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Lädt ... The Juggler (1900)von Rachilde
   Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. 10   Ganeshaka | Oct 15, 2010 |  keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
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The Juggler (La Jongleuse) is a "decadent" novel that was first published in 1900. Its author, Marguerite Eymery Vallette (1860-1953), who used the pseudonym Rachilde, was a prolific novelist (over sixty works of fiction), playwright, literary critic and reviewer, and a forceful presence in French literary society of her time. The protagonist of the novel, Eliante Donalger, is in some sense an exaggerated double for her creator--bizarre in appearance, clothing, and interests. Instinctively grasping a medical and psychological truth that the turn-of-the-century scientific world was only beginning to understand, Eliante maintains that there is nothing "natural" about human sexual expression. She claims to be in love with an inanimate (though anthropomorphic and sexually ambiguous) object, a Greek amphora, and the novel traces the rivalry between this faithful partner and an ardent human suitor, a young medical student. It is only through juggling, both literally and metaphorically, that Eliante is able to use her seductive power to maintain desire. The surprise ending challenges the limits of such power in a controversial and surprising twist. Although Rachilde's work has been neglected in the past, the women's movement and feminist criticism have stimulated renewed interest in her fiction. The Juggler is a major rediscovery. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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 Google Books — Lädt ...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)843.912Literature French and related languages French fiction Modern Period 20th Century 1900-1945Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt: (3.61)
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Rachilde (Marguerite Eymery Vallette) must be experienced to be believed - or is it, believed to be experienced? The long career of this French Creole novelist peaked at its midpoint, about 1900, when The Juggler was published. She had then already acquired - justly,considering her elegant style - the nickname "Madame Baudelaire" for her novel "Monsieur Venus", published in 1884.
The words "French" "Decadent" "Symbolist" "Pornographic" are too charged and yet too blunt to convey the complexity and subtlety of this short but compelling novel. I was reminded - not so much by the subject matter - but by the oddity and yet truth - of the movie Wise Blood. Somehow, in that film, the combined talents of John Huston, Flannery O'Connor, and Brad Dourif precipitate into a phantasmagoric Southern Gothic gem that mesmerizes with a migraine aura inducing mix of religious beliefs and psychological deformities.
The Juggler, in like manner, illuminates a bizarre triad between an older woman, her niece and a younger man - oh, yes, and a vase as a sexual object and partner - so that the whole reflects, like a disco ball, myriad sexual-political insights that may have hovered, bat like, just outside the visual field a universe of vanilla relationships.
Some might, less charmed, find The Juggler, a tale told by a cougar, full of gowns and fury, signifying nuttiness. I found it worthwhile, even fascinating, how Rachilde worked with two postulates - first, that men want only one thing, and second, that women do not know what they want - and demonstrated how they are outdated as truths yet as useful as Newtonian physics against the backdrop of string theory. By the novel's end, Eliande, the woman, achieves what she has always intended - life on her terms - while Leon finds himself, at peace, with what he didn't know he wanted ...a love he formerly found as disgusting as "poached eggs in cream". (