Théophile Gautier (1811–1872)

Another Gautier, and though nothing was going to quite match up to what La Morte amoureuse did for me this is still another absolutely gorgeous nouvelle and a further argument in favour of my infatuation with mid 19th century French literature. Arria Marcella touches on the ideas of love crossing time and space, a theme I'm hugely enamored with, and does it with some breathtaking passages of beauty and eloquence once it really takes off in the oneiric second half. Will be all too relatable to anyone who's ever had dreams of otherworldly romance and woke up to feel deprived for days afterward... also beginning to get the impression from this and La Morte that Gautier didn't like Christianity very much.

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Quite difficult as a read given how description heavy it is and I had to re-read sections; probably one to revisit once I'm more fluent still for additional enjoyment.… (more)

Finally reaching the 19th century in my French reading and I'm not sure there was too many better ways to start with this classic Gothic short story by French romantic Théophile Gautier. La Morte amoureuse is the tale of a priest tempted from a life of monastic solace by a vision of a woman so beautiful and alluring he is unable to release himself from her spell - but as it turns out there's much more going on than it first appears. Gautier's writing style in this is florid and overpowering, a heady concoction that made me long for the kind of love depicted therein. Despite being an early precursor of its sort of fiction, La Morte amoureuse ends up subverting a lot of the expectations one would later carry into such a story, especially in its depiction of femme fatale Clarimonde who is really if anything the dark heroine of the piece in comparison to the drudgery and austerity of the priesthood and the weak will and double identity of Romaulde. Romantic with both a capital and a lowercase r, atmospheric and incredibly dreamy/subjective PoV in a manner that feels very ahead of its time, this might be my new favourite short work of fiction and I know I'll be going over it for some time in my head.… (more)