Last poems

Johnson, Louis

Antipodes Press

More than just an account of his travels in Cairo, Beirut, and Constantinople in 1843, Gérard de Nerval’s Journey to the Orient is a quest for the unknown. If his narrator seems credulous in his retelling of legends of the origins of the pyramids and the mysteries of the Druzes, it is with this purpose in mind. While the Orientalists of his day were confident of having, in the words of Edward Said, “grasped, appropriated, reduced, and codified” the Orient, Nerval’s Orient remains elusive, impossible to grasp. Poignantly dramatized in the thematic centerpieces of the tales of the Queen of Sheba and the Caliph Hakim, what takes shape in this visionary travelogue, as the author’s hopes are alternately disappointed and rapturously renewed, is the story of the artist’s search for the ideal.

Journey to the Orient

Literature & Fiction

De Nerval, Gérard

World Literature

The Marquise de Langrune is savagely murdered in her chateau, a certain Lord Beltham vanishes, a princess is robbed of her jewels, and an ocean liner sinks. Behind these mysteries Inspector Juve of the Paris Sûreté recognizes the hand of the Lord of Terror, Fantômas. Chasing false leads, tracking suspects in disguise through the dive bars of the underworld, he is obsessed with catching the shapeshifting arch-criminal who haunts the Parisian bourgeoisie. “From the imaginative standpoint Fantômas is one of the richest works that exist.” —Guillaume Apollinaire “Absurd and magnificent lyricism.” —Jean Cocteau

Fantomas: Being the First of the Series of the Fantomas Detective Tales (Volume 1)

Allain, Marcel

Souvestre, Pierre

Literary

When the home of Dr. Chaleck is robbed and the corpse of a woman found crushed to death, Inspector Juve pursues the gang leader Loupart in connection with the gruesome crime. He and the journalist Jerome Fandor relentlessly pursue suspects, narrowly escaping high-speed train wrecks, blazing infernos, and the diabolical snares of the Genius of Crime, Fantomas. “From the imaginative standpoint Fantômas is one of the richest works that exist.” —Guillaume Apollinaire “Absurd and magnificent lyricism.” —Jean Cocteau

The Exploits of Juve: Being the Second of the Series of the Fantomas Detective Tales (Volume 2)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

The Baroness de Vibray has been poisoned. The painter Jacques Dollon is arrested, but he is discovered dead in his prison cell, an apparent suicide, before he can be questioned. The journalist Fandor attempts to unravel the mystery, suspecting none other than the Genius of Evil, Fantômas. Through passageways and sewers, over rooftops, he follows clues and runs into trouble with gangsters. Believing Fantômas is planning to rob the Barbey-Nanteuil Bank a trap is set for the master criminal—but will he escape again?“From the imaginative standpoint Fantômas is one of the richest works that exist.”—Guillaume Apollinaire“Absurd and magnificent lyricism.”—Jean Cocteau

Messengers of Evil: Being the Third of the Series of the Fantomas Detective Tales

Classics

Captain Brocq, an officer of the Ministry of War, is assassinated while in possession of documents containing military secrets. The journalist Jerome Fandor, covering the story for La Capitale, seeks an interview with an associate of the murdered man, a diplomat called Baron Naarboveck. The reporter suspects spies employed by a foreign government, but Inspector Juve believes there is only one criminal who could be behind the tangled web of intrigue—the Genius of Evil himself, Fantômas!
“From the imaginative standpoint Fantômas is one of the richest works that exist.” —Guillaume Apollinaire
“Absurd and magnificent lyricism.” —Jean Cocteau

A Nest of Spies: Being the Fourth of the Series of the Fantomas Detective Tales (Volume 4)

The journalist Fandor befriends the King of Hesse-Weimar during one of his Majesty’s incognito pleasure trips to Paris, but when the King’s mistress is found dead, having fallen from a third-floor window, Inspector Juve is called upon to investigate. When the indomitable detective discovers Lady Beltham, the lover of Fantômas, in disguise among the royal court of Hesse-Weimar, Juve suspects it is none other than the Lord of Terror who is behind the plot against the King.
“From the imaginative standpoint Fantômas is one of the richest works that exist.” —Guillaume Apollinaire
“Absurd and magnificent lyricism.” —Jean Cocteau

A Royal Prisoner: Being the Fifth of the Series of the Fantomas Detective Tales

Louis Lambert, The Exiles, and Seraphita are three titles from the “Philosophical Studies” of Honoré de Balzac’s magnum opus, The Human Comedy, which includes about 100 linked stories and novels. The three works included in this volume are thematically connected by their engagement with the spiritual doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg.
Louis Lambert examines the life and theories of a boy genius who is enrolled in the Collège de Vendôme by a benefactor, the real-life author Madame de Staël. But the actual events of Louis Lambert are secondary to its extended discussions of philosophy and human emotion.
The Exiles is a short story, published in 1831, about two poets named Dante and Godefroid de Gand who attend the Sorbonne at the start of the fourteenth century. It explores questions of metaphysics and mysticism, particularly the spiritual quest for illuminism and enlightenment.
Seraphita is Balzac’s paean to spiritual love. It departs from the realism of the author’s best-known works. Seraphita is a strange and melancholic being loved by Minna, who believes him to be a man, and also by Wilfrid, who considers her a woman. In fact, Seraphita is an androgyne, the perfect example of humanity.

Louis Lambert / The Exiles / Seraphita (The Human Comedy)

de, Balzac Honoré

Contemporary

"What is that cloud, called Sixtine, which comes to trouble my royal indifference and to conceal my sun—death? I do not want to go to sleep in the shadow of her beauty...." Hubert Entragues, aesthete and litterateur, conceives a passion for the ethereal Sixtine in this "cerebral novel" of 1890. The romance remains largely imaginary, a passion localized in the skull of the intellectual Entragues. Alone with his thoughts and his literature, the narrator's baroque reflections careen from lyrical exaltation to sullen despondency according to the inscrutable actions of his elusive inamorata. In his refined loneliness, his lucid and sensual daydreams develop into a story within the story, mirroring and embellishing the inner experience of their author. Very Woman is a masterpiece of the symbolist movement of fin de siecle literature. A brilliant stylist, Gourmont's luxurious, poetic prose is full of erudition, irony, and eroticism, creating an atmosphere all its own. "A book that meant a lot to me is Sixtine, Remy de Gourmont." —Blaise Cendrars

Very Woman (Sixtine): A Cerebral Novel

De, Gourmont Remy

Through the Shadows with O. Henry

“The merest flicker of a smile touched his lips. He got up, took my arm and together we helped each other down the street.... This was my first jaunt with William Sydney Porter. Together, we struck out on a long road that lost itself, for many years, in a dark tunnel. When the path broadened out again, it was the world’s highway. The man at my side was no longer Bill Porter, the fugitive, the ex-convict. He was O. Henry, the greatest of America’s short-story writers.” Al Jennings (1863–1961) had already been a runaway, a cowpuncher, and a train-robber before his adventures with O. Henry began. If we are to believe his incredible story, the outlaw was on the lam in Honduras when he first met William Sydney Porter, long before he became a famous writer. When they unwittingly intervene in a local coup attempt during a drunken spree, they again find themselves fugitives, fleeing to Mexico, where Jennings saves his friend from the murderous dagger of a vengeful Spaniard. But that is only the beginning of their adventures, and Jennings goes on to spin a masterful tale of interwoven destinies and unlikely friendship.

Biographies & Memoirs

Jennings, Al.

Arts & Literature

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