University of Kentucky UKnowledge French and Francophone Literature European Languages and Literatures 1983 The Vatard Sisters J.-K. Huysmans James C. Babcock Western Kentucky University Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Huysmans, J.-K. and Babcock, James C., "The Vatard Sisters" (1983). French and Francophone Literature. 6. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_french_and_francophone_literature/6 STUDIES IN ROMANCE LANGUAGES: 26 John E. Keller, Editor This page intentionally left blank THE VATARD SISTERS Translated by James C. Babcock THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY ISBN: 978-0-8131-5313-1 Preface My intent in this translation has been to present an accurate, readable English version of the French text, and, at the same time, to preserve something of the character and style of the original text. For this reason, in cases where problems of syntax and vocabulary make an English rendering less satisfying than one might have hoped, I have deliberately opted for the more literal approach, feeling it important to preserve, as much as possible, the weight of Huysmans' hand. The French text used for this translation was that from the Cr&s edition of Huysmans' muvres complites (1928-34) as reprinted by Slatkine Reprints at Geneva in 1972. In extending thanks to all those who have assisted me in my efforts with this translation, I wish first of all to mention my family, my wife Nancy and our two children, Jimmy and Melanie, all of whom have been a very special source of strength and inspiration. In addition, I wish to make special mention of Western Kentucky University for its support and assistance over a period of years, including the use of the resources of the Margie Helm library, the help of Mrs. Elizabeth Cossey of the library staff, and the granting of release time and a sabbatical leave. My thanks also to Vanderbilt University for the use of the resources of its Joint Universities library. Finally, I wish to express my appreciation for the support and encouragement offered by my col- leagues and associates here in the Department of Foreign Languages at Western Kentucky University. This page intentionally left blank Introduction Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was born of bourgeois parents in Paris on February 5, 1848. His father was of Dutch origin, and when the son began writing, he chose to use a Dutch equivalent of his Christian names, signing himself Joris-Karl Huysmans, or J.-K. Huysmans. Huysmans' first literary contacts of any importance were made in Paris during the early 1870s at the "Diners du Boeuf nature." At these gatherings he met and exchanged ideas with a small group of aspiring young French poets. The efforts of this short-lived coterie revolved around a single term-"modernit6"-which for them took on the meaning of an attempt to capture something of the reality of the age, to form a verbal portrait of the contemporary world. This portrait, however, they generally limited to one small segment of their world- Paris and, in particular, to only the more seamy, less well-known parts of the city. Paul Bourget, a participant in the "Diners du Boeuf nature," outlined the group's goals and aspirations in a long poem entitled Edel, which remains the group's most significant poetic contri- bution. Huysmans' own efforts resulted in Le Drageoir aux epices, a mediocre collection of prose poems, which appeared in October 1874. The failure of Le Drageoir aux kpices to attract significant critical acclaim doubtless contributed to Huysmans' move from poetry to the novel. He was particularly struck by the novels of Flaubert and the Goncourt brothers. However, in 1875, with the controversy over Zola's novels beginning to intensify, it is not surprising to find Huysmans' attention turning to the Rougon-Macquart and Naturalism.' Although Huysmans did not meet Zola until the spring of 1876: by the time of the publication of L 'Assommoir a year later, he was one of Zola's most ardent and vociferous ~upporters.~ For Huysmans, the linking of his earlier goals and aspirations to those of Zola's new school was a simple and straightforward matter? In 1877, in his remarks on Zola and L Xssommoir, Huysmans noted that "the supreme goal of any artist," be he painter, writer, or whatever, should be simply "truth" and "life" (0.c. 2: 19 l), precisely the focus his work had taken under the flag of "modernitC" as evidenced by various pieces in Le Drageoir aus kpices, such as "La Rive gauche" and the like. On another occasion he was to refer to Naturalism's greatest single contribution to literature as being "to situate living persons in real milieus" (Ox. 7:vii). As early as 1879, the year in which The Vatard Sisters (Les Soeurs Vatard) was published, Huysmans defined his own art in terms that give evidence of his own acceptance of such goals: "I portray what I see, what I feel, what I have experienced, writing the best I can, and that's all" (0.c. 2:9). So it is that, after the failure of Le Drageoir aux ipices, Huysmans turned to the novel and Naturalism, and the world around him-in particular the physical reality of contemporary Paris-became the focus of his literary efforts. His first novel, Marthe, histoire d trne fille (1 876), depicts the dismal fate of a Parisian prostitute. Huysmans himself later criticized Marthe as being "a first work, curious and stirring, but somehow lacking, insufficiently personal."' What is lacking in Marthe is this emphasis on descriptions of the physical world, which are limited to several minor efforts depicting the brothel, the ThCItre Bobino, and the Rue de Lourcine. It was not until The Vatard Sisters (1879), his second novel, that Huysmans gave full vent to his artistic impulses. In his opinion, this "lewd but exact slice-of-life portrait of the life of women bookbinders" represented his fxst typical work, the novel in which his personality was felt for the fxst time (En Marge. 56). The principal importance of The Vatard Sisters lies in the revelation of this precisely observed series of sketches, which bring to life the world of CCline and DCsirCe Vatard. These sketches point out some- thing about the early stages of Huysmans' development as a writer and show the essential character of Naturalism as first accepted by Huysmans, a "fervent admirer and devoted friend" of Zola. It is evident in The Vatard Sisters that Huysmans' Naturalism has none of the emphasis of Zola's scientific experiment. Heredity, genetics, emphasis on a deterministic view of life, these elements of Zola's Naturalism play no role in The Vatard Sisters. Two years earlier, in his defense of Zola and L Xssommoir, Huysmans had neatly sidestepped the question of Zola's scientific pretensions, revealing even then his lack of interest in this aspect of Naturalism. "In truth, all that matters very little to me," was his terse comment (0.c. 2: 168). What he had found interesting in L 'Assommoir were Zola's descrip- tions of Paris, which were, he felt, "the first [in a French novel] in which life swarms and teems with like intensity" (0.c. 2:189). Huysmans himself already viewed the esthetic goals of the Naturalists as centering primarily on such descriptions: We [Naturalists] are men who believe that a writer . must be a man of his time. We are artists constantly seeking out "modernitk." . We go to the street, to the living, teeming street. We want to try to erect flesh and blood characters, characters speaking the language they were taught, that is to say, living, breathing characters. Being given a man and a woman as subjects of study, we want to make them act in a milieu which we have observed and carefully rendered in minute detail. (0.c. 2: 162-63) Interestingly enough, Huysmans inserted into The Vatard Sisters itself statements that, even though they are made in reference to another medium, clearly support the obvious emphasis he now placed on such descriptions. One of the characters in the novel is an artist- painter named Cyprien Tibaille, CBline Vatard's lover. Cyprien's views on art differ radically from the accepted norm, and this causes his paintings of Paris and its denizens to be turned down by reputable Parisian art shows. Cyprien, it is explained, "understood only the modern. Caring little about the cast-off clothing of old periods, he asserted that a painter ought to render only that which he was sble to visit and see" (0.c. 3: 159). "His sole ideal was to create a living and true work" (0.c. 3: 162). These remarks parallel very closely Huysmans' own statement of goals quoted above. The goals and efforts of Cyprien, as described in The Vatard Sisters, are remarkably similar to those of the painter Jean-Franqois Raffaeli (1 850-1924), whose works Huysmans came to admire immensely about this time. In Certains (1 889) Huysmans praised Raffaeli as the "painter of suburban landscapes whose plaintive barrenness and doleful joys he alone has captured" (0.c. 10:3). In his article on the "Exposition des Indipendants en 1880" Huysmans referred to Raffaeli as "the artist . who will have rendered the melancholy grandeur of anemic sites lying beheath the infinity of the heavens; here then finally is expressed that poignant note of the emptiness and of the plaintive delights of our suburban landscapes (0.c.