Rachilde
Rachilde, the pseudonym of French writer Marguerite Eymery Vallette, was born in 1860 in Périgueux, France. She faced a lonely childhood as the only daughter in a military family that had hoped for a son. Leaving home as a teenager, Rachilde became a prominent figure in Paris's literary scene, gaining widespread attention with her provocative novel *Monsieur Vénus* in 1884, which explored themes of gender and sexuality. She married Alfred Vallette, co-founder of the influential literary review *Mercure de France*, which further solidified her position within avant-garde circles.
Rachilde's contributions spanned various genres, but she is particularly recognized for her role in promoting the Symbolist movement in French drama during the late 19th century. She was instrumental in the establishment of innovative theatrical practices and supported notable experimental theaters such as Théâtre Libre and Théâtre d'Art. Over her career, Rachilde penned numerous plays, novels, and literary criticism, with her works being performed across Europe. Her legacy includes a rich body of literature that challenges societal norms and continues to be explored for its cultural significance.
Subject Terms
Rachilde
French novelist, playwright, and journalist.
- Born: February 11, 1860
- Birthplace: Périgueux, France
- Died: April 4, 1953
Biography
Rachilde was the pseudonym of the French writer Marguerite Eymery Vallette. She was born into a military family in Périgueux, France, in 1860. She suffered a lonely, isolated childhood as the only child of parents who made no secret of their disappointment at having a daughter rather than the son they had hoped for. In her early teens, Rachilde, who had already begun to write, adopted the pseudonym she would use for all of her writing.
Rachilde left her family home as soon as she could, settling in Paris and supporting herself as a journalist and writer who sold her work to several of the most popular reviews of the day. Her fortunes were given a considerable boost with the publication of her shocking novel Monsieur Vénus (1884; Monsieur Vénus, 1929), with its veiled implications of transgender identity. The sexual frankness of this book enticed and titillated an enthusiastic body of readers. In 1889, having established her reputation in Paris’s prestigious avant-garde literary circles, Rachilde married Alfred Vallette, cofounder of an influential review, Mercure de France , in which she had published and in which she continued to publish considerable fiction and literary criticism. She reigned supreme over her own literary salon, attracting the most exciting writers and artists in Paris.
Rachilde wrote extensively in a variety of genres, publishing numerous novels, novellas, and short stories as well as volumes of literary criticism. However, she is best known as a playwright. Rachilde is generally credited with being among the earliest promoters of the Symbolic movement in French drama. The movement lasted for only a decade, 1890 to 1900, but it forever changed the course of drama in France and in much of Europe. The theatrical innovations that Rachilde and the other Symbolists introduced into French theater included extremely realistic staging and such experiments as dimming the theater lights during performances. She played a major role in supporting André Antoine’s experimental symbolist theater, Théâtre Libre, founded in 1887. Rachilde also was deeply and actively involved in Paul Fort’s Théâtre d’Art, founded in 1890. Théâtre d’Art’s productions were novel in their use of discordant music and the practice of spraying perfume over the audience during performances.
Rachilde’s first play, La Voix du sang, was staged in Paris in 1890, and many more of her plays would be produced in Paris between 1890 and 1935. A stage adaptation of her novel Monsieur Vénus was produced posthumously in 1988. Rachilde’s plays were performed not only in Paris but throughout much of Europe and in Tunis, where she enjoyed considerable popularity. She worked hard to promote the Symbolist movement, serving actively on the play selection committee of the Théâtre d’Art in order to discover and encourage new playwrights. She was fully involved backstage in the production of her plays and of plays by other dramatists. She helped select the actors, arranged for the copying of scripts, handled publicity, and actively sought promising but undiscovered French playwrights to produce material for the French stage.
Author Works
Drama:
La Voix du sang, pr. 1890
Madam la Mort, pr. 1891
L'Araignée de Cristal, 1892 (The Crystal Spider)
Le Vendeur de soliel, pr. 1894
Le Démon de l'Absurde, 1894
Long Fiction:
Monsieur de la Nouveauté, 1880
Histoires bêtes pour amuser les petits enfants d'esprit, 1884
Monsieur Vénus, 1884 (Monsieur Vénus, 1929)
Queue de poisson, 1885
Nono, 1885
Candaulette, 1886
À Mort!, 1886
La Marquise de Sade, 1887
Le Tiroir de Mimi-Corail, 1887
Madam Adonis, 1888
L'Homme roux, 1889
Minette, 1889.
L'Animale, 1893
La Princesse des Ténèbres, 1895 (as Jean de Chilra)
Les Hors-Nature, 1897
L'Heure sexuelle, 1898 (as Jean de Chilra)
La Tour d'amour, 1899
La Jongleuse, 1900 (The Juggler, 1990)
Le Dessous, 1904
Le Meneur de louves, 1905
Son printemps, 1912
La Terre qui rit, 1917
Dans le puits, ou la vie inférieure, 1918
La Découverte de l'Amérique, 1919
La Maison vierge, 1920
La Souris japonaise, 1921
Les Rageac, 1921
Le Grand Saigneur, 1922
L'Hôtel du Grand Veneur, 1922
Le Château des deux amants, 1923
La Haine amoureuse, 1924
Refaire l'amour, 1927
Madame de Lydone, assassin, 1928
La Femme aux mains d'ivoire, 1929
L'Homme aux bras de feu, 1930
Les Voluptés imprévues, 1931
Notre-Dame des rats, 1931
Jeux d'artifice, 1932
L'Amazone rouge, 1932
Mon étrange plaisir, 1934
L'Autre Crime, 1937
La Fille inconnue, 1938
L'Anneau de Saturne, 1938
Pour la lumière, 1938
Duvet-D'Ange, 1943
Short Fiction:
Contes et nouvelles suivis du Théâtre, 1900
L'imitation de la mort, 1903
Le Théâtre des bêtes, 1926
Poetry:
Les Accords Perdus, 1937
Survie, 1945
Nonfiction:
Alfred Jarry ou le surmâle de lettres, 1927
Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe, 1928
Face à la peur, 1941
Quand J'étais Jeune, 1947
Bibliography
Downing, Lisa. "Sexual Perversion as Textual Resistance in the Works of Rachilde and Monique Wittig." Modernist Eroticisms: European Literature after Sexology. Anna Katharina Schaffner and Shane Weller, eds. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Interprets Rachilde's depictions of sexuality apart from social norms as a form of textual resistance.
Finn, Michael R. Hysteria, Hypnotism, the Spirits, and Pornography: Fin-de-Siècle Cultural Discourses in the Decadent Rachilde. U of Delaware P, 2009. Examines the cultural elements of Rachilde's work as a member of the Decadent movement.
Hawthorne, Melanie. Rachilde and French Women's Authorship: From Decadence to Modernism. U of Nebraska P, 2001. Provides biographical information while tracing Rachilde's literary influence.
Holmes, Diana. Rachilde: Decadence, Gender, and the Woman Writer. Berg Publishers, 2010. Biography placing Rachilde as an important writer in the Decadent movement and in women's literature. Includes illustrations, bibliography, and index.
Lukacher, Maryline. Maternal Fictions: Stendhal, Sand, Rachilde, and Bataille. Duke UP, 1994. The chapter on Rachilde focuses on her depictions of sexual difference, including analysis of Monsieur Vénus, La Marquise de Sade, and Le Meneur de louves.
Beacock, Ian P. "Rebellious French Cross-Dresser Played an Overlooked Role in Shaping Oscar Wilde's Legacy, Stanford Scholar Says." Stanford Report, Stanford University, 21 Oct. 2014, news.stanford.edu/news/2014/october/rachilde-wilde-discovery-10-21-2014.html. Accessed 16 Jun. 2017. Focuses on Rachilde's influence on Oscar Wilde, arguing that her legacy is underappreciated.