York: Penguin Books, 1991).
Weir, David,
Decadence and the Making of Modernism
(Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts, 1996).
A Rebours
and J.-K. Huysmans
Huysmans, J.-K.,
A Rebours
, ed. Marc Fumaroli (Paris: Gallimard/folio, 1983).
——
Against Nature
, ed. Nicholas White, trans. Margaret Mauldon (Oxford: Oxford World Classics, 2009).
——
Against Nature
, ed. Patrick McGuinness, trans. Robert Baldick (London: Penguin Classics, 2004).
Baldick, Robert,
The Life of J.-K. Huysmans
, foreword by Brendan King (London: Dedalus, 2006).
Further Reading in Oxford World’s Classics
Mallarmé, Stéphane,
Collected Poems and Other Verse
, trans. E. H. and A. M. Blackmore.
Maupassant, Guy de,
Bel-Ami
, trans. Margaret Mauldon, ed. Robert Lethbridge.
——
A Day in the Country and Other Stories
, trans. David Coward.
——
A Life
, trans. Roger Pearson.
——
Pierre et Jean
, trans. Julie Mead, ed. Robert Lethbridge.
Rimbaud, Arthur,
Collected Poems
, trans. Martin Sorrell.
CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR EVENTS AND LITERARY PUBLICATIONS OF THE FRENCH
FIN DE SIÈCLE
1870 Franco-Prussian War; defeat of the French at Sedan. The Emperor, Napoleon III, captured. End of the Second Empire, proclamation of the Third Republic, under Thiers and the Republicans.
Lautréamont,
Poems
Villiers de l’Isle-Adam,
La Révolte
Wagner,
Die Walküre
1871 Defeat of France by the Prussians; armistice with Germany. Thiers becomes President of the Republic. Insurrection in Paris, start of the 73 days of the Commune. Violence on both sides, burning of the Tuileries Palace and destruction of the Vendôme Column. The insurrection is put down with terrible severity and bloody reprisal by the Republican government. Treaty of Frankfurt signed with Germany; France cedes Alsace-Lorraine and has to pay crippling war debt to Germany.
Mendès,
Soixante-treize journés de la commune
Rimbaud,
Lettre du voyant
;
Le Bateau ivre
Zola, first novel in his Rougon-Macquart cycle, subtitled
Histoire naturelle et sociale d’une famille sous le Second Empire
1872 Introduction of compulsory military service and creation of a territorial army.
Nietzsche,
The Birth of Tragedy
Zola,
La Curée
Monet,
Impression: le lever du soleil
1873 Death of former Emperor Napoleon III at Chislehurst, in Kent. Resignation of Thiers, and accession of Maréchal MacMahon as President of France. Institution of the
septennat
, limiting the mandate of the Presidency to seven years. James Clark Maxwell, Theory of electromagnetism. Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire.
Corbière,
Les Amours jaunes
Rimbaud,
Une Saison en enfer
Verlaine,
Art poétique
Pater,
The Renaissance
Manet,
Gare Saint-Lazare
1874 Laws regulating public morality, including the re-establishment ofcensorship. French commerce expands in Indochina, Tonkin becomes a French protectorate. First Impressionist Exhibition opens in the photographer Nadar’s studio.
Barbey d’Aurevilly,
Les Diaboliques
Ribot,
La Philosophie de Schopenhauer
Verlaine,
Romances sans paroles
1875 The Constitution voted, which definitively establishes France as a republic. First explorations in Equatorial Africa, led by Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, later Commissioner-General for the French Congo. Barbey’s
Les Diaboliques
formally withdrawn from public sale, with the agreement of the writer. Zola criticizes Barbey for this, and earns the latter’s undying hostility.
Zola,
The Sin of Father Mouret
Moreau,
Fleur mystique
1876 Members of the two legislative bodies, elected in accordance with the 1875 Constitution (Chambres des députés and Sénat), take their seats. Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone. Villiers wins second prize in the Michaëlis competition for drama.
Huysmans,
Marthe
Mallarmé,
L’Après-midi d’un faune
Richepin,
La Chanson des gueux
;
Les Morts bizarres
Wagner,
Siegfried
Gustave Moreau, exhibits in the Salon,
L’Apparition
and
Salomé dansant devant Hérode
Swinburne,
Poems and Ballads, second
Weir, David,
Decadence and the Making of Modernism
(Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts, 1996).
A Rebours
and J.-K. Huysmans
Huysmans, J.-K.,
A Rebours
, ed. Marc Fumaroli (Paris: Gallimard/folio, 1983).
——
Against Nature
, ed. Nicholas White, trans. Margaret Mauldon (Oxford: Oxford World Classics, 2009).
——
Against Nature
, ed. Patrick McGuinness, trans. Robert Baldick (London: Penguin Classics, 2004).
Baldick, Robert,
The Life of J.-K. Huysmans
, foreword by Brendan King (London: Dedalus, 2006).
Further Reading in Oxford World’s Classics
Mallarmé, Stéphane,
Collected Poems and Other Verse
, trans. E. H. and A. M. Blackmore.
Maupassant, Guy de,
Bel-Ami
, trans. Margaret Mauldon, ed. Robert Lethbridge.
——
A Day in the Country and Other Stories
, trans. David Coward.
——
A Life
, trans. Roger Pearson.
——
Pierre et Jean
, trans. Julie Mead, ed. Robert Lethbridge.
Rimbaud, Arthur,
Collected Poems
, trans. Martin Sorrell.
CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR EVENTS AND LITERARY PUBLICATIONS OF THE FRENCH
FIN DE SIÈCLE
1870 Franco-Prussian War; defeat of the French at Sedan. The Emperor, Napoleon III, captured. End of the Second Empire, proclamation of the Third Republic, under Thiers and the Republicans.
Lautréamont,
Poems
Villiers de l’Isle-Adam,
La Révolte
Wagner,
Die Walküre
1871 Defeat of France by the Prussians; armistice with Germany. Thiers becomes President of the Republic. Insurrection in Paris, start of the 73 days of the Commune. Violence on both sides, burning of the Tuileries Palace and destruction of the Vendôme Column. The insurrection is put down with terrible severity and bloody reprisal by the Republican government. Treaty of Frankfurt signed with Germany; France cedes Alsace-Lorraine and has to pay crippling war debt to Germany.
Mendès,
Soixante-treize journés de la commune
Rimbaud,
Lettre du voyant
;
Le Bateau ivre
Zola, first novel in his Rougon-Macquart cycle, subtitled
Histoire naturelle et sociale d’une famille sous le Second Empire
1872 Introduction of compulsory military service and creation of a territorial army.
Nietzsche,
The Birth of Tragedy
Zola,
La Curée
Monet,
Impression: le lever du soleil
1873 Death of former Emperor Napoleon III at Chislehurst, in Kent. Resignation of Thiers, and accession of Maréchal MacMahon as President of France. Institution of the
septennat
, limiting the mandate of the Presidency to seven years. James Clark Maxwell, Theory of electromagnetism. Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire.
Corbière,
Les Amours jaunes
Rimbaud,
Une Saison en enfer
Verlaine,
Art poétique
Pater,
The Renaissance
Manet,
Gare Saint-Lazare
1874 Laws regulating public morality, including the re-establishment ofcensorship. French commerce expands in Indochina, Tonkin becomes a French protectorate. First Impressionist Exhibition opens in the photographer Nadar’s studio.
Barbey d’Aurevilly,
Les Diaboliques
Ribot,
La Philosophie de Schopenhauer
Verlaine,
Romances sans paroles
1875 The Constitution voted, which definitively establishes France as a republic. First explorations in Equatorial Africa, led by Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, later Commissioner-General for the French Congo. Barbey’s
Les Diaboliques
formally withdrawn from public sale, with the agreement of the writer. Zola criticizes Barbey for this, and earns the latter’s undying hostility.
Zola,
The Sin of Father Mouret
Moreau,
Fleur mystique
1876 Members of the two legislative bodies, elected in accordance with the 1875 Constitution (Chambres des députés and Sénat), take their seats. Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone. Villiers wins second prize in the Michaëlis competition for drama.
Huysmans,
Marthe
Mallarmé,
L’Après-midi d’un faune
Richepin,
La Chanson des gueux
;
Les Morts bizarres
Wagner,
Siegfried
Gustave Moreau, exhibits in the Salon,
L’Apparition
and
Salomé dansant devant Hérode
Swinburne,
Poems and Ballads, second
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