Histoires Naturelles

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• Publisher: Alma Classics
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781847497055
• eBook ISBN: 9780714548197
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

A delightful variation on the long tradition of bestiary writing, Jules Renard's short verse and prose poems have captured the imagination of readers and artists since they were originally written in 1894, with Ravel famously setting five of them to music. Presented in a new version by acclaimed translator Richard Stokes, this sumptuously produced volume will captivate and enchant new generations of readers the world over.

Introduction

Students of French know Poil de Carotte, Renard’s autobiographical tales about the sufferings of a sensitive child who is bullied by his mother and neglected by his father; musicians and singers are familiar with five of his poems from Histoires naturelles, set to music of genius by Maurice Ravel in 1906; admirers of Julian Barnes’s recent memoir, Nothing to Be Frightened of, will be aware of Renard’s wonderfully epigrammatic Journal; and lovers of art may have encountered Histoires naturelles through the illustrations of Toulouse-Lautrec and Pierre Bonnard. For the rest, this great writer (Albert Thibaudet called Renard ‘un des plus grands écrivains de son temps’) is largely unknown in English-speaking countries.

He was born on 22nd February 1864 in Châlons-du-Maine. His father, who worked on the construction of the local railway, moved to Chitry-les-Mines in 1866, where he later became mayor. From 1875­–81, Jules and his older brother attended a boarding school in Nevers. Despite failing the first part of his baccalauréat, Renard was finally accepted at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, which he left before completing his studies.

Aged twenty-four, he begins to eke out a living as a writer; he frequents the literary cafés, writes poetry that an actress friend, Danièle Davyle, recites in the salons. A year’s military service follows in Bourges. 1886 sees the publication of a volume of poems, Les Roses, which is reviewed by Camille Delaville in La Revue verte. He starts working as a journalist for several newspapers. ‘Tout vaut mieux que de retourner à Chitry,’ he writes to his father.

He stays in Paris and supplements his meagre allowance by tutoring three children and working as a secretary for their father. In 1888 he marries the seventeen-year-old Marie Morneau. The substantial dowry enables him to publish a volume of short stories, Crime de village, dedicated to his father. His first child is born in February 1889. At the end of the year he founds, with other young writers, the Mercure de France, a paper for which he writes regular articles over the next few years. In 1890 Lemerre publishes Sourires pincés, a volume containing nine of the tales that will eventually appear in Poil de Carotte. He immerses himself in Paris, frequents the theatre, pays regular visits to Alphonse Daudet and establishes contact with writers such as Marcel Schwob and André Gide, who later declares that he reads Renard ‘comme un classique’. His first major prose work, L’Écornifleur, appears in 1892 to critical acclaim. Coquecigrues and La Lanterne sourde are published in 1893, Le Vigneron dans sa vigne and Poil de Carotte in 1894. He makes the acquaintance of several artists, including Steinlen, Vallotton and Toulouse-Lautrec, all of whom will illustrate his work. His fame gradually spreads.

‘Le Chasseur d’images’, the first piece of the Histoires naturelles, is published in 1895 in La Nouvelle Revue. Renard widens his circle of friends and meets Edmond Rostand, who introduces him to Sarah Bernhardt. He attends the funeral of Paul Verlaine in 1896, a year which sees the first edition of Histoires naturelles, which contains forty-five texts. He rents an old vicarage at Chaumot, near Chitry, and calls it ‘La Gloriette’, which is also his pet name for Marie, and from now on spends his holidays there – the surrounding countryside will inspire many of the pages of the Histoires naturelles. He hires two servants to look after his property in the country: Simon Chalumeau (Philippe from ‘La Mort de Brunette’ and ‘Le lièvre’ in Histoires naturelles, the factotum who features in much of Renard’s work, correspondence and the Journal); and his wife – the ‘Ragotte’ in his stories, to whom he devotes an entire chapter (‘Ragotte’) in Nos Frères farouches (1909). His one-act comedy, Le Plaisir de rompre, is premiered in March 1897 and dedicated to Edmond Rostand, whose own Cyrano will enjoy a box-office success later in the year. Renard’s elation is tempered by the suicide of his father who, suffering from a serious disease, shoots himself in the heart. Another one-act play, Le Pain de ménage, is given its first performance in 1898.

Despite his increasing fame in Paris, Renard spends more and more time in the country with his family at ‘La Gloriette’, where he finishes ...

Table of contents

• Introduction