The Deliquescences of Adoré Floupette

by Adoré Floupette (Author (fictional)), Henri Beauclair, Gabriel Vicaire

A collection of Decadent poems, with an extended Life of the Poet, which was published originally in 1885, only for it to become apparent in short order that it was in fact a literary hoax and the confection of the two minor poets Henri Beauclair and Gabriel Vicaire. The book soon garnered a reputation for the quality of its parody, for successfully hoodwinking some critics and for entertaining those in on the joke, and is today recognised both as one of the earliest exemplars of the genre of hoax writings, and as a key contemporary work for all those interested in the French literature of the 1890s.

Poems and Life have been put into a fine translation by Stanley Chapman, while an Afterword by Paul Edwards discusses the work’s context, significance, and pun-hidden references.

76 pages, Slip-cased paperback

First published January 1, 1885

About the author

Joseph Chrysostome Adoré Floupette (January 24, 1860-????) was born in Lons-le-Saulnier in the Jura department. His father operated an importing business, and his mother was known for her excellent jams and preserves. His family was perhaps quite wealthy. Though a thoroughly unremarkable student at the Lycée Lons-le-Saulnier, he read extensively, and, as a result, gained a widespread knowledge and appreciation of world literature and natural history. Later on, after being exposed to poets such as Arsenal and Bleucoton, he began to associate with the Symbolist-Decadent crowd. His opus, Deliquescences, though ribald and experimental, has never once gone out of print.

Of course, he might not actually exist. He might actually be the creation of two minor Symbolist poets (Gabriel Vicaire (1848-1900) and Henri Beauclair (1860- 1919)) who used him as a means of satirizing the overly indulgent and pretentious aspects of anti-Parnassian poetry (i.e., Symbolist and Decadent poetry). Upon its publication in 1885, Deliquescences generated quite a stir. Mallarmé was insulted, Verlaine was amused, and the conservative critics were outraged. It has appeared over the years in seven different French editions, before finally making its appearance in English in 2007 as an Atlas Press title, translated by Stanley Chapman of the London Institute of 'Pataphysics.