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Don Juan
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1931
About the author
Joseph Delteil
48 books2 followersJoseph Delteil was born in the farm of La Pradeille, from a woodcutter-charcoal father and a "buissonnière" mother. The publication in 1922 of his first novel Sur le fleuve Amour attracted the attention of Louis Aragon and Andre Breton for whom this work "compensated for so many devils to the body." Delteil collaborated with the magazine Literature and participated in the drafting of the pamphlet Un cadavre written in response to the national funeral of Anatole France (October 1924). Breton quotes him in his Surrealist Manifesto as one of those who have done "an act of absolute surrealism."
The publication in 1925 of his Jeanne d'Arc, a work rewarded by the Prix Femina, aroused the rejection of the Surrealists and of Breton in particular, in spite of the scandal caused by the anti-conformist vision Of the Maid of Orleans. for Breton, this work was a "vast shit". Delteil participated in the first issue of La Révolution surréaliste, but after an interview in which he declared that he never dreamed, he received a letter of rupture from Breton.
In 1931, he fell seriously ill and left literature and Parisian life for the south of France. In 1937, he settled in the Tuilerie de Massane (in Grabels) near Montpellier where he led a peasant-writer life until his death, accompanied by his wife, Caroline Dudley, who was the creator of the Revue nègre.
In his Occitan retreat, he maintained strong friendships with writers (Henry Miller,...), poets (Frédéric Jacques Temple),...), singers (Charles Trenet, Georges Brassens), painters (Pierre Soulages), actors (Jean-Claude Drouot,...). By publishing, in 1968, La Deltheillerie, he regained some of the notoriety of the years 1920, supported by personalities like Jacques Chancel, Jean-Louis Bory, Michel Polac, and Jean-Marie Drot.
He is buried, along with his wife Caroline, in the Pieusse cemetery.
The publication in 1925 of his Jeanne d'Arc, a work rewarded by the Prix Femina, aroused the rejection of the Surrealists and of Breton in particular, in spite of the scandal caused by the anti-conformist vision Of the Maid of Orleans. for Breton, this work was a "vast shit". Delteil participated in the first issue of La Révolution surréaliste, but after an interview in which he declared that he never dreamed, he received a letter of rupture from Breton.
In 1931, he fell seriously ill and left literature and Parisian life for the south of France. In 1937, he settled in the Tuilerie de Massane (in Grabels) near Montpellier where he led a peasant-writer life until his death, accompanied by his wife, Caroline Dudley, who was the creator of the Revue nègre.
In his Occitan retreat, he maintained strong friendships with writers (Henry Miller,...), poets (Frédéric Jacques Temple),...), singers (Charles Trenet, Georges Brassens), painters (Pierre Soulages), actors (Jean-Claude Drouot,...). By publishing, in 1968, La Deltheillerie, he regained some of the notoriety of the years 1920, supported by personalities like Jacques Chancel, Jean-Louis Bory, Michel Polac, and Jean-Marie Drot.
He is buried, along with his wife Caroline, in the Pieusse cemetery.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 30, 2009
This was rather a thin book. The language of the author is very poetic and reads nice but I must admit that Delteil's Don Juan is a beast. I do not like this guy, when living today he would be definitely and rightly accused of several serious crimes, grr. Well, to kill the father of one of the girls in a duel seems to be normal in those days, there were a lot of others, who did something like this. But to rape a very, very young girl at a cemetery, fie! And then to find there a grave of TEN year old girl, who died just the second day he tried to rape her (did not succeed) and to decide to dig the dead body out of the grave, just because he didn't had an intercourse with her, good Lord! What a beast!!! The only reason, why I gave three stars to this book is because of the way the book was written, the style and language. But really, I hate Don Juan now!
Displaying 1 of 1 review