Short stories
Diaboliques
Les Diaboliques
Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly · 1874
Opening lines
Il y a terriblement d'années, je m'en allais chasser le gibier d'eau dans les marais de l'Ouest, — et comme il n'y avait pas alors de chemins de fer dans le pays où il me fallait voyager, je prenais la diligence de *** qui passait à la patte d'oie du château de Rueil et qui, pour le moment, n'avait dans son coupé qu'une seule personne.
A terribly long time ago, I was on my way to hunt waterfowl in the marshes of the West, and as there were no railways then in the region I had to travel through, I took the *** coach, which passed the crossroads by the château de Rueil and which, for the moment, had only one person in its front compartment.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Six tales, reported by witnesses in the course of drawing-room conversations. An old viscount recalls his youthful affair with Alberte, the daughter of his landlords. A former seducer tells, in front of his former mistresses, the finest love of his life. A count falls in love with Hauteclaire, the daughter of a fencing master and an accomplished fencer. A game of whist conceals a secret intrigue; an officer tells, at a dinner of atheists, of his passion for another man's wife; a princess takes revenge on her husband.
Context
The collection was published by Dentu in November 1874; its six stories, out of the ten first planned, had been written between 1848 and 1873, and several had appeared in reviews. Prosecuted for outrage to public morality, the book was seized, the copies awaiting sale were destroyed, and the author undertook not to republish it. The case ended with a dismissal in January 1875, and the collection only reappeared in 1882, illustrated by Félicien Rops.
Who it is for
Six long short stories, with sweeping sentences and an old-fashioned vocabulary; each can be read alone, in whatever order one likes.
Prizes and reception
Prosecuted from its publication, the collection has been translated several times into English, most recently by Raymond MacKenzie in 2015.
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