Jean lorrain biography biography com

Never would I have translated Jean Lorrain if I knew then what I know now.

But that’s the beauty of reading a good book. The reader’s relationship is with the book and the story it tells, not with its author.

There’s much I could write about Jean Lorrain that would turn you away from all his work. But as a translator I choose the writing, not the writer. After I’d read his little collection, Contes pour lire à la chandelle (Stories to Read by Candlelight), certain pieces stayed with me and compelled me to read them again. Before I knew a thing about Lorrain, I was touched by the sympathy he expressed for some of the underdogs of his society, like the odd old woman in ‘Madame Gorgibus’ and the trapped beauty in ‘Princess Mandosiane’.

A year or so after finishing my first draft of Stories to Read by Candlelight, I read up on him and found little to recommend him as a human. Even a fellow translator said grimly, ‘He wasn’t nice,’ when I mentioned the name of Jean Lorrain. It’s true that I’ve avoided his darker works, but, still, the more I read his lighter short stories, the more appreciative I am of his prose.

I’ve also translated Lorrain’s novella, La Mandragore, another piece of writing that touched me with its sensitivity to misfortune. A princess gives birth to a girl-frog that repels all in the court, particularly her father, the king. Lorrain depicts the mother’s pain when faced with the girl’s ugliness in the traditionally beautiful world of the royal palace, and her response to the two of them being banished. My translation,The Mandrake, is freely available in the Belmont Story Review and there’s more information in my blog post here, including some original illustrations.

A brief bio: Jean Lorrain was born Paul Duval in 1855, the only child of a family of wealthy ship-owners. In 1882 when he decided to become a writer, his disapp

French poet and novelist

Jean Lorrain (9 August 1855 in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime – 30 June 1906), born Paul Alexandre Martin Duval, was a Frenchpoet and novelist of the Symbolist school.

Lorrain was a dedicated disciple of dandyism and spent much of his time amongst the fashionable artistic circles in France, particularly in the cafés and bars of Montmartre.

He contributed to the satirical weekly Le Courrier français, and wrote a number of collections of verse, including La forêt bleue (1883) and L'ombre ardente (1897). He is also remembered for his Decadent novels and short stories, such as Monsieur de Phocas (1901), Monsieur de Bougrelon (1897), and Histoires des masques (1900), as well as for one of his best stories, Sonyeuse, which he linked to portraits exhibited by Antonio de La Gándara in 1893. He also wrote the libretto to Pierre de Bréville's operaÉros vainqueur (1910).

Manuel Orazi illustrated his novella Ma petite ville in 1989.

Lorrain was openly gay, often citing ancient Greece as noble heritage for homosexuality, and became colloquially known as "The Ambassador from Sodom".

Due to tubercular symptoms, he started using morphine, and then moved on to drinking ether, a habit he shared with Guy de Maupassant. Under the influence of ether Lorrain wrote several horror stories, but eventually the substance gave him stomach ulcers and health problems.

Works

Poetry

• Le Sang des dieux (1882)
• La Forêt bleue (1882)
• Modernités

Never would I have translated Jean Lorrain if I knew then what I know now.

But that’s the beauty of reading a good book. The reader’s relationship is with the book and the story it tells, not its author.

There’s much I could write about Jean Lorrain that would turn you away from all his work. But as a translator, I choose the writing, not the writer. After I’d read his little collection, Contes pour lire à la chandelle (Stories to Read by Candlelight), certain pieces stayed with me and compelled me to read them again. Before I knew a thing about Lorrain, I was touched by the sympathy he expressed for some of the underdogs of his society, like the odd old woman in ‘Madame Gorgibus’ and the trapped beauty in ‘Princess Mandosiane’.

A brief bio: Jean Lorrain was born Paul Duval in 1855 and died of decadence in 1906 at the age of 51. He was the only child of a family of wealthy ship-owners. In 1882 he decided to become a writer, disappointing his father who suggested he take on an alias to avoid bringing shame on the family, thus Jean Lorrain was invented. He was a much-published journalist, poet, novelist, and sharp-tongued critic of his decadent peers, despite belonging to their circle.

While his work was well-known in his lifetime, much of it has been forgotten and will probably remain forgotten. But the stories I’ve selected to translate are worth resurrecting for their exquisite prose, particularly some that are in a category entitled ‘Tales for Sick Children’, that are quirky but not decadent like his novels. Their expression is nostalgic and aesthetic, typical of Belle Époque symbolists who rebelled against modern technology and yearned for a return of medieval days and characters in flamboyant gowns and armour.

His tales of knights and princesses, ghostly girls and frightful animated crockery are as masterfully worded as our favourite mythical adventures. What really clinched it for me