En être, pourquoi et comment ? Villiers de l’Isle-Adam et Le Nouveau Décaméron
Why and How, to Become a Part? Villiers de l’Isle-Adam and Le Nouveau Décaméron

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the place and role of the author of the Contes cruels in Le Nouveau Décaméron, beyond the three texts selected (“Le Secret de l’échafaud”, “L’Agence du candelier d’or”, “Akëdysséril”). We first try to understand Villiers’ complex relationship with the world of the press, and with Catulle Mendès in particular, and then to distinguish the tale itself from the short story and the chronicle, genres in which Villiers distinguished himself by shaking up the established codes and by playing with a variety of tones and registers. Thus, he handles chilling irony, as well as the comic buffoon and the dream absolute. The context of the tales and their reception in the collection itself, the portrait of the author, and finally the resonating effects, all argue not only for the quality of the three texts that Villiers will bring together in L’Amour suprême, but also for the idea that he has served Le Nouveau Décaméron well.

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