Maurice-Yves Sandoz

Maurice-Yves Sandoz (also Maurice Sandoz ; born April 2, 1892 in Basel , † June 5, 1958 in Lausanne ) was a Swiss writer. He is considered the most important Swiss narrator of the fantastic . Occasionally he is counted among surrealism .

Life

Sandoz was the son of Edouard Sandoz , the founder of the Basler Sandoz works, and brother of the sculptor Édouard-Marcel Sandoz . He was also the grandson of the famous surgeon Matthias Mayer and nephew of the painter Emile-François David. This descent explains perhaps the scientific and artistic dual talent of the author, to whom we owe not only works of fiction but also works on spectroscopy and the composition of the dyes. Although he did not need paid work because of the enormous wealth of his family, he initially worked as a chemist and composer. An eye disease caused by his research forced him to give up his career as a scientist, but allowed him to focus on his literary work, which had previously only been a hobby. Sandoz, who traveled all over the world, had his predominant residence in Rome . In 1958 he committed suicide.

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After that of Ronald Firbank inspired debut album Le jeune auteur et le perroquet found (1920) rather moderate applause, he published the 1937 Holiday Gift fantastiques et nouveaux souvenirs (dt. Strange memories ). A characteristic of his narrative technique is that the "natural" explanation, which makes the apparently supernatural phenomena at the end of a narrative intelligible, is ultimately much more incredible than the assumption of ghostly powers (here Sandoz approaches the 'explained supernatural' of Ann Radcliffe ) - reality turns out to be more fantastic than any fantasy. Each story takes the form of a fictional private memory of the author, either of his own experiences or of second-hand reports.

Central is also the topos of the haunted house, which varies in the novels Le labyrinthe ( Das Labyrinth , 1949) and La maison sans fenêtres ( The house without a window , 1943) and is associated with the motif of the hedonistic-decadent dandy (not least one critical examination of one's own lifestyle). Contes suisses ( Swiss stories , 1956) is an anthology of older and more recent stories.

Sandoz also tried as a playwright : 1928 a revised edition was published the play The Curse of the Wraydons ( The Curse of the Wraydons ) of WG Willis , which served as the basis for a film of the same in the year 1946th The piece offers a variation on the mythology of Spring Heeled Jack .

Sandoz 'books initially appeared in very small, exclusive editions, but with extremely luxurious furnishings; he had it lavishly illustrated by artists such as Fabius von Gugel or Salvador Dalí . Dalí, whom Sandoz met in New York in the 1940s , illustrated z. B. Books such as Souvenirs fantastiques , La Maison sans fenêtres , Le labyrinthe and La Limite ( Am Rande , 1951). To this day, Sandoz's work remains largely unknown even to many literary scholars. It is only in the last few years that some of his stories have been reissued.

Works (selection)

Single issues

• Stories and short stories (“Contes et nouvelles)”. 1934.
• Strange memories (“Souvenirs fantastiques et”). 1936.
• New memories (“Nouveaux souvenirs”). 1938.
• The house without a window. Narration (“La maison sans fenêtres”). Morgarten Verlag, Zurich 1948 (translated by NO Scarpi ).
• The labyrinth ("Le labyrinthe"). Dumont Verlag, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7701-2738-2 .
• Three strange stories (“Trois histoires bizarres”). 1939.
• On the edge. Stories (“La limite”). Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1964.
• Swiss stories 1955.
• The magic crystal ("La salière de cristal. Souvenirs"). Zurich 1950 (extended new edition Paris 1952).

Work edition

• The Scutari cemetery. Eerie tales . Limmat-Verlag, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-85791-195-6 (content: On the edge , strange memories , new memories , stories and novellas , three strange stories and Swiss stories ).

literature

• Jacques-Michel Pittier : A subtle shiver . In: Maurice Sandoz: The Scutari Cemetery. Eerie tales . Limmat-Verlag, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-85791-195-6 , pp. 383-387 (afterword).
• Willi Schuh: M. Sandoz . In: Ders .: Swiss Musicians Lexicon (“Dictionnaire des musiciens suisses”). Atlantis-Verlag, Zurich 1964.
• Rein A. Zondergeld : The labyrinths of memory. The nostalgic world of Maurice Sandoz . In the S. (Ed.): Phaïcon 4. Almanach der Fantastischen Literatur (st; 636). Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1980, ISBN 3-458-01769-0 , pp. 106-120.
• Rein A. Zondergeld: Maurice-Yves Sandoz . In: Ders .: Lexicon of Fantastic Literature . Edition Weitbrecht , Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-522-72175-6 (reprint of the Frankfurt / M. 1983 edition).

Web links

• Literature by and about Maurice-Yves Sandoz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Doris Jakubec: Sandoz, Maurice. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .