Paul Alexis Knihy

The Misfortune of Monsieur Fraque by Paul Alexis (Lʼinfortune de Monsieur Fraque in French) is a short story, or novella, that was first published in 1880.Paul Alexisʼ touch is fine, his style is deft. He is like an impressionist painter in words. This book is elegantly written, nostalgic, and masterful. If it werenʼt for the Naturalist moniker that often gets attached to him – by literary historians – one might almost call him Romantic. The last thing that comes to mind when reading him and The Misfortune of Monsieur Fraque in particular, because their styles are, although similar, so very different – is Émile Zola, who was his friend and mentor and the founder of Naturalism.Not very well known in the English-speaking world, nor even in the French one, – when Paul Alexis is known, it is mostly as the official biographer of Zola. This story is similar in style to two other of his novellas, The End of Lucie Pellegrin and A Platonic Love,.

A Platonic Love is Paul Alexisʼ novel, or novella, about the unrequited love between a mature man of means, Mr. Mure, who is fifteen years the senior of the beautiful Helen, a woman heʼs known since she was a child. It was published originally in 1886 as Un amour platonique (but even earlier, in 1880, under the title Journal de Monsieur Mure). Paul Alexisʼ touch is fine, his style is deft. This book is elegantly written, nostalgic, and masterful. If it werenʼt for the Naturalist moniker that often gets attached to him – by literary historians – one might almost call him Romantic. The last thing that comes to mind when reading him and A Platonic Love in particular, because their styles seem, although similar, so very different – is Émile Zola, who was his friend and master and the founder of Naturalism. Paul Alexis is not very well known at all in the English-speaking world, nor even in the French one. A Platonic Love is even less so. If one had to compare this novel with something better known today, F. Scott Fitzgeraldʼs The Great Gatsby comes immediately to mind. Both participate in a rich and deep feeling of longing, unrequited love, and a strong sense of nostalgia for things of the past. Another book similar in theme might be The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Goethe.

"Le serate di Médan" è una delle più clamorose provocazioni lanciate da Émile Zola contro i "sacri" ideali militaristi e patriottardi tanto cari alla società francese del XIX secolo. Pubblicato nel 1880, all'indomani della disastrosa disfatta di Sedan che segnò di colpo la fine di Napoleone III e del Secondo Impero, il libro si propone, con spietata ironia, di fare "opera di verità" sull'insensata follia della guerra (di ogni guerra) con un linguaggio di grande novità, improntato a un crudo, sulfureo realismo ricco di sfumature provocatoriamente grottesche, che non mancarono di suscitare le indignate proteste della stampa e della borghesia benpensante. Nelle "Serate di Médan" la guerra viene vista "dal basso", in sei racconti esemplari - sei brevi capolavori firmati dal "maestro" Zola e dai suoi sodali Maupassant, Huysmans, Céard, Hennique e Alexis - in cui, senza mezzi termini, ci si fa beffe degli impennacchiati eroismi da parata e delle belle frasi altisonanti: storie di crudeltà e follia che, purtroppo, appaiono ancora quanto mai attuali. Con questa antologia (la prima della storia della letteratura ideata su una base tematica) Zola ribadisce la propria posizione di "maestro" della scuola naturalista, sottolineando fin dal titolo che il lavoro è frutto di un cenacolo di giovani artisti che lo riconoscono come tale (Médan è il villaggio nei pressi di Parigi che lo scrittore aveva eletto a sua residenza).