The Duc de L'Omelette

Edgar Allan Poe, 1848

The Duc de L'Omelette (The Duke of Omelette) is the title of an early, satirical short story by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe , which appeared anonymously on March 3, 1832 in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier newspaper and in 1840 in the Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was added.

In his joke- filled anecdote about playing with the devil , overflowing with French phrases , Poe Nathaniel Parker targeted Willis and Benjamin Disraeli .

content

A French nobleman, the Duc de L'Omelette, rests on a valuable ottoman and plans to dine alone this evening. But soon it comes to a catastrophe, because the Ortolan served to him seems so wrongly prepared that de L'Omelette dies “in a fit of disgust”.

In his precious, with ivory inlays ornate coffin of rosewood is dead in the hell sent, which he initially neither recognizes as the devil , who greets him. When he asks him to undress, the Duc, at least a member of the academy and author of the "Mazurkiad", refuses indignantly, points out the hardship that it would cause to get rid of the gloves and angrily asks who he is actually facing have.

“I am Beelzebub , the prince of flies,” replies the devil and explains that his cemetery supervisor Belial had sent him to him. "You will hear from me, replies de L'Omelette, wants to leave, but is prevented by a waiting gentleman."

He looks at the magnificent hall , which he considers “bien comme il faut”, sees a huge traffic light hanging on a long chain, which pours a terrible light into the room and admires the statues and paintings . When he sees through a window of the huge room the "horrible glistening pale of all fires" and realizes that the infinite melodies in the magnificent hall are only the transformed wail of the damned , he realizes that he is in the realm of hopelessness and with whom he has to do it.

Instead of despair, he wants to act like a French - “Mais il faut agir!” -, grabs a saber , and challenges the Prince of Darkness, taking position , to a duel . When his “Satanic Majesty” refuses, “His Grace” remembers having read that the devil could not refuse a game and, despite the low chances, desperately suggests a card game . Much to the annoyance of the devil, he can win it and is allowed to leave hell.

background

The young Nathaniel Parker Willis

The early narrative belonging to the group of works of grotesques contains numerous parodic allusions and swipes. In addition to Benjamin Disraeli, whose title and details - such as the prepared Ortolan - refer to his novel The Young Duke , the target Nathaniel Parker Willis can be seen in particular. The critic and editor Willis was living in Boston at the time and was initially still Poe's opponent, while he later became friends with him and promoted him.

He edited the literary yearbooks The Token and Legendary and also made a name for himself as a poet and playwright. The American Monthly Magazine , which he founded in Boston in April 1829 (when he was only twenty-three years old) , was able to hold out until August 1831 and finally failed due to competition. Willis lived an extremely lavish, elegant and Francophile lifestyle, was considered a dandy because of his pretentious self-expression and used numerous French expressions in his columns . With the ottoman, Poe alluded to the boastful statement that he owned a copy of such a piece of furniture from the house of the Governor General of Quebec .

Poe first approached him when he already held the status of an art connoisseur and literary pope, whose judgment on questions of taste was respected and who boasted of burning manuscripts that were unsolicited. The young Poe sent him his poem Fairyland at the end of October 1829 , the first four lines of which Willis published in his magazine with the arrogant hint that he had only read these words and then entrusted the work to the fire. Willis later went to New York and was artistically and financially very successful as an editor. Over time, he changed his mind about Poe and, after his death, turned against defamatory claims. When the poem The Raven was first published on January 29, 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror newspaper , it characterized it as a subtle masterpiece whose verse was admirable.

Poe also went through a change. While in 1835 he called Willis as a showcase case of bad style and coined the term “a-Willising”, in January 1848 he praised his “art of conversation”.

Details and reception

The overwhelming decor of Hell is reminiscent of the spatial background of other stories by Poe, such as the magnificent rooms in which the heroes move. The glistening lamp, for example, can be found in the story Hopp-Frosch as a chandelier , on whose long chain the dwarf climbs up after his cruel revenge to escape through the skylight . It also reminds us of the lamp, which should be located in the ideal room designed according to interior design values , which he described in his essay The Philosophy of Furniture : “... if we ignore the Argand lamp with its smooth, crimson-tinted milk glass shade; it hangs down on a single thin gold chain from the vaulted ceiling and spreads a calm but magical glow over everything. "

For Hans Wollschläger , Willis is portrayed as a dude "whose eskamot-expensive insolence even the devil cannot cope with".

Henning Thies speaks of a "stylistic tour de force" with regard to the many French phrases, puns and swipes. Although he does not consider the “extravagant miniature” to be a masterpiece and points to the more stringent tone of the better-known satire How to Write a Blackwood Article from 1838, he believes that The Duc de L'Omelette , like Poe's comic work in general, has been by critics and Readers have so far been unjustifiably neglected.

literature

• Henning Thies: The Duc de L'Omelette . In: Kindlers New Literature Lexicon. Volume 13, Kindler, Munich 1991, p. 478
• GR Thompson : Poe's Flawed Gothic: Absurdist Techniques in "Metzengerstein" and the "Courier" Satires . In: Emerson Society Quartely, 1970, No. 60, pp. 38-58

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quoted from: Edgar Allan Poe: The Duc de L'Omelette. In: Edgar Allan Poe, Collected Works in 5 Volumes, Volume I. King Pest. From the American by Arno Schmidt and Hans Wollschläger, Haffmans Verlag, Zurich 1999, p. 19
2. ↑ Quoted from: Edgar Allan Poe: The Duc de L'Omelette. In: Edgar Allan Poe, Collected Works in 5 Volumes, Volume I. King Pest. From the American by Arno Schmidt and Hans Wollschläger, Haffmans Verlag, Zurich 1999, p. 20
3. ↑ Quoted from: Edgar Allan Poe: The Duc de L'Omelette. In: Edgar Allan Poe, Collected Works in 5 Volumes, Volume I. King Pest. From the American by Arno Schmidt and Hans Wollschläger, Haffmans Verlag, Zurich 1999, p. 19
4. ↑ Quoted from: Edgar Allan Poe: The Duc de L'Omelette. In: Edgar Allan Poe, Collected Works in 5 Volumes, Volume I. King Pest. From the American by Arno Schmidt and Hans Wollschläger, Haffmans Verlag, Zurich 1999, p. 19
5. ^ Henning Thies: Edgar Allan Poe, The Duc de L'Omelette. In: Kindlers New Literature Lexicon. Volume 13, Munich 1991, p. 478
6. ^ Frank T. Zumbach : EA Poe - A biography. Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 2007, p. 182
7. ^ Henning Thies: Edgar Allan Poe, The Duc de L'Omelette. In: Kindlers New Literature Lexicon. Volume 13, Munich 1991, p. 478
8. ↑ Kuno Schuhmann: Notes on The Duc de L'Omelette. In: Edgar Allan Poe: König Pest , Gesammelte Werke in 5 volumes, Volume I. From the American by Arno Schmidt and Hans Wollschläger, Haffmans Verlag, Zurich 1999, p. 318
9. ^ Frank T. Zumbach: EA Poe - A biography. Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 2007, p. 183
10. ^ Frank T. Zumbach: EA Poe - A biography. Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 2007, p. 184
11. ↑ Kuno Schuhmann: Notes on The Duc de L'Omelette. In: Edgar Allan Poe: König Pest , Gesammelte Werke in 5 volumes, Volume I. From the American by Arno Schmidt and Hans Wollschläger, Haffmans Verlag, Zurich 1999, p. 319
12. ^ Frank T. Zumbach: EA Poe - A biography. Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 2007, p. 260
13. ↑ Quoted from: Frank T. Zumbach: EA Poe - Eine Biographie. Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 2007, p. 261
14. ↑ Quoted from: Frank T. Zumbach: EA Poe - Eine Biographie. Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 2007, p. 260
15. ^ Henning Thies: Edgar Allan Poe, The Duc de L'Omelette. In: Kindlers New Literature Lexicon. Volume 13, Munich 1991, p. 478