French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Cervoni, Pétrus Borel
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs
Review published in Acta Fabula (November 2021, vol. 22, no. 9): "“One of the stars of the dark romantic sky”: the critical fortune (& misfortune) of Pétrus Borel" by Elisa Puntarello.
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Aurélia Cervoni, Pétrus Borel
Paris: Sorbonne Université Presses, 2020
590 p.
24.90 EUR
EAN: 9791023105575.
DESCRIPTION
Pétrus Borel (1809–1859), nicknamed “the Lycanthrope,” is a rare author who has long suffered at the hands of posterity. Théophile Gautier describes him as “the most perfect specimen of the romantic ideal”: he “would walk about, followed by his troupe, admired by all, proud of his genius and beauty, the corner of his cloak thrown over his shoulder, dragging behind him a shadow upon which no one should dare step.”
This volume traces the critical reception and legacy of this overlooked Romantic figure, who nonetheless ranks among the precursors of literary modernity: Baudelaire paid tribute to him, Verlaine admired him, and the Surrealists claimed him as an influence.
The corpus edited here comprises roughly one hundred texts about “the Lycanthrope,” published between 1831 and 1915, half of which were previously unrecorded. It paints the portrait of a non-conformist poet driven by a passion for art and freedom, who proclaimed his commitment to the republic in a provocative manner: “I am a republican because I cannot be a Carib.” It also demonstrates how Pétrus Borel became, even during his lifetime, a caricature of the impassioned Romantic.
Finally, it invites readers to rediscover a writer characterized by a nervous, incisive, elegant, and witty style.
Aurélia Cervoni examines the reception and enduring legacy of Pétrus Borel within the landscape of French Romanticism and literary history. As a central figure of the 1830 generation who later fell into relative obscurity, Borel's trajectory offers crucial insights into how authors are canonized, marginalized, or rediscovered by subsequent generations. This volume provides scholars of nineteenth-century literature with a carefully curated corpus of historical texts spanning from the July Monarchy to the early twentieth century, tracing how critics, admirers, and detractors constructed the myth of the provocative non-conformist poet.
This comprehensive resource will prove particularly useful for researchers, students, and enthusiasts of French poetry, literary reception studies, and the genealogy of literary modernity. By gathering both well-known testimonies and previously unrecorded documents, the book sheds light on the complex relationship between romantic posturing, political commitment, and critical posterity. It serves as an essential companion for anyone seeking to understand the shifting boundaries of taste and the mechanisms through which eccentric precursors like Borel eventually found their place in the avant-garde lineage claimed by Baudelaire and the Surrealists.