I’m aware…it isn’t bad, but I honestly don’t think it’s as good as the translation by Martin Robinson published by Calder and Boyars in the UK in 1966.
Richard Howard is just generally the only one there is in the States. At least, though, he didn't do the thing many British translators do, which is write British English out of French, so everything sounds the same and nothing like the French.
In any case, I’m glad that’s it’s been re-published - whatever the translation, because I genuinely think it’s a lost masterpiece, and an incredibly important work.
I read Feu Follet recently and agree that the English translation is lacking. I was only sporadically invested. I like the Norwegian movie it inspired though
I know less about Drieu La Rochelle than I do about his one-time friend Jacques Rigaut, a minor surrealist poet whose obsessive death-drive provided the inspiration for "Le feu follet." But based on what you write here, it seems that the protagonist of that novel bears less resemblance to the real Rigaut than to Drieu La Rochelle himself—his status as a "kept man" in particular and his struggle with masculine identity.
Is there a parallel explanation for the other most prominent surrealist-turned-fascist, Jean Cocteau (also obsessed with a colleague writer who died young)—one which short-circuits the sense of emasculation from being dependent on women (since Cocteau was gay), which finds justification in masculinity itself?
I think in Feu Follet, which I write about in my book - the character is very much a composite - with elements of both himself and Rigaut. Drieu seemed to be quite fixated with his friend's suicide, because they were in many ways quite similar - and in my view it seemed to foreshadow his own, and brought up his own fixation with suicide. The short story Valise Vide and the imaginary letter to the dead Rigaut - Adieu a Gonzague (both very moving in their way) I think illuminates this quite well. I don’t know a great deal about Cocteau, so I’m not best placed to comment. However - one of Drieu’s contemporaries, also a fascist collaborator, was Henry de Montherlant, author of the tetralogy Les Jeunes Filles (also an interesting work) which was almost a best seller at the time, and famously excoriated by Simone de Beauvoir for its misogyny in The Second Sex. However, Montherlant’s hatred for women - quite performative and exaggerated - seemed to come from the fact he was Gay, and also had a secret predilection for adolescent boys. I don’t know about Cocteau, but some said that Montherlant collaborated because it allowed him a certain degree of freedom to continue his clandestine activities while the Gestapo looked the other way. His particular pathology appears to be that he felt the need to present a public persona as an eligible heterosexual bachelor and ladies man, and this seemingly was the cause of resentment and sense of ‘emasculation’. Of course, I wasn't in anyway suggesting that there is a universal psychological archetype that is completely consistent etc., but there are some patterns.
1) killer article
2) baby Drieu's curls
I love that picture….the mother really was quite beautiful, no wonder he had a complex haha.
Reading from this here post duly 'inserted' into L'étranger radio show of 25-05-25. Track 20 - > https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/l-etranger/show-505-wanton-adel-reeving/
The edition published by NYRB was a reprint of the original translation by Richard Howard.
I’m aware…it isn’t bad, but I honestly don’t think it’s as good as the translation by Martin Robinson published by Calder and Boyars in the UK in 1966.
Richard Howard is just generally the only one there is in the States. At least, though, he didn't do the thing many British translators do, which is write British English out of French, so everything sounds the same and nothing like the French.
In any case, I’m glad that’s it’s been re-published - whatever the translation, because I genuinely think it’s a lost masterpiece, and an incredibly important work.
I am certainly looking forward to reading it sooner or later.
I read Feu Follet recently and agree that the English translation is lacking. I was only sporadically invested. I like the Norwegian movie it inspired though
I loved that film—it had a good soundtrack, etc. The 1963 one directed by Louis Malle is also very good...dare I say much better.
I know less about Drieu La Rochelle than I do about his one-time friend Jacques Rigaut, a minor surrealist poet whose obsessive death-drive provided the inspiration for "Le feu follet." But based on what you write here, it seems that the protagonist of that novel bears less resemblance to the real Rigaut than to Drieu La Rochelle himself—his status as a "kept man" in particular and his struggle with masculine identity.
Is there a parallel explanation for the other most prominent surrealist-turned-fascist, Jean Cocteau (also obsessed with a colleague writer who died young)—one which short-circuits the sense of emasculation from being dependent on women (since Cocteau was gay), which finds justification in masculinity itself?
I think in Feu Follet, which I write about in my book - the character is very much a composite - with elements of both himself and Rigaut. Drieu seemed to be quite fixated with his friend's suicide, because they were in many ways quite similar - and in my view it seemed to foreshadow his own, and brought up his own fixation with suicide. The short story Valise Vide and the imaginary letter to the dead Rigaut - Adieu a Gonzague (both very moving in their way) I think illuminates this quite well. I don’t know a great deal about Cocteau, so I’m not best placed to comment. However - one of Drieu’s contemporaries, also a fascist collaborator, was Henry de Montherlant, author of the tetralogy Les Jeunes Filles (also an interesting work) which was almost a best seller at the time, and famously excoriated by Simone de Beauvoir for its misogyny in The Second Sex. However, Montherlant’s hatred for women - quite performative and exaggerated - seemed to come from the fact he was Gay, and also had a secret predilection for adolescent boys. I don’t know about Cocteau, but some said that Montherlant collaborated because it allowed him a certain degree of freedom to continue his clandestine activities while the Gestapo looked the other way. His particular pathology appears to be that he felt the need to present a public persona as an eligible heterosexual bachelor and ladies man, and this seemingly was the cause of resentment and sense of ‘emasculation’. Of course, I wasn't in anyway suggesting that there is a universal psychological archetype that is completely consistent etc., but there are some patterns.