which give us a glimpse into the thought and workings of a great literary mind.

Every now and then one stumbles across a relatively obscure authorwhose work is nevertheless enrossing and highly relevant. "Cruel Tales" is such a work. It's unlikely that even many well-read people have heard of De L'Isle-Adam. And yet, his collection of short storie disturbs and enterains.De L'Isle-Adam wrote in the mid-19th century, yet many of the idols he lampoons--commericialism, materialism, excessive patriotism, scientific objectivity--are all the more pervasive in today's society. De L'Isle-Adam writes witty, thought-provking satire without coming off embittered; this is no easy featSome of the tales have a shocking climax, such as "Sentimentality" or "The Eleventh-Hour Guest" "Two Augurs" is extremely funny; although it deliberately exaggerates society's trend towards conformity, it makes one ponder how much of an exaggeration it really is. De L'Isle-Adam was a radical individualist and subjectivist. And these stories offer a metaphorical journey into human unconsciousness. One is tempted to call them poetical Freudianism; before Freud. In some ways, De L'Isle-Adam is similiar to Poe; though not as darkly offputting. I see a positive Enlightenment Humanistic impulse in De L'Isle-Adam as well, even as he lampoons much of the Enlightenment tradition.Finally, I should note that although De L'Isle-Adam attacks science and reason and advocates a personal mysticism, he is not a religious apologist. If anything, the mysticism he has in mind is more of an idealism (perhaps even a solipism as the previous writter suggests); a probing of one's own mind and the very personal, often very weird world it has the potential to create.

In all truth, I think this book deserves three stars, but what the hell, I enjoyed it and I think other people might enjoy it too. It is definitely not a masterpiece of literature, but somehow it forms part of the Western literary tradition and its style has, directly or not, inspired much of current popular culture. Villiers de l'Isle was a member of that strange group, the French decadents, active in the last part of the XIX century, like Huysmans, Lautreamont and Mallarmé (the latter being much superior in strictly literary quality). The whole idea of decadentism is to reject the vulgar, noisy, superflous life of modernity, the disappearance of the nobility, the predominance of the cheap. Decadentists nostalgically praise the life of the soul, the reclusiveness enjoyed by old nobles living in gloomy castles. It is like Romanticism disillusioned, taken to the extreme. Hence comes the idealization of the Middle Ages, as opposed to the most optimistic century in history, the XIX. But decadentism also has a darker face: the fascination with death, sickness, twisted sex, darkness and retreat from society.In these tales, Villiers treats these themes with varying success, but somehow they are attractive, so different from what we live, think and feel today. Two of the tales were, in my opinion, the best crafted: "The impatience of multitudes", about a warrior returning to an Ancient Greek city from a battle with the Persians. It is very vivid and indeed cruel, as the title of the collection suggests. It could even be said that it belongs in anthologies of this period. The other one is "The desire to be a man", a very sick story. The rest are very original (though it doesn't seem so, for the style has been appropriated by cheap entertainment and a few masterpieces) and they create the right mood, with pale full moons, crows, owls, night horse-rides and all which is now a cliche of ghosts stories. It is an easy and quick read, rather eccentric.

to some, adams is not even significant and wrote nothing of enduring or lasting value. to those of us who can recognize true decadence and solipsism when we see it, however, his work is indispensable to our dementia and creative depravity. how else could we justify our bizarre, reclusive lifestyles, our anti social bitterness, our out and out misanthropy, without recourse to adam's philosophy of pure ideation and subjectivity? sure, not all his material has necessarily dated well, but the exact same thing can be said of huysmans or any of the other decadents. the constant emphasis on religious faith and it's importance (it sometimes seems that adams is trying to convince himself of the reality of his beliefs and not the reader)may seem obsolete now, but it gives a real sense of mystery and wonder to his novels and short stories. adams is the defender of the aesthete and the introvert par excellance, and this collection of really intriguing and poetic tales is a treasure to the connoisseur of the imaginative, the purely mental, the mystical. for anyone who lives 'against the grain', this is an absolute necessity. BUY IT