Perversity

by Francis Carco

A prostitute, her pimp and her brother are locked in an unholy triangle of terror in Perversity, Francis Carco's stunning and sordid story set in the slums of Paris.

Genres: Fiction, Crime, France, Noir

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

François Carcopino-Tusoli, dit Francis Carco, était un poète, écrivain, journaliste et auteur de chansons français d'origine corse. Il était aussi connu sous le pseudonyme de Jean d'Aiguières.

François Carcopino-Tusoli, known as Francis Carco, was a poet, writer, journalist and French song lyrics writer of corsican origine. He was also known by the pseudonym Jean d'Aiguières.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Francis Carco’s Perversity was originally published in 1925 in French and later reproduced with suggestive cover art in America in 1950. It’s a sordid short novel, set entirely in the Paris slums. Emile, an odd character, who mostly keeps to himself when he’s not working, is uncomfortable around people, and high-strung, emotional, and perhaps a bit dim-witted. He lives in an apartment among the working girls, of which his sister Irma is one. She shares the apartment next to him with its paper thin walls, often with her strutting drinking pimp, who finds Emile endlessly puzzling and is so frustrated with Emile’s oddness that he endlessly harasses, beats, and humiliates Emile. The story is oddly depressing as Emile is a big dumb coward who endured these horrors without even a dream or a thought of anything better. what makes it interest is the depth of emotions that Carco brings out.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emile, a bit of a simpleton, shares an apartment with his prostitute sister Irma in a house full of prostitutes' apartments. They live almost separate lives, he going off daily to his reputable office job, she whoring the nights away. But then she takes up with wiry, bullying, sadistic Bebert, who becomes her regular lover while also pimping her. Bebert recognizes in Emile someone whom he can safely bully, and proceeds to do just that. When, if ever, will the worm turn?

This short novel was first published in 1925 as Perversité; I'm not sure when the English translation was published, but I do know that it was done by Jean "Wide Sargasso Sea" Rhys. I haven't enjoy what little I've read of Rhys's own work, and I have to say that her translation here is at best mediocre. Obviously I have no idea if this is a sin brought forward from the original, but there's a great laziness in the vocabulary. "Odious" turns up all over the place; so does "stupor"; there are countless other examples. Even if this was a fault in Carco's original, surely it's the duty of the translator to produce a version that's acceptable to the target reader's eye?

The story itself is determinedly grim. None of the characters have redeeming features: Bebert's a complete shit; Emile's a wimp; Irma has her occasional human moments, but for the most part is tiresomely dependent on her unfaithful man and her promiscuity. The elderly prostitute who lives downstairs, Belle-Amour, seems to have some genuine warmth, but she's able to launch and sustain a brief affair with Emile only through self-degradation.

Where I found the book fascinating was as an example of the kind of literature that French film noir came from. There's a habit among US cinéastes to assume that film noir began in Hollywood in ~1940, to ignore its French and German (and even its Hollywood!) precursors, and to regard the European equivalents that sprang up after WWII as imitations of the Hollywood style. I think the examples I give in my Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir, taken together, demolish that conceit; what Perversity does is to add evidence as to how hollow the conceit is, for here we have a full-blown piece of noir literature that dates from long before the start of WWII.

Recommended? Certainly if you share my interest in early noir; otherwise, perhaps not. On the other hand, the book's short, demanding that you invest only a couple of hours.

[Sloweducation · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perversity is really unfairly neglected. Despite some fine pedigree (Carco was a member of the Academie Goncourt, Perversity is translated by Jean Rhys), the book has achieved very little recognition. The beginning, it's true, is rather dull, and the ending is exactly the psycho-sexual twist of the knife you might expect. However, the better of the novel is truly sinister. Emile is a socially defective office worker who lives in the slums of Paris with his sister. She is a prostitute. She gets involved with a brutal pimp who loathes Emile. The novel is a fascinating early roman noir, but it does not, however, have any of the sense of irresistible destiny that tends to haunt the genre (outside of Woolrich, perhaps). Instead, it lurches forward unsteadily and hatefully on the barely motivated actions of its degraded characters. The novella is less plot than outpouring, but in its brevity its something rather wonderful for those with a taste for the wicked.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this is a great little book! A story about a man who lives in the same building as his whore sister, who lives with a pimp who likes to terrorize the brother. An intense look at sexual power and violence. And it's Paris 1920's, what can be better?

[Val · Rating 3 out of 5]

Francis Carco was born in New Caledonia, then lived in France, wrote poetry and became a friend of Colette and De Jouvenel. Although he mixed with both artists and aristocrats, he was fascinated by the seamier side of Parisian life. This noirish story reflects that interest.
It is a world of prostitutes, pimps and punters, where the rules of society do not apply, an unforgiving and cruel world. Emile, a shy, gentle, slightly prudish or conventionally moral man, who just wants to get on with his normal life and his normal job quietly, without causing any trouble to anyone, is the perverse and out of place person in it. He also wants to be close to his sister, who is part of that world.
Carco is not a great novelist, but he has very skillfully shown this story from the twisted perspective of Irma's world. The unfolding tragedy is shown as being Emile's fault. Emile is made unhappy, bullied, tortured and victimised and his sense of helplessness brings greater and greater cruelty. One person pities him, but what help is pity in this place?
The use of the merry-go-round and memory is the final image which I will keep of this book.

[lisa_emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

What makes a terrible tale of human depravity so entertaining- it's a mystery? Each of the three characters exhibit such disgusting traits- and there is so little that differentiates each from committing horrors upon each other. If that doesn't draw you in, then consider the descriptions of post WWI Paris. Quite noir.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well titled! Life among the demimonde, with overtones of sadomasochism. At its best, Carco's novel feels like a stifling nightmare of impossible situations and itchy discomfort. At its worst, it feels like the inevitability of some lingering disease. Mercifully it's very short and the terminus of the story's abbreviated arc provides a stopping place, if not relief. Interesting also as a step between 19th Century realism and the works of 20th Century writers like Genet, who would take this sordid little fable and make it even more about everyman. I read the Black Lizard edition but I had fun imagining how a reader picking up the US Berkeley Medallion paperback off some bus station news spinner might have reacted -- almost certainly a case of baffled, even horrified, expectations.

[Victoria & David Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simenon does it better.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Dark. The long lost link between Camus' The Stranger and The Postman Always Rings Twice.