Miracle of the Rose

Miracle of the Rose

First US edition
Author	Jean Genet
Original title	Miracle de la rose
Translator	Bernard Frechtman
Language	French
Genre	Semi-autobiographical novel
Publisher	Marc Barbezat - L'Arbalete (Original French) Grove Press (US) A. Blond (UK)
Publication date	1946
Publication place	France
Published in English	1966
Media type	Print
ISBN	978-1-1270-5464-0 (English hardcover)
Preceded by	Our Lady of the Flowers
Followed by	Funeral Rites

Miracle of the Rose (French: Miracle de la rose) is a 1946 book by Jean Genet about experiences as a detainee in Mettray Penal Colony and Fontevrault prison, although there is no direct evidence of Genet ever having been imprisoned in the latter establishment. This autobiographical work has a non-linear structure: stories from Genet's adolescence are mixed in with his experiences as a thirty-year-old man at Fontevrault prison. At Mettray, Genet describes homosexual erotic desires for his fellow adolescent detainees. There is also a fantastical dimension to the narrative, particularly in Fontevrault passages concerning a prisoner called Harcamone who is condemned to death for murder. Genet idolises Harcamone and writes poetically about the rare occasions on which he catches a glimpse of this character. Genet was detained in Mettray Penal Colony between 2 September 1926 and 1 March 1929, after which, at the age of 18, he joined the Foreign Legion.

In popular culture

The Pogues released a song titled "Hell's Ditch", which contains references to the novel. The composer Hans Werner Henze composed a piece with a title of the same name 'Le Miracle de la Rose'.

Poison (1991), written and directed by Todd Haynes, adapts scenes from Genet's novel.

William S. Burroughs used the title "The Miracle of the Rose" as a chapter in his novel "The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead".

References

Luc Forlivesi, Georges-François Pottier and Sophie Chassat, Educate & Punish: the agricultural penal colony of Mettray (1839-1937) (in French), Presses universitaires de Rennes, October 2005.