The Desperate Man

Léon Bloy

Translated by Richard Robinson

First published in 1886, and presented here for the first time in an English translation, The Desperate Man is arguably Léon Bloy’s masterpiece, and a genre of its own.

Written in utmost poverty, when Bloy was forty years old, this ruthless novel lays bare the soul of one of France’s most difficult authors as he appears under the guise of the desperate Marchenoir, a man of genius who is unable to compromise with a society that he sees as corrupt, despicable and hypocritical, while he carries on a bizarre sexually-charged but also mystical relationship with Véronique Cheminot, a former prostitute turned religious zealot.

At once a scandalous roman à clef, an anti-capitalist polemic, and a beautiful and hypnotizing tract on Christian existentialism, The Desperate Man is a tempestuous work of spirituality and dissatisfaction — a work of furious outrage, like few others, that explores the terror and consequences of extreme love, both terrestrial and of God.

About the Author
Léon Bloy (1846-1917) was a French writer and journalist who was the author of essays, novels, short stories, as well as a diary in eight volumes. In 1867 he made the acquaintance of Jules-Amadée Barbey d’Aurevilly, who not only stoked up his literary ambitions but was also responsible for his conversion to ardent Catholicism. Although primarily remembered today for his journals and essays, his volume of short stories Histoires désobligeantes is a work of great importance, as is his novel Le Désespéré.

About the Translator
Richard Robinson has done numerous translations over the years, both to and from English, including Georges Bataille’s The Trial of Gilles de Rais (Amok Books, 1990), and Théodore Hannon’s Drinkers of Phosphorous and other Songs of Joy (Snuggly Books, 2020). He holds a bachelor’s degree from the California State University.

Paperback, 360 pages
1st edition, June 16, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1-64525-031-9
OUT OF PRINT

Hardcover, 362 pages. Limited to 100 copies.
1st edition, June 16, 2020
OUT OF PRINT