Raymond Radiguet 1903-1923
biography
Raymond Radiguet was born in Saint-Maur, a suburb of Paris, in 1903. An avid reader, he started writing poetry in his mid teens, and soon abandoned his studies to devote his time to journalism and to the Parisian literary circles. There he met Max Jacob, Juan Gris, Picasso, Stravinsky, Brancusi, and, above all, Jean Cocteau, with whom he maintained a turbulent relationship. In 1921 he finished The Devil in the Flesh and published a collection of poems. He completed a first version of Count d'Orgel's Ball in the fall of 1922 and revised it in the summer of 1923, just a few months after the publication of The Devil in the Flesh and before his death, at twenty, on December 12, 1923.
Raymond Radiguet was a prodigy. Raymond Radiguet wrote with the talent of someone three times his age. But he himself did not agree with this.
Radiguet once wrote of himself: "These premature prodigies of intelligence who become prodigies of stupidity after just a few years! Which family does not have its own prodigy? They have invented the word. Of course, child prodigies exist, just as there are extraordinary men. But they are rarely the same. Age means nothing. What astounds me is Rimbaud's work, not the age at which he wrote it. All great poets have written by seventeen. The greatest are the ones who manage to make us forget it.
When posed the question "Why do you write?" in a recent survey, Paul Valery answered "Out of weakness."
On the contrary, I believe that it would be weak not to write. Did Rimbaud stop writing because he doubted himself and wanted to take care of his memory? I do not think so. One can always do better. Timid writers who do not dare show their work until they have done better should not find in this an excuse for their weakness. For, in a subtler way, one can never do better and one can never do worse."
selected works in translation
Count d'Orgel's Ball translated by Annapaola Cancogni (Eridanos Press, 1989)
Denise translated by Annapaola Cancogni (Eridanos Press, 1989)
The Devil in the Flesh translated by A.M. Sheridan Smith (Marion Boyars, 1989)
writing
excerpt from -the devil in the flesh
The only time I ever saw Jacques was a few months later. He knew that my father had some of Marthe's watercolors and he wanted to see them. We are always anxious to discover more about those we love. I wanted to see the man to whom Marthe had given her hand.
Holding my breath, I tiptoed over to the half open door. I arrived in time to hear him say:
'My wife called out his name just before she died. Poor child! He's all I have to live for.'
Seeing this widower striving to maintain a stoic calm and to master his despair, I realised that in the end order reasserts itself over everything. Had I not just learnt that Marthe had died calling my name, and that my son would have a reasonable life?
For information concerning the film version of The Devil in the Flesh, click here
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