Le corps comme tentation : séduction et perversion dans Les Diaboliques de Barbey d’Aurevilly
The Body as Temptation: Seduction and Perversion in Les Diaboliques by Barbey d’Aurevilly

Summary/Abstract: Taking as a starting point the idea that perversion and sexuality are recurring themes in d’Aurevilly’s literary work, this paper aims to explore two texts from Les Diaboliques in order to highlight how demonic and violent passions introduce new dimensions to erotic imagination. Here, temptation is not only a momentary desire or a moral deviation, but an insidious force that thrives on the darkness of human instincts, manifesting through characters torn between their desires and prohibitions. Whether it is Alberte in Le Rideau cramoisi (where the crimson light symbolizes temptation that sparks in her a violent and irresistible desire), or the erotic and social self degradation of the Duchess of Sierra Leone in La Vengeance d’une femme (where temptation is embodied in a cruel and calculated refinement), the women painted by the Norman writer are creatures who draw their vital energy from cruelty. Both inflicted or self-inflicted, this cruelty generates satisfaction, fulfilment, and pleasure, revealing itself to be just as deadly when intertwined with eros. Thus, temptation becomes a catalyst for transformation and self-destruction, a complex game in which the search for pleasure mingles with inner violence, and the fall into desire, although promising, is never without consequence.

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