Marcel Schwob
Marcel Schwob (1867-1905) was a French writer known for his unique contributions to literature, particularly within the grotesque and arabesque traditions. Born in Chaville-sur-Seine, he grew up in a family steeped in literary and scholarly pursuits, influenced by notable figures such as Gustave Flaubert and Jules Verne. Schwob's literary journey began with a fascination for Edgar Allan Poe, which inspired his early writings. He produced his first book in 1889 and gained recognition with collections like "Coeur double" and "Le Roi au masque d'or," both exploring fantastical themes.
Throughout his career, Schwob collaborated with prominent literary figures, including Catulle Mendès and Oscar Wilde, and engaged with the bohemian culture of his time. However, his health deteriorated in the 1890s, impacting his productivity. Despite his promising start and innovative works, including the imaginative biographies in "Vies imaginaries," much of Schwob’s potential remained unfulfilled by the time of his death in Paris in 1905. His legacy continues to resonate in literary circles, particularly among those who appreciate the intersections of fantasy and reality in storytelling.
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Marcel Schwob
Writer
- Born: August 23, 1867
- Birthplace: Chaville-sur-Seine, France
- Died: February 26, 1905
- Place of death: Paris, France
Biography
Marcel-Mayer-André Schwob was born in 1867 in Chaville- sur-Seine, France, on the outskirts of Paris. His father, Isaac- Georges Schwob, came from a long line of rabbis and physicians. He had gone to school with author Gustave Flaubert, been a fellow member of a Romantic literary circle with writers Théophile Gautier and Théodore de Banville, and had written a comedy drama in collaboration with Jules Verne; he also spent ten years in Egypt working for the khedive. In 1876, Isaac Schwob moved his family to Verne’s hometown, Nantes, where Marcel Schwob acquired a copy of Charles Baudelaire’s translations of Edgar Allan Poe and determined to be a writer himself.
In 1882, Schwob was sent to Paris to study at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where his classmates included future writers Paul Claudel and Léon Daudet. He lodged with his mother’s brother, Léon Cahun, who was also a writer of some note and was in charge of the Bibliothèque Mazarine. Schwob was supposed to prepare for entrance to the École Normale Supérieure but could not apply himself and failed the examination. In 1885, he enlisted for national service in an artillery regiment. When he was released from military service, he once again failed to get into the École but obtained entrance to the Sorbonne.
Schwob was now writing extensively. His first book, published in 1889, was a study of French slang written in collaboration with Georges Guieyesse. He followed it up with a similar exercise before his first collection of stories, Coeur double, appeared in 1891. The book was dedicated to author Robert Louis Stevenson, with whom he had been corresponding, but it is solidly set in the grotesque and arabesque tradition of Poe, and Schwob experimented with various fantastic modes and moods. Schwob joined Catulle Mendès as coeditor of the Écho de Paris. In the great bohemian tradition, he took up with a consumptive working-class woman named Louise, whose decline and demise he chronicled with loving tenderness in his only novel, Le Livre de Monelle (1894; The Book of Monelle, 1929). In the meantime, he published his second collection of Poe-like short stories, Le Roi au masque d’or (1892; The King in the Golden Mask, and Other Writings, 1892) and a book of prose poetry, Mimes (1893; Mimes, 1901).
Schwob’s health had deteriorated by 1894 and he was subjected to a series of medical interventions that may have done more harm than good. In 1896, he published a volume of blithely fanciful biographies of real and imaginary individuals, Vies imaginaries (Imaginary Lives, 1924), but the flow of his work virtually dried up thereafter. His numerous literary friends included the pioneers of surrealism, Alfred Jarry and Guillaume Apollinaire, as well as the pillars of the Decadent and Symbolist Movements, including Oscar Wilde; Schwob helped Pierre Louÿs polish Wilde’s play, Salomé. In 1900, Schwob and Eugène Morand wrote La Tragique histoire de Hamlet, Prince de Danemark, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play for actress Sarah Bernhardt, but his subsequent publications were trivial. Schwob followed Stevenson’s example by seeking a cure for his various ills in travel, but it did no good. He returned to Paris, where he died on February 26, 1905, his enormous potential largely unfulfilled.