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Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau (French:[ɔktavmiʁbo]; 16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a Frenchnovelist,art critic,travel writer,pamphleteer,journalist andplaywright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still appealing to the literary and artisticavant-garde with highly transgressive novels that explored violence, abuse and psychological detachment. His work has been translated into 30 languages.
The grandson of Norman notaries and the son of a doctor, Mirbeau spent his childhood in a village inNormandy,Rémalard, pursuing secondary studies at a Jesuit college inVannes, which expelled him at the age of fifteen.[1] Two years after the traumatic experience of the1870 war, he was tempted by a call from theBonapartist leader Dugué de la Fauconnerie, who hired him as private secretary and introduced him toL'Ordre de Paris.
After his debut in journalism in the service of theBonapartists,[2] and his debut in literature when he worked as aghostwriter,[3] Mirbeau began to publish under his own name. Thereafter, he wrote in order to express his ownethical principles andaesthetic values. A supporter of theanarchist cause (cf.La Grève des électeurs)[4] and fervent supporter ofAlfred Dreyfus,[5] Mirbeau embodied the intellectual who involved himself in civic issues. Independent of all parties, Mirbeau believed that one's primary duty was to remain lucid.[6]
Mirbeaughostwrote ten novels,[8] including three for the Swiss writerDora Melegari.[9] He made his own literary debut withLe Calvaire (Calvary, 1886), in which writing allowed him to overcome thetraumatic effects of his devastating liaison with the ill-reputed Judith Vinmer (1858–1951), renamed Juliette Roux in the novel.[10]
In 1888, Mirbeau publishedL'Abbé Jules (Abbé Jules), the first pre-Freudian novel written under the influence ofDostoevsky to appear in French literature;[11] the text featured two main characters: l'abbé Jules andFather Pamphile. InSébastien Roch (1890) (English translation:Sébastien Roch, 2000), Mirbeau purged the traumatic effects of his experience as a student at aJesuits school inVannes. In the novel, the 13-year-old Sébastien is sexually abused by a priest at the school and the abuse destroys his life.[12]
Mirbeau then underwent a graveexistential and literary crisis, yet during this time, he still published in serial form a pre-existentialist novel about the artist's fate,Dans le ciel (In the Sky), introducing the figure of a painter (Lucien), directly modeled onVan Gogh. In the aftermath of theDreyfus Affair — which exacerbated Mirbeau's pessimism[13] — he published two novels judged to be scandalous by self-styled paragons of virtue:Le Jardin des supplices(Torture Garden (1899) andLe Journal d'une femme de chambre (Diary of a Chambermaid) (1900), thenLes Vingt et un Jours d'un neurasthénique (The twenty one days of aneurasthenic person) (1901). In the process of writing these works, Mirbeau unsettled traditional novelistic conventions, exercisingcollage techniques,[14] transgressing codes of verisimilitude and fictional credibility, and defying the hypocritical rules of propriety.
In his last two novels,La 628-E8 (1907) – includingLa Mort de Balzac – andDingo (1913), he strayed ever further fromrealism, giving free rein to clinicalfantasy elements and casting his cat and his own dog as heroes. These last Mirbeau stories show a complete break with the conventions of realist fiction, also signifying a breakdown of reality.[15]
In the theatre, Mirbeau made his first steps with a proletarian drama and modern tragedy,Les Mauvais bergers (The Bad Shepherds, 1897). Then he experienced worldwide acclaim withLes affaires sont les affaires (Business is business, 1903) — his classicalcomedy of manners and characters in the tradition ofMolière. Here Mirbeau featured the character ofIsidore Lechat, predecessor of the modern master of business intrigue, a product of the new world, a figure who makes money from everything and spreads his tentacles out over the world.
In 1908 — at the end of a long legal and media battle[16]— Mirbeau saw his playLe Foyer (Home) performed by theComédie-Française. In this work he broached a new taboo subject: the economic and sexual exploitation of adolescents in a home that pretended to be a charitable one.
Le Foyer
He also wrote sixone-act plays, published under the title ofFarces et moralités (1904), among them beingL'Épidémie (Epidemics, 1898). Here, Mirbeau can be seen as anticipating the theatre ofBertolt Brecht,Marcel Aymé,Harold Pinter, andEugène Ionesco.[17] He calls language itself into question, demystifying law, ridiculing the discourse of politicians, and making fun of the language of love (Les Amants,The Lovers, 1901).
There has been no interruption in the publication of Mirbeau's works. Yet his immense literary production has largely been known through only three works, and he was considered as literally andpolitically incorrect.
But, more recently, Mirbeau has been rediscovered and presented in a new light. A fuller appreciation of the role he played in the political, literary, and artistic world of laBelle Époque is emerging.[18]
Le Jardin des supplices (1899) (Torture Garden, New York, 1931;The Garden of Tortures, London, 1938) .
Le Journal d'une femme de chambre (1900) (A Chambermaid's Diary, New York, 1900 ;The Diary of a Lady's Maid, London, 1903 ;Célestine, Being the Diary of a Chambermaid, New York, 1930 ;Diary of a Chambermaid, New York, 1945).
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