by Octave
Mirbeau (Author), Michael Richardson (Translator), Brian Stableford
(Introduction)
Publisher:
Dedalus Ltd; new edition edition (July 15, 2019)
Softcover, 205 pages
Amazon Listing
“Come, dear ones,
come more quickly. Where you’re going there is even more pain, more torture,
more blood flowing and dripping to the ground, more contorted and torn bodies
at their last gasp on iron tables, more cut open flesh swaying from the
gallow’s rope, more horror and more hell. Come, my loves, come, with lips
together and hand in hand. Look among the leaves and the latticework, look at
the infernal diorama as it unfolds and at the diabolical festival of death.”
This
work has been compared to that of the Marquis De Sade, having read all of De
Sade’s writings I can assure you that it is not. It is De Sade light and much
better written than most of De Sade’s tales. However several of the themes of
the Marquis’ work are present in this twisted tale. In the wake of the Dreyfus
affair, much of French literature turned to discussing the hypocrisy of Western
civilization. About how many decry acts which they themselves regularly
perform. About how the worst always crawl to the top, but must maintain airs of
absolute respectability.
However,
while De Sade would be content with this simple statement and show constant
horrific examples ad nauseam, the author goes beyond and shows the extreme
opposite and shows the land of China (this would be the last few decades of
Imperial China) as one who openly embraces sex and violence as a matter of
course and a natural part of human behavior. The flip sides seems to be much
worse than the stuffy European way of life.
 |
| Author Octave Mirabeau |
The
epitome of this is shown in the character of Clara, "fairy of mass graves,
angel of decomposition and decay". She is an extreme example of a
fin-de-siècle (femme fatale), an all-powerful near-necrophilia who treats men
as puppets and enjoys their humiliation. Sadistic and morbid, she experiences
an intense and ever growing sexual pleasure on viewing elaborate executions,
whose art was perfected by China, as opposed to industrial and technological
massacres, which were practiced on a large scale in Europe without any concern
for art, i.e. the guillotine (something that De Sade laments as well). She is a
monster allowed to give full flight to her perversions in this horrible place.
The
plot is fairly simple. A French politician's dirty trickster is sent on a
pseudo-scientific expedition to collect seaweed in order to discover the origin
of life. In reality, he is being put out of the way as he has become a
potential embarrassment to the politician. He quickly abandons his pursuits
when he falls under the spell of Clara, an English woman, who wraps him around
her little finger. For over two years, he goes back and forth, until finally
she takes him to the Torture Gardens of China, where scenes of great floral
beauty are displayed amongst the horrible death, torture, and humiliations of
condemned prisoners.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
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