Thirty tales from one of the best known but least translated of the
French Decadent writers
Thirty tales of theft, onanism, incest, murder and a host of other forms
of perversion and cruelty from the "ungrateful beggar" and "pilgrim of
the absolute," Léon Bloy. Disagreeable Tales, first published in
French in 1894, collects Bloy's narrative sermons from the depths: a
cauldron of frightful anecdotes and inspired misanthropy that represents
a high point of the French Decadent movement and the most emblematic
entry into the library of the "Cruel Tale" christened by Villiers de
l'Isle-Adam. Whether depicting parents and offspring being sacrificed
for selfish gains, or imbeciles sacrificing their own individuality on a
literary whim, these tales all draw sustenance from an underlying
belief: the root of religion is crime against man, nature and God, and
that in this hell on earth, even the worst among us has a soul.
A close friend to Joris-Karl Huysmans, and later admired by the likes of
Kafka and Borges, Léon Bloy (1846-1917) is among the best known but
least translated of the French Decadent writers. Nourishing
antireligious sentiments in his youth, his outlook changed radically
when he moved to Paris and came under the influence of Barbey
d'Aurevilly, the unconventionally religious novelist best known for Les
Diaboliques. He earned the dual nicknames of "The Pilgrim of the
Absolute" through his unorthodox devotion to the Catholic Church, and
"The Ungrateful Beggar" through his endless reliance on the charity of
friends to support him and his family.
