''Le Calvaire'' (''Calvary'') is a novel written by the French journalist, novelist and playwright

Octave Mirbeau Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau (; 16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still app ...

, and published by Ollendorff in 1886.

Plot summary

''Le Calvaire'' is a largely

autobiographical novel An autobiographical novel, also known as an autobiographical fiction, fictional autobiography, or autobiographical fiction novel, is a type of novel which uses autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The ...

, in which Mirbeau romanticizes his devastating affair with a woman of dubious morals, Judith Vinmer, who appears as "Juliette Roux" in the novel.Jean-Michel Guignon, « Aux sources du ''Calvaire'' - Qui était Judith/Juliette ? », ''

Cahiers Octave Mirbeau ''Cahiers Octave Mirbeau'' is a French literary journal founded in 1994 by French scholar and Octave Mirbeau specialist Pierre Michel. The journal is based in Angers Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It ...

'', n° 20, 2013, p. 145-152. See also Owen Morgan
« Judith Vimmer / Juliette Roux »
''

'', n° 17, 2010, p. 173-175. The story is narrated in the first person by the main character, the

antihero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero or two words anti hero) or anti-heroine is a character in a narrative (in literature, film, TV, etc.) who may lack some conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism and morality. Al ...

Jean Mintie, who has literary ambition and the potential to become a good writer, but is incapable of overcoming his sexual obsessions. Victimized by a woman and reduced to a state of humiliated impotence, he tries to transform his suffering into an impulse to create. His redemptive passion is modeled on the

Passion of Christ The Passion (from latin language, Latin , "to suffer, bear, endure") is the short final period before the death of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels. It is commemorated in Christianity every year during Holy ...

. In the final pages, the image of Christ is replaced by the corpses of men fallen in the battle of love.

Quotations

"I understood that the law of the world was strife; an inexorable, murderous law, which was not content with arming nation against nation but which hurled against one another the children of the same race, the same family, the same womb. I found none of the lofty abstractions of honor, justice, charity, patriotism of which our standard books are so full, on which we are brought up, with which we are lulled to sleep, through which they hypnotize us in order the better to deceive the kind little folk, to enslave them the more easily, to butcher them the more foully."

"They condemn to death the stealthy murderer who kills the passerby with a knife, on the corner of the street at night, and they throw his beheaded body into a grave of infamy. But the conqueror who has burned cities and decimated human beings, all the folly and human cowardice unite in raising to the throne of the most marvelous; in his honor triumphal arches are built, giddy columns of bronze are erected, and in the cathedrals multitudes reverently kneel before his tomb of hallowed marble guarded by saints and angels under the delighted gaze of God!"

English translations

* ''Calvary'', New York, Lieber and Lewis, 1922, 266 pages (OCLC 6315714). Translated by Louis Rich. * ''Calvary'', New York,

Albert and Charles Boni Albert Boni (October 21, 1892 – July 31, 1981) was co-founder of the publishing company Boni & Liveright and a pioneering publisher in paperbacks and book clubs. Biography Born in 1892 to a Jewish family in New York City, Albert Boni moved, at ...

, 1924, 266 pages (OCLC 36345997). * ''Le Calvaire'', Sawtry, Dedalus/

Hippocrene In Greek mythology, Hippocrene () is a spring on Mount Helicon. It was sacred to the Muses and was said to have formed when the winged horse Pegasus struck his hoof into the ground, whence its name which literally translates as "Steed/Horse ...

, « Empire of the Senses », 1995, 232 pages (OCLC 34546259). Translated by Christine Donougher.

External links

,
''Le Calvaire''
Éditions du Boucher, 2003. * *

Pierre Michel Pierre Michel (born 11 June 1942), is a professor of literature and a scholar specializing in the French writer Octave Mirbeau. Michel was born in Toulon, the son of the historian Henri Michel. After defending his doctoral dissertation on the w ...

Foreword
* Robert Ziegler
« The Cross and the Pedestal in Mirbeau’s ''Le Calvaire'' »
2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calvaire, Le 1886 French novels Novels by Octave Mirbeau Decadent literature French-language novels Novels about writers