Decadent Prose Pieces
Léo Trézenik
Translated by Brian Stableford
Proses Décadentes by “Léo Trézenik” (Léo Épinette, 1855-1902), here published in its first-ever appearance English as “Decadent Prose Pieces,” in a fabulous translation by Brian Stableford, was one of the first volumes to advertise itself brazenly as a contribution to a nascent Decadent Movement, albeit ironically and in jest—an irony and humor entirely appropriate to the spirit of the school in question.
Replete with black comedy, essentially playful and provocative in its self-indulgent perversity and licentiousness, and quite similar in tone to Joris-Karl Huysmans’ prose vignettes, collected in Le Drageoir aux épices (1874) and Croquis parisiens (1880), which likewise came to be seen retrospectively as crucial contributions to the revitalization of the “prose poem,” Trézenik’s collection, though largely ignored by literary historians, is exemplary in its Decadence.
Being at once very Parisian and distinctly splenetic, its light touch is that of the steely forefinger of an important pioneer of the fin-de-siècle Decadent Movement.
About the Author
“Léo Trézenik” was the pseudonym assumed Léo Épinette (1855-1902). He was a French poet, novelist and journalist who, in 1883, co-founded the literary journal Lutèce, the first periodical explicitly associated with “Symbolist” poetry, publishing, among many others, the works of Paul Verlaine. Among his works are Proses décadentes (1886), L’abbé Coqueluche (1889), and La Confession d’un fou (1890).
About the Translator
Brian Stableford has been publishing fiction and non-fiction for fifty years. His fiction includes a series of “tales of the biotech revolution” and a series of metaphysical fantasies featuring Edgar Poe’s Auguste Dupin. He has previously translated for Snuggly Books a number of titles, including The Soul-Drinker and Other Decadent Fantasies, by Jean Lorrain, and The Unknown Collaborator and Other Legendary Tales, by Victor Joly.
Paperback, 94 pages. Release date: May 26, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1-64525-028-9
Price: US$12.00