Juggler
Regular price
€32.50
"Rachilde" (1860-1953)
A01=Marguerite Vallette-Eymery
appearance
artistic expression
atmospheric
Author_Marguerite Vallette-Eymery
avant-garde fiction
Category=D
character-driven
clothing
complex
contemporary fiction
controversial twist
cultural critique
decadent novel
desire
Eliante Donalger
emotional
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
European
exaggerated double
feminist criticism
feminist literature
French literary society
gender dynamics
Greek amphora
human sexual expression
inanimate object
interests
introspective
La Jongleuse
literary analysis
literary criticism
literary exploration
literary fiction
literary innovation
literary legacy
literary rebellion.
literature
love
major rediscovery
Marguerite Vallette-Eymery
neglected work
protagonist
provocative themes
psychological depth
Rachilde
renewed interest
rivalry
scientific world
seductive power
sexual ambiguity
social commentary
surprise ending
turn-of-the-century
unconventional characters
unconventional relationships
women's movement
Product details
- ISBN 9780813516257
- Weight: 313g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 01 Sep 1990
- Publisher: Rutgers University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The Juggler (La Jongleuse) is a "decadent" novel that was first published in 1900. Its author, Marguerite Vallette-Eymery (1860-1953), who used the pseudonym Rachilde, was a prolific novelist (over sixty works of fiction), playwright, literary critic and reviewer, and a forceful presence in French literary society of her time. The protagonist of the novel, Eliante Donalger, is in some sense an exaggerated double for her creator--bizarre in appearance, clothing, and interests. Instinctively grasping a medical and psychological truth that the turn-of-the-century scientific world was only beginning to understand, Eliante maintains that there is nothing "natural" about human sexual expression. She claims to be in love with an inanimate (though anthropomorphic and sexually ambiguous) object, a Greek amphora, and the novel traces the rivalry between this faithful partner and an ardent human suitor, a young medical student. It is only through juggling, both literally and metaphorically, that Eliante is able to use her seductive power to maintain desire. The surprise ending challenges the limits of such power in a controversial and surprising twist. Although Rachilde's work has been neglected in the past, the women's movement and feminist criticism have stimulated renewed interest in her fiction. The Juggler is a major rediscovery.
RACHILDE was the pen name and preferred identity of novelist and playwright MARGUERITE VALLETTE-EYMERY (February 11, 1860 – April 4, 1953). Born near PÉrigueux, Dordogne, Aquitaine, France during the Second French Empire, Rachilde went on to become a symbolist author and the most prominent woman in literature associated with the Decadent Movement of fin de siÈcle France.
