Books by Gabriel De Lautrec

The present volume contains De Lautrec's short novel The Sacred Fire (1904), and a selection from short prose poems (1898). The latter benefit from being juxtaposed with the former because one of the episodes of the novel reveals the circumstances in which they were composed, with not only explains their surreal nature but allows them to serve as an illustration of the argument made in that episode.The Sacred Fire opens with a description of a secret ritual practiced by one of the cults of the French Occult Revival, and much of the discussion featured in the story deals with the nature and philosophy of magic. Despite its ground-breaking nature, it never achieved publication in volume form until now.The prose poems are among the most important precursors of surrealism, contemporary with the most significant contributions that Alfred Jarry made to the preliminary foundations of that movement. They are among the most extreme examples of the Decadent Movement, and together with the short novel a fascinating commentary on its psychology and esthetics.

The undisputed masterpiece of Gabriel de Lautrec (1867-1938), THE VENGEANCE OF THE OVAL PORTRAIT, which borrows its title from Edgar Allan Poe, is a collection of 28 stories at the crossroads of horror, fantasy and science fiction. Its singular inspiration owes as much to the author's predilection for dark humor, Grand Guignol and the mixing of genres, as it does to the influence of alcohol and hashish, which he used regularly.De Lautrec was a disciple of Alphonse Allais and the winner of the 1920 Humorists' Award. While he hid behind a smiling mask, his troubled personality is on display in this series of mysterious and thrilling tales. Reviewers have compared them variedly to Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, H. G. Wells and Maurice Renard.