Exemplary Departures

by Gabrielle Wittkop, Annette David (Translator)

Exemplary Departures consists of five exquisitely wrought novellas depicting five "exemplary" deaths in various exotic locations around the globe: a gentleman spy disappears with his secrets into the Malaysian jungle; a young woman agonizes atop a ruined castle overlooking the Rhine; a writer succumbs to alcoholism in the streets of Baltimore; a salesman expires as a vagabond in the sewers of New York; and hermaphroditic twins are assassinated in a stagecoach. Drawing from the remnants of real-life anecdotes--from Edgar Allan Poe's final days to the agonizing tale of Idilia Dubb--these stories are imagined descents into death's supreme indifference. A true modern inheritor of the legacy of the French Decadent writers, Wittkop spins these tales with her trademark macabre elegance and chilling humor, maneuvering in an uncertain space between dark Romanticism, Gothic Expressionism and Sadean cruelty. "Death is life's most important moment," Wittkop claimed; Exemplary Departures offers five particularly important moments for the English reader's delectation. First published as a set of three novellas in 1995, this translation is of the 2012 edition of five novellas, which include the previously unpublished "Mr. T.'s Last Secret" and "Claude and Hippolyte.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Horror, France, Mystery, Modern Classics, LGBT

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Gabrielle Wittkop (née Menardeau) (1920-2002) was a French writer. She was born in Nantes. She married Justus Wittkop, a Nazi deserter, in Paris and moved with him to Germany in 1946 after the end of the Second World War.

Her first book, on the German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann was published in German in 1966. Her first novel Le Necrophile (The Necrophiliac, 1972) was published in 1972 by Régine Desforges. She wrote several highly regarded novels and travelogues. She also contributed to the art pages of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

After her partner committed suicide, she wrote an account of it in Hemlock (1988). She herself committed suicide in 2002, after she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Although popular in France and Germany, Wittkop's works are not widely available in English. The Necrophiliac was translated in a Canadian edition by Don Bapst in 2011.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Absolutely.
more here:
https://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/201...

*****

In the translator's postscript (which you absolutely should NOT read until you finish this book), Annette David says of this book that here

"we have at least five spectacular -- contingent or planned -- ways to make one's exit from the world of the living."

It sounds bizarre to say this, but Exemplary Departures, even with its focus on death, is a beautiful book, one that should not be missed by readers of dark fiction, especially in the macabre zone, who appreciate superb writing. Wittkop, again quoting from the translator, was

"drawn to the realm of a decadent romantisme noir of previous centuries, and to writers of a scandalous reputation,"

including Poe, de Sade, Lautréamont, Mandiargues and Huysmans. The back-cover blurb also reveals that she

"spins these tales with her trademark macabre elegance and chilling humor, maneuvering in an uncertain space between dark Romanticism, Gothic Expressionism, and Sadistic cruelty."

While most of these stories carry within them a clear streak of cruelty, there is a touch of dark humor to be found in them, as well as a sadness that permeates each one to the point where it's difficult not to engage in a certain amount of empathy for her subjects, four of which were real people who met with strange, untimely ends.

The literary references at work here range from Goethe to Hoffman to Poe to Kubin (and much more) on down to Somerset Maugham, so as you might imagine, there is great depth in Wittkop's writing. Exemplary Departures not only encompasses a macabre, often surrealistic look at death but also offers a look at human minds spiraling down into the darkest depths possible. This is my first book by this author, but I have two others on the shelf, The Necrophiliac and Murder Most Serene, that I'm now eagerly looking forward to reading. If it's excellence in writing you're looking for, you will most certainly find it here.

so very highly recommended that it's not even on the scale of highly recommended.

[Quiver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing was wasted in this cosmos where everything bears fruit and decomposes, swallows, digests, expels, struggles to exist, copulates, germinates, hatches, and dissolves so as to grow again and again in an eternal ebb and flow, one after the other. Insect humors travel through the veins of the bark; liquified, the reptile is reborn in the fetid pulp of fungus; the feather becomes a leaf; the flower changes into a scale; eggs and soft roe burst into living myriads; death embraces resurrection, the two of them twinned like day and night.

The hero dies at the end.

Suppose you know this from the moment you pick up a book. The suspense of “what’s ultimately going to happen” has been taken away from you. Worse, you’ve been told the ending is fatal. So why read a dreary tale?

At least two popular types of books start with the death premise: biography and tragedy. All-encompassing life stories have an inescapable birth-to-death trajectory, while the (classical) tragic drama will likely be lethal for the protagonists.

Then come are books that have had their ending “spoiled”. Maybe it’s a history book, and you’re familiar with the outcome of the events it describes. Maybe you’ve seen the film. Maybe you’ve been told. This list is individual to each person.

I would read any of the above for the literary merit or the linguistic enjoyment (or because I needed information)—and not to revel in the plot. How about you? I have met at least one person who claimed she always started a thriller by reading the last few chapters; that way she knew where the novel was headed.

To each their own.

Next, we move into the fictional realm where the author controls your perception. For example, a cryptic opening scene may imply the hero will die (so you read on hoping that’s not the case), or it may depict a memorable death of someone who you find out is a false protagonist (a minor character who’s gratuitously killed off to make a point).

Finally, the most outrageous giveaway can be the title and the blurb, like in Exemplary Departures, which contains five novellas depicting deaths under extraordinary circumstances. (I’ve also noted the young adult novel  They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera. I’m curious to see how that one pans out.)

Though Wittkop’s stories are fictional, they’re mostly based on the unexplained disappearances of real people. So she offers fictional solutions to non-fictional mysteries (exercises in pataphysics, if you like), and we all like a good whodunnit.

But wait, here the protagonist isn’t the detective, its the victim. As the narrative progresses, you become attached to victims and engrossed in their wicked struggle to survive against all odds. Specifically, to survive against the explicit authorial warning that death ensues. You writhe about, wrestling with the words, trying to misinterpret them, in the hope that just this once it’s not an "exemplary departure", but an exemplary salvation.

(Not a spoiler, obviously: There's no salvation. Though this won't stop you hoping for it.)

[Laurent Blaise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lorsque la mort s'annonce de cette manière, et s'approche avec élégance, drapée de soie, brodée d'arabesques, coiffée de volutes, elle n'en est que plus cruelle, mais belle, et on se surprend à l'attendre et l'espérer.

[Arvid Kühne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Den har to af de bedste noveller jeg nogensinde har læst :)

[Halfeared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impitoyables chroniques de morts annoncees - le style particulier de Wittkop verse parfois dans un grotesque qui pourrait frôler le mauvais goût, surtout lorsque l'on considere que ces nouvelles sont moins des fictions que des songes à partir de destins réels, au moins pour deux d'entre elle. Mais la finesse indéniable de l'écriture, au service de cette cruauté fascinée, convainc et par moments éblouit.
L'édition que j'ai lue ne comportait que les trois nouvelles originelles - Idalia sur la tour, Les nuits de Baltimore, et Une descente.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this last month, after reading it entirely in one day, and have not been able to stop thinking about it since.
Ephemeral, haunting, beautiful, painful and intense.

Emphasis on haunting.

[Missy (myweereads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It is while blindly dancing the Dance of Death that we make our way toward our downfall.”

Gabrielle Wittkop’s collection consists of five exquisitely portrayed novellas about death. These take place in varying locations around the world.

Having read a few of the author’s book one thing that I love about her writing is her macabre style in which she tells the most grotesque and disturbing stories. This was the case with this collection and it did not disappoint.

There is a story about a spy gentleman who disappears into the Malaysian jungle, a young women faces an agonising death whilst trapped in a tower in a ruined castle overlooking the Rhine, a writer succumbs to alcoholism in the streets of Baltimore, a salesman goes underground in the sewers of New York and hermaphroditic twins are assassinated.

Gabrielle Wittkop spins these novellas in her signature style through dark romanticism and gothic expression. WIth dark humour and macabre horror, each one was chilling to read.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five deaths, five departures from this life, form the five separate vignettes of Wittkop's brief novel. They are five very different departures from five very different characters drawn from instances of real life. I loved the language. I loved the unabashed storytelling. Wittkop is truly descended from the decadents of literature past. This goes straight from my "currently reading" to my "favorites" shelf!

[Arno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all stories are 4 stars, but some of them definitely are, hence the score.
All stories about the leaving behind of life, all tragic. Unlike Wittkop's own departure, none of these are by their own conscious act, although some of them are most definitely the result of self-destructive urges. I had expected more visceral descriptions though, often the stories ended a bit stuck in literary references. The last one is pretty great though!

[G.S. Richter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite and grotesque, like the lurid fantasies of De Sade tempered by the storytelling power of Poe. Wittkop is a better writer than both, and would be a household name if not for her insistence upon writing about "icky" things.

She can make a rotting corpse beautiful, a sewer into heaven, and incest between twin hermaphrodites sound like a bangin' good time.

[K's Bognoter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sanselige raffinementer, litterære ekvilibrismer, æstetiske grænsesprængninger, eksemplariske bortgange og en til tider morbid humor … Gabrielle Wittkops noveller er ret vilde – og helt fantastisk smukke.
Læs min anmeldelse på K’s bognoter: https://bognoter.dk/2025/12/01/gabrie...

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Expected better.

[J Adam Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first and third stories were alright, but the last story…………… twins <3

[Andreas Jacobsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.0