Léon Bloy

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Léon Marie Bloy (born July 11, 1846 in Notre-Dame-de-Sanilhac , † November 3, 1917 in Bourg-la-Reine near Paris ) was a French writer and Catholic philosopher .

Léon Bloy (1887)

Life

Léon Bloy - son of Jean Baptiste Bloy (1814–1877), a Masonic engineer, and his wife Anne-Marie Carreau (1818–1877), Catholic of Spanish origin - was the second oldest child of a total of seven sons. Bloy dropped out of school in the fourth grade. He then learned technical drawing in his father's office, drafted tragedies, began studying art and tried his hand at writing. During this time Léon Bloy lost his faith.

In 1864 Bloy went to Paris to become a painter. However, he first worked as an office worker and draftsman in a railway company. As a rebellious socialist, Bloy met the Catholic and anti-republican Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly in 1867 , whose secretary he became. Through this activity he met the royalists Louis de Bonald and Joseph de Maistre and the traditionalist Juan Donoso Cortés . Léon Bloy studied the Vulgate , the writings of Antoine Blanc de Saint-Bonnet and the mystics Anna Katharina Emmerick and Angela von Foligno . All of the influence caused Bloy to return to the Catholic faith of his childhood in 1869.

In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871, Léon Bloy took part as a militant in the Mobiles de la Dordogne without being deployed to the front. He processed his war experiences literarily in the book Sueur de Sang (1893).

After the war, Bloy lived again with his parents in Périgueux until 1873. He had intense spiritual experiences, taught his younger brother and got a position with a lawyer. From 1873 to 1877 he worked a. a. as an accountant for the railroad and as a journalist for the conservative newspaper L'Univers . However, he had conflicts with his employers and colleagues. Bloy made contact with Ernest Hello and Paul Bourget . In 1877 Bloy met the Abbé Tardif de Moidrey († 1879 in La Salette), who introduced him to the symbolic interpretation of script and brought him closer to the apparition of Mary as a miracle from La Salette .

From 1877 to 1882, Léon Bloy was in love with the prostitute Anne-Marie Roulé (Véronique in the novel Le Désespéré ). He sought refuge several times with the Trappists and Carthusians in order to give his life a new direction. His beloved converted to Catholicism ; As a seer , she announced the imminent arrival of the Holy Spirit and promised Bloy an martyrdom , which he expected until his death. In 1882, Anne-Marie Roulé went mad and was interned in Caen , where she died in 1907. Her death plunged Bloy into deep despair and rebellion.

From 1882 Bloy had first contacts with the Parisian cabaret Le Chat Noir in Montmartre . He wrote pamphlets , polemics and articles for newspapers such as Le Figaro , La Plume , Gil Blas and Mercure de France . Together with Joris-Karl Huysmans and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, he formed a friendly circle that was called the Council of Beggars . The friendship with Huysmans broke when the convert in an interview in the Écho de Paris , which appeared in 1889, concealed the religious influence of Bloy. In two newspaper articles, namely on June 1, 1891 in La Plume and on January 24, 1893 in Gil Blas , Bloy made the rift public.

Boy's first work Le Révélateur du Globe (1884), which he dedicated to Christopher Columbus , was unsuccessful. He had a love affair with the worker and prostitute Berthe Dumont, who died of tetanus in 1885 . In his novel La Femme pauvre (1897) the writer portrayed her as the protagonist Clotilde Maréchal . During this time, Bloy led a bohemian life in material misery.

In 1889, Léon Bloy and Johanne (Jeanne) Molbech (1859–1928), daughter of the Danish poet Christian Molbech (1821–1888) met in Paris. After the conversion of the betrothed to the Catholic faith the couple married in 1890 and traveled to Denmark , but soon returned to France. Bloy documented the story of their love in his Lettres à sa Fiancée (1922). The rest of life was marked by poverty, hunger, infant death, social stigmatization and a lack of recognition. The family often changed apartments in and around Paris. Of their four children, the two sons André and Pierre died of starvation in 1895, the two daughters Véronique and Madeleine survived. Boy's literary work was created under constant suffering, however:

"Bloy was not at the mercy of his wretched fate, but chose his own poverty because it was the only way that led him to God."

Bloy had already kept his first diaries as a youth in the years 1861–1862 and 1864–1866. In the year his essay Le Salut par les Juifs (1892) was published, he resumed keeping a diary in which he described life, readings, the origins of his works and encounters. His friends included:

In 1916 Léon Bloy was able to move into a house in Bourg-la-Reine, which Charles Péguy, who died in the war in 1914, had bequeathed to him as a testator .

position

Léon Bloy saw himself following the biblical prophets who warned of the near end of time. His struggle was directed against all those who either accelerate this fall of the world into the abyss or deny it and publicly propagate this denial. Boy's polemics range from literary feudal writings, preferably against Zola and Daudet , to invectives against nations and peoples, whom he accuses of having settled down well in godlessness. Protestant Denmark, the country of origin of his wife Johanne Molbech, is the preferred target of fundamental criticism alongside Germany and England:

I live, or rather: I survive painfully and miraculously here in Denmark, with no possibility of fleeing, among incurable Protestants who have not reached any light - and have been for three hundred years after their nation became like one man and without hesitating to raise the voice of a filthy monk [meaning Luther ] to deny Jesus Christ.

Originally based on symbolism , Bloy turned into a devout Catholic and Christian fanatic of truth. With his later works, the eternal beggar is one of the supporters of the Renouveau catholique and one of the radical critics of a bourgeois Christianity at the turn of the 20th century . Léon Bloy, described by the Protestant theologian Walter Nigg as the barking dog of God , represented a backward- looking utopia as a fool in Christ : He wanted to go back to early Christianity and propagated a radical following of Christ in total poverty.

As a novelist, Léon Bloy was - also in a successor to Rousseau - a sinner out of pride who used his art to brag about the depravity of his words and actions. Consequently, Bloy impressed his contemporaries more with his lifestyle than his writings.

reception

In German-speaking countries, Léon Boy's works have found recipients from a variety of disciplines. They include Franz Kafka , Carl Schmitt , Ernst Jünger , Heinrich Böll and Gertrud Fussenegger . In recent years, the journalist and translator Alexander Pschera in particular has endeavored to rediscover Boly.

In his work Political Theology (1922) Carl Schmitt refers to the theorists of the Spanish and French counter-revolution. During this time, when he was concerned with the foundations of his criticism, Schmitt and the recently converted Hugo Ball spoke about Léon Bloy at their first meeting.

In his first sermon on March 14, 2013 , the newly elected Pope Francis quoted Léon Bloy as saying: "He who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil ."

Fonts

Works

  • 1870: La Chevalière de la Mort .
  • 1884: Le Révélateur du Globe . Foreword by Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly . Sauton, Paris.
  • 1885: Propos d'un Entrepretneur de Démolitions .
  • 1885: Le Pal .
  • 1890: Christophe Colombe devant les Taureaux .
  • 1892: Le Salut par les Juifs . Demay, Paris.
    • German edition: Salvation through the Jews . Kerle, Heidelberg 1953.
  • 1893: Sueur de Sang (1870-1871) . Dentu, Paris 1893.
  • 1894: Histoires désobligeantes .
  • 1894: Léon Bloy devant les cochons, suivi de lamentation de l'epee . Chamuel, Paris.
  • 1897: La Femme Pauvre. Episode Contemporain . Bernouard, Paris.
    • German-language editions:
Clotilde Maréchal . Translated by Hans Jacob. Kompass, Basel u. Leipzig 1931; also under the title: The wreck of darkness - Clotilde Maréchal . Vienna 1933; Excerpts in: Hochland 1934.
The poverty and greed. A contemporary episode. Translated by Clemens ten Holder. Klett Stuttgart [1950].
  • 1897: Le Désespéré .
    • German edition: The Desperate . Translated by Alastair . Kerle, Heidelberg 1954.
  • 1900: Je m'accuse . La maison d'art, Paris.
  • 1900: Le Fils de Louis XVI.
  • 1902: Exégèse des lieux communs . Mercure de France, Paris.
  • 1903: Les dernières colonnes de l'Eglise .
  • 1905: Bellulaires et porchers .
  • 1906: L'Epopée byzantine . (1917: Constantinople et Byzance .)
  • 1908: Celle qui pleure .
  • 1909: La Sang du Pauvre .
    • German-language edition: The blood of the poor. The language of God. Two fonts . Karolinger, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-85418-084-5 .
  • 1912: L'Ame de Napoléon . Mercure de France, Paris.
    • German-language edition: The soul of Napoleon . Translated by Phil Schulze Dieckhoff. Books on Demand, 2010, ISBN 978-3839181645 .
  • 1913: Sur la tombe de Huysmans . Collection des Curiosités littéraires, Paris.
  • 1914: Sueur de sang (1870-1871) . Georges Cres, Paris.
    • German edition: Blood sweat (1870-1871) . Translated, commented and introduced by Alexander Pschera . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2011.
  • 1915: Jeanne d'Arc et l'Allemagne . George Cres, Paris.
    • German-language edition: Salvation through the Jews. Jeanne d'Arc and Germany. Translated by Clemens ten Holder u. Peter Weiß (ed.). Karolinger, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85418-103-5 .
  • 1917: Méditations d'un Solitaire en 1916 . Mercure de France, Paris.
  • 1918: Dans les Ténèbres . (Posthumously). Paris.
  • 1925: Le Symbolisme de l'Apparition . (Posthumously). Mercure de France, Paris.

introduction

  • 1918: Vie de Mélanie. Bergere de la Salette ecrite par elle-meme en 1900. Son enfance (1831-1846). Mercure de France, Paris.

Editions

  • Scream from below . Translated by Hans Urs von Balthasar . Johannes, Einsiedeln-Trier 1987, ISBN 3-265-10327-7 .
  • Unpleasant stories. Stories. From the French by Elke Wehr. With a foreword by Jorge Luis Borges . Book Guild, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-940111-04-X .
  • The constant witness of God / Léon Bloy . A selection from the complete works of Raïssa and Jacques Maritain . Müller, Salzburg 1953.
  • This side of good and bad. Letters, diaries, prose . Translated and commented by Alexander Pschera. Berlin, Matthes & Seitz Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3957576927 .

Diaries

  • 1898: Le Mendiant Ingrat (1892-1895) .
  • 1904: Mon Journal (1896-1900) .
  • 1905: Quatre ans de captivité à Cochons-sur-Marne (1900-1904) .
  • 1911: L'Invendable (1903-1911) .
  • 1911: Le Vieux de la Montagne (1907-1910) .
  • 1914: Le Pelerin de l'Absolu (1910-1912) .
  • 1916: Au Seuil de l'Apocaplypse (1913-1915) .
  • 1920: La Porte des Humbles (1915-1917) .
  • 1926–1927: Journal de Jeunesse. Cahiers Léon Bloy.
  • 1999: Journal . 2 vols. Robert Laffont, Paris.
    • German-language selection: Die Tagebücher 1892-1917. Published by Peter Weiß. Karolinger, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-85418-126-2 .

Letters

  • Lettres à Véronique. (1877-1879) . 1933.
    • German edition: Letters to Veronika . Translated by Rosemarie v. Jankó. Foreword by Jacques Maritain et al. Afterword by Karl Pfleger . Vienna 1948
  • Lettres à sa fiancée. (1889-1890). 1922.
    • French reprint: Léon Bloy et Johanne Molbech. Correspondance (1889-1890) . Garnier, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-8124-0034-6 .
    • German edition: Letters to his bride . Translated u. introduced by Karl Pfleger. Salzburg / Leipzig 1933.

Total expenditure

  • 1947–1950: L'Œuvres de Léon Bloy. 20 vols., Edited by Joseph Bollery. Bernouard, Paris.
  • 1964–1975: uvres de Léon Bloy . 15 vols., Edited by Joseph Bollery et al. Jacques Petit. Mercure de France, Paris.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Léon Bloy  - Sources and full texts (French)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Caroline Mary: twin crystal of feces and diamond. Leon Bloy in Germany . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2009, p. 11.
  2. ↑ Caroline Mary: twin crystal of feces and diamond. Leon Bloy in Germany . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2009, p. 17f.
  3. ^ Léon Bloy: About the tomb of Huysmans . Translated by Ronald Voullié. Two comments by Raoul Vaneigem (1986). Merve, Berlin 2009, p. 56 and 73.
  4. ↑ Caroline Mary: twin crystal of feces and diamond. Leon Bloy in Germany . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2009, p. 21.
  5. ↑ Caroline Mary: twin crystal of feces and diamond. Leon Bloy in Germany . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2009, p. 24.
  6. ↑ Caroline Mary: twin crystal of feces and diamond. Leon Bloy in Germany . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2009, p. 29.
  7. ↑ Hannelore Schlaffer : Time of the Raven, Time of the Dove . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 106, May 10, 2010, p. 14.
  8. ^ Paul Noack : Carl Schmitt. A biography. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1996, pp. 70f.
  9. ↑ http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/de/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130314_omelia-cardinali.html . See Matthias Drobinski's comment on this , loyalty is always change. See, judge, act: What Francis thinks, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 75, Easter 2013, p. 13.
  10. ^ Mélanie's life. Shepherd girl from La Salette. Written by herself in 1900. Her childhood (1831-1846) . Introduction by Léon Bloy. [1]
  11. ↑ Caroline Mary: twin crystal of feces and diamond. Leon Bloy in Germany . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2009, p. 401.
personal data
SURNAME Bloy, Léon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bloy, Léon Marie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French author
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH Périgueux
DATE OF DEATH November 3, 1917
Place of death Bourg-la-Reine