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Raymond Radiguet

Born

in Saint-Maur, Val-de-Marne, France

June 18, 1903

Died

December 12, 1923

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Poetry

Influences

Madame de La Fayette, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Jean Cocteau, Mar ...more

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Raymond Radiguet was born in Saint-Maur, Val-de-Marne close to Paris, the son of a caricaturist. In 1917 he moved to the city. Soon he would drop out of the Lycée Charlemagne, where he studied, in order to pursue his interests in journalism and literature. He associated himself with the Modernist set, befriending Picasso, Max Jacob, Jean Hugo, Juan Gris, and especially Jean Cocteau, who became his mentor. Radiguet also had several well-documented relationships with women. An anecdote told by Ernest Hemingway has an enraged Cocteau charging Radiguet (known in the Parisian literary circles as "Monsieur Bébé" – Mister Baby) with decadence for his tryst with a model: "Bébé est vicieuse. Il aime les femmes." ("Baby is depraved. He likes women." Raymond Radiguet was born in Saint-Maur, Val-de-Marne close to Paris, the son of a caricaturist. In 1917 he moved to the city. Soon he would drop out of the Lycée Charlemagne, where he studied, in order to pursue his interests in journalism and literature. He associated himself with the Modernist set, befriending Picasso, Max Jacob, Jean Hugo, Juan Gris, and especially Jean Cocteau, who became his mentor. Radiguet also had several well-documented relationships with women. An anecdote told by Ernest Hemingway has an enraged Cocteau charging Radiguet (known in the Parisian literary circles as "Monsieur Bébé" – Mister Baby) with decadence for his tryst with a model: "Bébé est vicieuse. Il aime les femmes." ("Baby is depraved. He likes women." [Note the use of the feminine adjective:]). Radiguet, Hemingway implies, employed his sexuality to advance his career, being a writer "who knew how to make his career not only with his pen but with his pencil."

In early 1923 Radiguet published his first and most famous novel, Le Diable au corps (The Devil in the Flesh). The story of a young married woman who has an affair with a sixteen-year-old boy while her husband is away fighting at the front provoked scandal in a country that had just been through World War I. Though Radiguet denied it, it was established later that the story was in large part autobiographical. Critics, who initially despised the intense publicity campaign for the book's release (something not normally associated with works of literary merit at the time), were finally won over by the quality of Radiguet's writing and his sober, objective style.

His second novel, Le bal du Comte d'Orgel, also dealing with adultery, was only published posthumously in 1924. Radiguet had died the previous year, aged 20, of typhoid fever, which he contracted after a trip he took with Cocteau. In reaction to this death Francis Poulenc wrote, "For two days I was unable to do anything, I was so stunned" (Ivry 1996). Alongside these two novels, Radiguet's works include a few poetry volumes and a play.
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Combine Editions
Raymond Radiguet’s books

Average rating: 3.63 · 9,741 ratings · 992 reviews · 36 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Devil in the Flesh 3.63 avg rating — 8,937 ratings — published 1923 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Count d'Orgel's Ball by Raymond Radiguet, Jean Cocteau (Foreword), Annapaola Cancogni (Translator) 3.60 avg rating — 935 ratings — published 1924	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cheeks on Fire 3.31 avg rating — 36 ratings — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Oeuvres Completes really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2001 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pelikanlar by Raymond Radiguet, Ayberk Erkay (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 3.11 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 1919 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Music liked it 3.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2001	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Regola del gioco by Raymond Radiguet, Roberto Cotroneo (Contributor), Jean Cocteau (Contributor) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Vers libres & jeux innocents liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tutte le poesie by Raymond Radiguet, Francesca Milaneschi (Editor) it was ok 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I fidanzati di tredici anni e altre poesie by Raymond Radiguet, Pasquale Di Palmo (Editor) it was ok 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Raymond Radiguet (?)

“Facing death calmly is praiseworthy only if one faces it alone. Death together is no longer death, even for unbelievers. The source of sorrows lies not in leaving life, but in leaving that which gives it meaning. When love is our whole life, what difference is there between living together and dying together ?”
― Raymond Radiguet, The Devil in the Flesh

tags: death, desperation, love

39 likes

“Originality consists in trying to be like everybody else - and failing.”
― Raymond Radiguet

34 likes

“Her hands clung to my neck; they would not have held me so fast in a shipwreck. And I did not understand whether she wanted me to save her or to drown with her.”
― Raymond Radiguet

14 likes

See all Raymond Radiguet's quotes »

Polls

November 2026 New School Classics Poll

A Bell for Adano by John Hersey, 1944, 269 pgs.

16 votes, 28.6%

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, 1970, 437 pgs.

10 votes, 17.9%

The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson, 1954, 276 pgs.

8 votes, 14.3%

The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig, 1982, 257 pgs.

7 votes, 12.5%

The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, 1924, 330 pgs.

7 votes, 12.5%

A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke, 1961, 224 pgs.

5 votes, 8.9%

The Devil in the Flesh by Raymond Radiguet, 1923, 127 pgs.

3 votes, 5.4%

56 total votes

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