Delphi Fabrice - Gripped by hideous nightmares and haunted by a mysterious phantom, multiple apparitions, and the inescapable presence of arachnids, Mordann descends into madness amid a life of decadent splendor. His soul “struggles in the mesh of the spider-web” as he gives into sadism, delusion, and self-loathing

 

Delphi Fabrice, The Red Spider, Trans. by Brian

Stableford, Snuggly Books, 2021

"Delphi Fabrice" (the pseudonym of Gaston-Henri-Adhémar Risselin, 1877-1937), the most adamant of Jean Lorrain's disciples, is credited with authoring over one hundred books. None, however, is more bizarre than The Red Spider, here presented in English for the first time in a virtuoso translation by Brian Stableford. The novel, seeking to out-Decadent the most decadent of its predecessors, features Andhré Mordann, an ether-drinking hero seemingly modelled on Lorrain himself, who, in this "black, black, black tale"-a tale of true horror and madness-traverses the boulevards of decline, hobnobbing with drunken prostitutes and homosexual strong-men, licentious merrymakers and waterfront idlers-and, of course, the dancer gloved in imperial crimson.

This intoxicating novel from Fabrice (1877–1937), appearing in English for the first time, straddles the intersection of horror and Decadence to deliver a tale as terrifying as it is titillating. Andhré Mordann, self-described as “a curiosity-seeker and vagabond of vice,” serves as the narrator of the majority of the novel. Gripped by hideous nightmares and haunted by a mysterious phantom, multiple apparitions, and the inescapable presence of arachnids, Mordann descends into madness amid a life of decadent splendor. His soul “struggles in the mesh of the spider-web” as he gives into sadism, delusion, and self-loathing. Fabrice’s prose, expertly translated by Stableford, is vivid and tightly packed as Mordann’s perversions grow more intense. Genre devotees will notice the germ of much contemporary horror in Fabrice’s tale, making this dark, immersive story a must-have for fans of turn-of-the-century Decadent literature and anyone looking to explore horror’s roots. - Publishers Weekly

Delphi Fabrice, The Red Sorcerer, Trans. by Brian Stableford, Snuggly Books, 2022

The Red Sorcerer, originally published as a 64-part feuilleton serial in Le Journal between 31 July 1910 and 3 October 1910, and here appearing in English for the first time in an expert translation by Brian Stableford, is one of the more extreme entries in author Delphi Fabrice's already highly unusual canon. Perhaps the most spectacularly peculiar manifestation of Fabrice's fervent desire to test and extend the limits of the permissible and the conventional in his fiction, The Red Sorcerer is a showpiece of crime and vice in which he removes the gloves of discretion completely, setting out to depict the world of prostitutes and their pimps with a frank and extreme brutality-so frank and so extreme, in fact, that it required a strange supernaturalization completely at odds with his supposed Naturalism. Though the novel is certainly very unsavory, it is also quite extraordinary and thus worthy of attention as a specimen of the Decadent world view, and of a grim and relentless authorial sadism that tempts the suspicion that a complex psychology must lie behind it.

Stableford’s introduction claims this little known work from Fabrice (1877–1937) is “not a good novel,” but that there’s value in its unsavoriness; indeed, fans of decadent literature will be wowed by its dark intuitive depth. Though plagued by period-typical misogyny, the gorgeously written story is a time capsule from the fin de siècle. First published as a 64-part serial in 1910 and here translated into English for the first time, it follows Françoise Le Goff, who’s abducted from her family by the Red Sorcerer, who wields a sinister persuasive power. The status-hungry Sorcerer, also called Pen-Ru and Tête-Rouge, brings Françoise into his Parisian world of harlotry and vice, but when she becomes involved with a man named Demi-Sel, she faces Pen-Ru’s wrath. Her winding, often traumatic story later takes her to Hortensias Bleus, where she is installed as a dancer, once again incurring her abductor’s jealousy. The supernatural elements somewhat fade into the background as the novel goes on, but the sinister tone never abates. Frank and brutal, this is a strange but powerful trip into the tenebrous Parisian underworld. - Publishers Wekly

Delphi Fabrice, Flowers of Ether, Trans. by

Brian Stableford, Snuggly Books, 2021

Delphi Fabrice’s Flowers of Ether, originally appearing as a serial in the “literary supplement” of the daily newspaper La Lanterne, and here rediscovered and translated by Brian Stableford, is, without question, one of the most outrageous entries into the canon of the Decadent Movement. At once an extremely unreliable gossip column, a lost gay novel, and one of the author’s more brazen attempts at sensationalism, Flowers of Ether revolves around the adventures of the perverse and mysterious Jean des Glaïeuls, amidst theatres and salons, fortifs and lesbian bordellos.

Exploring the seamier side of Parisian social life at the turn of the previous century, Fabrice’s novel, replete with bizarre personalities, drug use, orgies and dubious romances, is an intriguing and highly readable text, the perfume of which will intoxicate despite its depravity.

“Delphi Fabrice” (the pseudonym of Gaston-Henri-Adhémar Risselin, 1877-1937) began his literary career as an art critic with Les Peintres de Bretagne (1898), before becoming involved in the Decadent Movement, under the aesthetic of which he composed a number of works, including L’Araignée rouge (1903), the one-act drama Clair de lune (1903), which was co-written by Jean Lorrain, Fabrice’s mentor, and La sorcier rouge (1910). Under the need for money, he gradually turned his attention romance novels, novels of adventure geared towards a juvenile audience, and “cine-novels” (adaptations of films into photo-novels). In all, he is credited with writing over 120 books.