Petrus Borel

Petrus Borel
Born	26 June 1809 Lyon
Died	July 14, 1859(1859-07-14) (aged 50) Mostaganem, French Algeria
Occupation	Writer
Movement	Romantic movement

Joseph-Pierre Borel d'Hauterive, known as Petrus Borel (26 June 1809 – 14 July 1859), was a French writer of the Romantic movement.^[1]

History

Petrus Borel was born at Lyon on 26 June 1809, the twelfth of fourteen children of an ironmonger. He studied architecture in Paris but abandoned it for literature.

Nicknamed le Lycanthrope ("Wolfman") and the centre of the circle of Bohemians in Paris,^[1] Borel was noted for his extravagant and eccentric style of writing, foreshadowing Surrealism. He was occasionally captured in drypoint by Marcellin Desboutin.^[2]

Petrus Borel was not commercially successful and was eventually directed to a minor civil service post by his friend Théophile Gautier.^[3] Borel is considered to be one of the poète maudits, like Aloysius Bertrand or Alice de Chambrier, and is said to have influenced Baudelaire and Breton.^[4]

Petrus Borel was the subject of a 1954 biography by Irish literary critic Enid Starkie called Petrus Borel: The Lycanthrope.^{[citation needed]} In 1959 Tom Moran translated Borel's 1833 Champavert: Contes Immoraux (Seven Bitter Tales) via Theo. Gaus' Sons, Brooklyn.^[5]

Death

Petrus Borel died at Mostaganem in French Algeria on 14 July 1859.^[1]

Works

• Rhapsodies (Poems, 1832)
• Champavert: Contes Immoraux (Short stories, 1833)
• L'Obélisque de Louqsor (1836)
• Robinson Crusoe (Translation, 1836)
• Comme quoi Napoléon n'a jamais existé (1838)
• Madame Putiphar (Novel, 1839)
• Le Trésor de la Caverne d'Arcueil (Novella, 1927)

References

1. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Borel, Petrus" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
2. M15459: Petrus Borel Prints, Harvard Art Museums, retrieved 29 May 2024
3. Starkie, Enid (1954). Petrus Borel, the Lycanthrope: His Life and Times. Internet Archive. London, Faber and Faber.
4. Ecstatic and Intoxicate: A French Poet Who Influenced Baudelaire and Breton, The Times Literary Supplement, 20 September 2022, retrieved 29 May 2024
5. Champavert: Seven Bitter Tales, Translated from French by Tom Moran, Internet Archive, 21 April 2021, retrieved 29 May 2024

External links

• Works by or about Petrus Borel at the Internet Archive
• Works by Petrus Borel at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Text of selected Borel poems (in French)
• Text of Andreas Vesalius the Anatomist