| Barbey d'Aurevilly's works have yet to be untangled. This is true despite the fact that everything has been said and well said about the critic (J. Petit, G. Corbiere-Gilles), the letter writer and the diarist (N. Dodille), the novelist and the short stories writer (P. Colla, P. Berthier, the narratologists); some have tried to draw from his incisive and sometimes aberrant statements, from his various poses and from a problematical autobiography a religious and political thought (P. J. Yarrow), and others have submitted him to symbolical and psychoanalytical exegesis (P. Tranouez, J. Bellemin-Noel).; But aurevillian research collides with meticulously chosen obstacles and is more often than not disconcerted by this "chameleon" (an admirer's metaphor, to which nevertheless Barbey prefers the more flattering "kaleidoscope"), who certainly never contradicts himself but who, in a conclusion, in a "Pensee detachee" or a dedication, outside of all literary institutions, suddenly opens an unexpected prospect, starting anew the interpretations-hunt. Everywhere,---in his autobiographic works, even in the Memorandum, which is, by the way, always addressed to someone, always organized to produce an effect, as in his public writings, journalistic or novelistic,---Barbey is above all a dandy, meaning the modern aristocrat whose superiority is not rooted in mere birth-right, but is most superbly expressed by the irrevocable mystery of his being. "Ils ne peuvent pas dire qui je suis", says the aurevillian Brummel, secretly enjoying his imposture, when he does not arrogantly compare himself with "les Rois qui aiment a garder l'incognito". In the lounge as in the literary scene, everything is done so that the interlocutor, listener or reader, never knows "ou [il] en est quand [il] ecoute".; Under such conditions, how can we hope to connect with these fictional works? How can we, as critics, discover their author's deep creative intentions?; The most beautiful pages, but also the most penetrating, written on Barbey d'Aurevilly are even today Julien Gracq's, in which he presents one of his "preferences" and the global attitude it requires: "Il ne s'agit pas de defendre Barbey---il n'en a pas besoin---il s'agit de savoir le lire. Et, plutot que de le lire, je dirai qu'il s'agit surtout, au sens tres concret du terme, de savoir l'ecouter". To listen to Barbey is to listen to him "talking" about his works in the restricted space of the book, an ear glued to each and every word, listening to what our jargon names the "metadiscourse": the discourse that literature holds on itself. Les Diaboliques are not only the aurevillian Mona Lisa, the work which, because of its beauty and mystery, eclipses the other ones, no less beautiful and mysterious, they also offer a general survey on aurevillian works. During a quarter century, more and more conscious of his specific style and talent, Barbey has condensed in these six short stories all the resources of a dreadfully efficient writing.; Keywords: French XIXth century - Metadiscourse - Paratext - Pragmatics - Semiotics - Narratology. |
