Forrest’s Reviews > French Decadent Tales > Status Update
Forrest
is on page 162 of 231
"Danaette" is exactly what I signed up for when I picked up this volume. I should have known Remy de Gourmont would deliver such a work of exquisite beauty. The prose is absolutely stunning. The imagery is jaw-dropping. The co-mingling of sin and innocence is a precise hallmark of decadence, in my mind, at least. This is the gold-standard. Five stars like white snowflakes, if you catch my drift.
— Apr 16, 2020 08:26AM
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Forrest’s Previous Updates
Forrest
is on page 214 of 231
Louys' "A Case without Precedent" is, well, without precedent. An interesting anecdote in rather dry prose about the potential marriage of a young man and conjoined twin girl(s). It's a strange case, indeed, but little more than an anecdote. A clever way to end the anthology, but a weak story, unfortunately. Three stars.
— Apr 20, 2020 04:40PM
Forrest
is on page 209 of 231
I would swear that the literary seeds that sprouted Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges were planted firmly in this story, "Paolo Uccello, Painter". This is a precognizant proto-echo to those two great writers' work, combining the best of both before either was even born. It is an anachronistic miracle. Five transcendental stars.
— Apr 20, 2020 02:52PM
Forrest
is on page 205 of 231
"Lucretius, Poet" is a story of longing and logic and science and love, all of it ending tragically and mad, of course. Because who can understand all of those things at once and not be driven utterly out of their mind? Another great character study, which I didn't know was one of Schwob's strengths, until now. Four stars.
— Apr 20, 2020 10:42AM
Forrest
is on page 202 of 231
"52 and 53 Orfila" reads like an Aickman story, but not as weird. Still, the story of pettiness among dwellers in an old-folks home rings strange simply because of the amount of sheer haughtiness and cliqueishness and the extremes to which people will go to fulfill a gnawing jealousy. It is a great character study of (some of) the elderly, though. Four stars.
— Apr 20, 2020 10:33AM
Forrest
is on page 198 of 231
Schwob delivers the grue in "The Sans-Gueule," a story about two soldiers that have had their faces blown completely off and the woman who takes them home to try to determine which is her husband. This story was disturbing even for Schwob, which is saying something. I felt like I was watching a Tool music-video in my head while reading this. Really off-kilter stuff here. Five stars worth, in fact.
— Apr 19, 2020 06:39PM
Forrest
is on page 194 of 231
Given my previous experience with Marcel Schwob, I had high expectations going into this section. "The Brothel," a transgressive ghost story, if I ever read one, met those expectations. Five stars.
— Apr 19, 2020 03:15PM
Forrest
is on page 191 of 231
"Perseus and Andromeda" is a wonderful pastiche of Romanticism and turns the tale, perhaps not completely on its head, but sideways, to be sure. The portrayal of Perseus as a dandy-to-top-all-dandies is hilarious. Four stars to this twisted myth.
— Apr 19, 2020 01:25PM
Forrest
is on page 173 of 231
"On the Threshold" is a strange little story about a heron named "Remorse," among other things. A fairly blase story, it is elevated by it's strange elements. Four stars.
— Apr 17, 2020 09:46PM
Forrest
is on page 168 of 231
Never have I seen Eros and Thanatos so intertwined as in Gourmont's story "Don Juan's Secret". In that little sub-sub-sub-genre of stories about death and sex, this has to top them all. My goodness, what a writer! I already knew that, but this clinches it: Remy de Gourmont has ascended to stand side by side with Marcel Schwob as the decadents' Decadent. Five stars.
— Apr 17, 2020 10:30AM
Forrest
is on page 165 of 231
"The Faun" is an interesting bit of debauchery. Well-written, of course, but not compelling. Four stars.
— Apr 16, 2020 10:40AM
