Folio Archives 42: Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau 1976

Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau 1976

This book is weird, both in its contents and layout, which is (of course) why I am reviewing it. It is the most famous (infamous?) of Jean Cocteau's writings, and was written in 1929.

This slim volume contain a short novel, Les Enfants Terrible in two parts. Part one (70 pages) and part two (45 pages), followed by Soixante Dessins pour Les Enfants Terribles, 61 full-page drawings by the author that are not integrated in the text, but are printed on separately numbered pages at the back of the book. The book is unusual in that despite its French title, the text is in English, the FS obviously thinking that the French title was more dramatic than the English translation (The Terrible Children).

The topic is the pathological interactions between a teenage brother (Paul) and sister (Elisabeth) whose father has died. They share the same bedroom, even after their mother's death. It goes on to describe the unnatural relationship between the siblings and their friends as they grow into adulthood.

The captioned drawings are so numerous that they can be used as a cartoon version of the story line. It seems that this edition is the first time that both stories, and all the illustrations, have been published together.

The book is bound in khaki cloth blocked in black and gold with the interlocking profiles of the brother and sister. The gilt spine title runs annoyingly from bottom to top. The slipcase is dark blue with a textured pattern and 23.5x16.2cm. There are no additional illustrations embedded in the text, and there is only a very short publisher's note with no introduction or preface.































An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed at : http://www.librarything.com/topic/266300

It is indeed a strange little book. I do enjoy your idiosyncratic and random approach to this series, Warwick.

I think somebody noted elsewhere that all early Folios run the title from bottom to top of the spine in the French fashion. What was really annoying about the early Shakespeare series was that the spine was bottom to top while the dustjacket was top to bottom. When they stopped using dustjackets you wound up with a crick in the neck.

>1 wcarter:
Another one for the wishlist!

Are there really two distinct novels there? "Soixante Dessins pour..." is simply "60 drawings for..." in English, so Folio's title page basically says

Jean Cocteau
Les Enfants Terribles
translated by Rosamond Lehmann
with Sixty Drawing for Les Enfants Terribles
by the Author

So if it's indeed Les Enfants Terribles, a novel, followed by another novel called "Sixty Drawings for Les Enfants Terribles", followed by 60 drawings for the novels... it just gives "weird" an extra dimension!

>4 elladan0891:
As I have no knowledge of French, I took Part 1 of the book to be one novel, and Part 2 to be another, not realising that the second title merely referred to the drawings.
You are correct, there is only one novel, in two parts, followed by the drawings.
The ORIGINAL ENTRY HAS BEEN EDITED to reflect the correct situation.

>1 wcarter:

It is the most famous (infamous?) of Jean Cocteau's writings,

Hardly the most infamous--that would sooner be something like Le livre blanc with pictures of naked gentlemen feeling each other up etc. ;)

Very nice looking book (yours I mean), I like the unusual colour choice.

Cocteau didn't admit authorship of Le Livre Blanc until later, wisely given the status of homosexuality at the time, but it preceded Les Enfants and shared a character, Dargelos. Cocteau claimed later that LET referred to a failed first relationship, presumably male rather than incestuous. Perhaps this was one for Weldon's randy vicars.

>7 Jayked:

Note that in Melville's film, the brother (who is in love with Dargelos) was played by Cocteau's adopted son--and lover at the time. I wouldn't read much into that, the adoption was the only way for Cocteau to ensure Dermit could be his heir. But it adds to the complex resonances of relationships and motivations for the onlooker.

Just a note that there was a second impression in 1979, not mentioned in Folio 60, identical with the first, except that the cover blocking is royal blue rather than black. F60 describes the cover as dark green, but it's clearly Khaki, of the depressing shade common in WW1 memoirs.