Books – Page 14 – derrickjknight

Droll Tales 28

The Folio Society’s “The Unwise Chatter of Three Pilgrims” seems the title that best matches this story of Balzac’s. The Bibliophilist Society gives “Odd Sayings…..”

The sayings’ oddness stems from the fact that on their way to Rome to pay in kind for their sinful lives they “let their tongues wag freely” in the hearing of a serving girl in the inn where they stopped for rest and refreshment, thus each revealing their hidden treasures about their person with which they hoped to redeem their mortal misbehaviours. In revealing the inevitable outcome the author employs a wealth of double entendres exemplified by his last sentence: “This goes to show that in public inns we should keep our tongues between our cheeks.”

Here is the illustration of Mervyn Peake for Folio;

and those of Gustave Doré, who must have been running out of inspiration, for Bibliophilist.

Further details of the publications are given in https://derrickjknight.com/2023/01/06/droll-tales-1/except that there are no pictures here by Jean de Bosschère as I do not have any of the third Decade by him.

Droll Tales 27

The Folio Society entitle story number 27 in this series “About a Beggar known as Old Parchemins”. The Bibliophilist Society adds a hyphen to their version, in Par-Chemins thus clarifying the origin of the nickname which could be translated as “about the roads”, because that is where this homeless vagrant was always to be found.

I find this a story of two halves, in that, after squandering an inherited fortune this man wandered the roads studying “philosophy in a bird school” where we are treated to the author’s straightforward delightful descriptions of the lanes and their avian residents. We are then shocked, as was his sleeping victim by this aged gent’s sudden rape of a young woman, and the familiar prose of double entendre takes over.

We have learned about Parchemins’s success in gambling with dice; was he to succeed in gambling with his sexual prowess to save him from the gallows?

Here is Mervyn Peake’s illustration for The Folio Society:

and those of Gustave Doré in the other publication.

Droll Tales 26

In this sixth story of the third Decade of Honoré de Balzac’s humorous tales, entitled by The Bibliophilist Society “In which it is demonstrated that Fortune is always Feminine”, the writer seems to have drawn the general from the particular.

False friendship, deception, and trickery are the tools of rivals for Royal pleasure – that of the King and of the Queen. It seems to me that no-one really comes off best anyway, certainly not the fair lady.

The Folio Society did not include any drawings from Mervyn Peake, so, given that I don’t have any from Jean de Bosschère

we have only Gustave Doré’s interpretation, in The Bibliophilist Society’s publication, dated 1874, just 37 years after first publication by Gosselin of Paris, and the first in English. At some point the volume has been skilfully rebound, but the pages are clear and undamaged.

Droll Tales 25

A short tale with the author’s customary salacious double entendres this story describes how the young lady, with the help of the maid, outwits the magistrate attempting to wriggle out of a finding of rape because of the perpetrator’s wealth and standing at Court. The Folio Society entitles the tale “How the Portillon Beauty Scored over the Magistrate”; for The Bibliophilist Society it is “How The Pretty Maid of Portillon convinced her Judge”.

Here is Mervyn Peake’s illustration for the first of these;

and Gustave Doré’s for the second.

Droll Tales 24

“Bertha the Penitent” according to The Bibliophilist Society is the 24th story in Balzac’s set; The Folio Society entitle it “Magdalene Bertha”.

Bertha’s first conception, within marriage to a much older man, was not technically immaculate, but it might as well have been as she had no real idea of how it had happened, and was certainly ignorant of any sexual delights. With less suggestive wordplay than is his wont, the author relates how the very young woman was tricked into learning the joy of sex, and the inevitable consequence. Shocked to learn the truth of her behaviour, she forces herself and her lover into celibacy over the next dozen years. I will not report the eventual outcome.

Here is Mervyn Peake’s drawing for the Folio Society:

and those of Gustave Doré for the Bibliophilists

Droll Tales 23

This third story of the second Decade of Balzac’s tales, entitled by the publishers of the only illustrated version I have “About The Monk Amador, Who Was A Glorious Abbot Of Turpenay”.

We are told of conflicts between church and state arising from that between two rival popes. This was manifested by hatred of the “rough” Lord of Candé for local monasteries. He therefore tormented any priests who encroached upon his land.

Amador, “a pilfered, a loiterer, and a bad soldier of the ecclesiastical militia”, was the only monk who dared to cross his lands. We learn of the strength and trickery with which he outwitted the temporal lord, and saved his Abbey.

The Folio Society edition bears no drawing by Mervyn Peake, and I do not have the third Decade illustrated by Jean de Bosschère.

Gustave Doré more than compensates for this lack in The Bibliophilist Society’s publication, dated 1874, just 37 years after first publication by Gosselin of Paris, and the first in English. At some point the volume has been skilfully rebound, but the pages are clear and undamaged.

Droll Tales 22

Demonstrating that The Folio Society have fully understood the wordplay romp that is the story they have entitled “Of a Justiciary who did not Recall Certain Parts”, they differ from, “Concerning A Provost Who Did Not Recognise Things”, the version of The Bibliophilist Society.

This tale of trickery perpetrated on the victim of cuckoldry is packed with Balzac’s double entendres, puns and other wordplay. The translator has retained “la voir” and “l’avoir” (to see her and to have her) in the original French.

Here is Mervyn Peake’s Folio Society drawing;

and here those of Gustave Doré for the Bibliophilist Society.

Droll Tales 21

For the first story in the third Decade of his series of short works, Honoré de Balzac was to return to the theme of sublimation of love into art in the last of the second Decade, but with a different emphasis. “Desperate Love” had been about a young man who poured his desires into his excellent sculpting because he could not manage with a woman; in “Persistent Love” as entitled by the Folio Society, or the Bibliophilist Society’s “Despair in Love”, the goldsmith absorbed himself with world class intricate jewellery giving him no thought for sexual involvement until his own fourth decade.

He fell for a young woman who, as a serf, was owned by the Abbey, as would become any husband she chose. The two lovers remained steadfastly secular, especially as the Abbot tested them to limit, refusing to make any exception to the rules. A promise was made between him and the jeweller.

Did either keep his side of the bargain? As is my wont I won’t give any more details save to say that “great love triumphs over everything”.

Here is Mervyn Peak’s illustration for The Folio Society;

and Gustave Doré’s set for The Bibliophilist Society.

Further details of the publications are given in https://derrickjknight.com/2023/01/06/droll-tales-1/ except that there are no pictures here by Jean de Bosschère as I do not have any of the third Decade by him.

Droll Tales 20

“Desperate Love”, “Despair in Love”, and “Love’s Despair” are the varied title translations of the last story in the second Decade of Honoré de Balzac’s largely scurrilous selection, illustrated respectively by

Mervyn Peake, with his mastery of the simple line;

by Gustave Doré with his packed detail;

and by Jean de Bosschère who produces his own particular interpretation.

This is a short story telling of a handsome and melancholy young man enamoured of a great lady, yet becoming tongue-tied and limp-limbed when attempting to translate the fiercely erotic energy imbued into his skilful sculpting to the wooing of the tantalising temptress.

Further details of each of these publications is given in https://derrickjknight.com/2023/01/06/droll-tales-1/except that the second Decade is published by New York’s Covici, Friede in 1929. It is America’s first edition thus and is a limited copy. The illustrations are not protected by tissue but the book’s condition is quite good and covered by a cellophane wrapper.

Droll Tales 19

The story entitled by The Folio Society as “The Succuba”, and by the other two publishers under consideration as the more normal “The Succubus” Is the longest story in Balzac’s collection.

The tale explores the nature of this female demon believed to have had sexual intercourse with sleeping men – in this case the “sleeping with” is not today’s euphemism for not actually sleeping. The case against, in what is essentially a 13th century witch hunt and trial, following the determination of the equivalent of our Crown Prosecution Service that there is a case to answer. Evidence is amassed, and a conclusion reached after a veritable Inquisition. I will not detail this for fear of spoiling the story, but must warn that anyone reading too much of the text accompanying Doré’s illustrations may get the idea.

Although there is plenty of the author’s entertaining wordplay to keep us engaged, some repetitions, for example the lists of participants ( the reason I never finished Malory’s “Morte d’Arthur”) does bore a bit.

Here are the illustrations of Mervyn Peake in the Folio Society edition;

those of Gustave Doré published by The Bibliophilist Society;

and Jean de Bosschère from Covici Friede.