Bøker av Leon Bloy

Blood of the Poor (originally Le Sang du pauvre), by Catholic writer Léon Bloy, is perhaps the hardest to read of Léon Bloy¿s writings, as it goes straight to the heart of the matter of what is wrong in the world. It is hard to read, emotively, because it gives the honest reader no room for cover, no space for shelter, no shadow of a tree to hide under. With avarice as its subject, it is a dark poem in prose, a sermon in the style of Savonarola, with the biting satire of a Jonathan Swift."The Blood and the Flesh of the Poor are the only aliments that can nourish, the substance of the rich being a poison and a putrefaction. It is therefore a necessity of hygiene that the poor be devoured by the rich who find that very good, and who ask for it again. Rich children are fortified by the juice of the poors¿ flesh, and the rich man¿s cuisine is endowed with concentrate of the poor.""You believe yourselves to be innocent because you have not slit somebody¿s throat, as yet, I want to believe; because you have not forced open somebody¿s door nor scaled his wall in order to despoil him of his possessions; because finally you have not transgressed human laws too visibly. You are so gross, so carnal, for you do not conceive of a crime that cannot be seen. But I say to you, my very dear brother, that you are a plant, and that that assassin is your flower.""It is true that there are refuges: drunkenness, prostitution of the body, suicide, or madness. Why would the dance not continue?"

Constantinople and Byzantium by Léon Bloy (1846-1917) was originally published in book form in 1917, itself a "definitive re-printing of The Byzantine Epic and Gustave Schlumberger, published in 1906 by the Nouvelle Revue." This book is a summary and interpretation then, à la Bloy, of Schlumberger¿s "trilogy" with its focus on the Macedonian dynasty of Byzantium from the middle of the tenth century to the middle of the eleventh. It covers the rise and fall of such warrior emperors as Nicephorus Phocas, John Tzimiskes, and Basil II, the "Bulgar Slayer," under whom the Eastern Roman Empire experienced a kind of Renaissance, after a long series of wars with Bulgars, Rus (Russians), Saracens, and later Normans, to name only a few peoples, in the years and decades immediately preceding the Crusades. The last chapter treats of the two Porphyrogenita ("born in the purple") empresses, Zoe and Theodora, "last branches of the Macedonian oak.""It is proven that God has no need of anyone¿s ¿day after,¿ and that his eternal today satisfies him. Pettiness is no less asked for than Greatness in the laboratory of prodigies. Disparate or desperate successions operate inexpressibly in a mysterious and adored way, in view of compensations or ineffable recuperations. So it is very simple that a series of mediocre or abject emperors should succeed a personage like the great Basil in order to destroy his work. Thirty years after his death, in 1055, his empire was ruined forever."

She Who Weeps (Our Lady of La Salette) by Léon Bloy (Celle qui pleure, in French) was originally published in 1908. This is an English translation of a work that is arguably a keystone of religious thought in Bloy¿s canon, given the author¿s strong belief in, and promotion of, not only Mariology but also Millenarianism, both which beliefs permeate his work. Originally begun in 1879, before his articles written as a scatalogical demolitionary pamphleteer for the Chat Noir journal, before his ground-breaking first novel, The Desperate Man, which was, by the author¿s own admission, the beginning of the "conspiration of silence" against him - She Who Weeps was surprisingly abandoned at first. It was only later when Pierre Termier, a lay "ambassador of Mary," and close friend of the author in his later years, approached Bloy about the work, that the latter, encouraged, and with rekindled interest, picked it up again and brought it to completion.It discusses the story of Mélanie Calvat, and also Maximin Giraud, two children-shepherds in the French Alps, witnesses to the Apparition of the Very Holy Virgin Mary on September 19, 1846, - twelve years before the more famous Marian Apparition at Lourdes - and the consequences that the event had on the lives of the two children - particularly Mélanie, who devoted her life to promoting the message."Pass it on to all my My People, the Mother of God had said to the Shepherds, having announced to them the Great News..."

"Exégèse des lieux communs" est une ¿uvre complexe et provocatrice qui reflète la pensée et le style littéraire distinctifs de Léon Bloy. Léon Bloy était un écrivain catholique fervent, et sa foi catholique imprègne de nombreux aspects de son travail. Dans cet ouvrage, il examine un large éventail de sujets, en mettant l'accent sur la moralité, la foi, et la critique de la société de son temps.Le terme "lieux communs" dans le titre se réfère aux idées reçues, aux clichés, et aux conventions sociales qui prévalent dans la société. Bloy les remet en question, les critique, et les déconstruit de manière souvent provocante. Il utilise un style d'écriture intense et passionné pour exprimer ses opinions et ses convictions.Léon Bloy était un écrivain engagé socialement, et il abordait des questions de justice sociale, de pauvreté, et d'injustice dans ses écrits. Il était également connu pour sa critique féroce de la bourgeoisie et de l'indifférence envers les souffrances des plus démunis."Exégèse des lieux communs" est un ouvrage qui demande aux lecteurs de réfléchir profondément sur les valeurs morales, la foi, et la condition humaine. Il est souvent considéré comme l'un des ouvrages les plus importants de la littérature catholique et de la littérature française du début du XXe siècle.Léon Bloy, en tant qu'écrivain, a marqué la littérature française par sa voix distinctive et sa vision du monde profondément enracinée dans sa foi catholique. Son style éloquent et son engagement en font un auteur incontournable pour ceux qui s'intéressent à la littérature religieuse et à la critique sociale.

The Desperate Man (first published in 1887) is arguably the French decadent novel par excellence of the 19th century. It is also Léon Bloy¿s first novel and a seminal work which, as such, planted the seeds of just about every other important theme or topic that the author would later develop in subsequent works throughout his life and career. Life is rain water for talented writers; and habitual poverty for Bloy acted as the mulch.There is in The Desperate Man the seed of satire, which was actually a small tree by the time The Desperate Man came out, the seed having been sprouted earlier in his career, in the articles for newspapers, predominantly the Chat Noir journal, - such satire as to rival Jonathan Swift¿s; there is also the seed of apocalyptic Catholicism in The Desperate Man, and the nuts of the exegeses of commonplaces, not to mention the germs of the blood of the poor; there is the kernel of the constant attack on contemporaneous clergy and Bloy¿s self-professed fondness for cenobitism. There is the spore of the eulogy for sainthood, and the embryo of the denunciation of the proxenetism of the press, Parisian high-society and the bourgeoisie. There are the negative grains of anti-Republicanism, and anti-German sentiment. There are the positive grains of pro-conservativism, pro-Medievalism, pro-Monarchy, and pro-Merovingian French Dynasty.

Meditations of a Solitary in 1916 was written by Léon Bloy in 1916 in France, during World War I, and published in 1917, the same year that the author passed away. The themes are mostly theological, with sustained meditations on both the Christian soul and the lack of soul of Wilhelm II, emperor of Germany. Indeed, although biographical in nature, one might consider this less a follow up to On the Threshold of the Apocalypse in the Ungrateful Beggar series and more a companion piece to The Soul of Napoleon, but in a Bizarro sort of way, with a candidate alternative title of The Bizarro Soul of Wilhelm II, or Wilhelm II¿s Lack of Soul, - such was the rage, frustration, contempt, sadness, heart-rending compassion of the author at the time of writing."How to accuse Wilhelm alone? That fellow at best is nothing more than an imbecile, as frightening an imbecile as you like, but an imbecile all the same...""¿So,¿ someone asks me, ¿what remains?¿ Absolutely nothing but the Eucharist in the Catacombs and waiting for the unknown Liberator whom the Paraclete must dispatch, when the blood of countless torture victims and the tears of some elect will have sufficiently purified the earth... God is preparing to start over again... the fulfillment of that apocalyptic prophecy is near."

Four Years of Captivity in Cochons-sur-Marne: 1900-1904 by Léon Bloy (originally Quatre ans de Captivité à Cochons-sur-Marne) is the third diary in the Ungrateful Beggar series.The autobiography, edited for publication, covers four years in the artist¿s life after he and his family moved back to France from Denmark, to Lagny on the Marne, about 40 kilometers outside Paris. It runs the gamut from gut-wrenching grief and sorrow, as the family lives on the edge of utter poverty while constantly being harassed by creditors and landladies; to full outrage against the pettiness, avarice, and hypocrisy of the bourgeois and wealthy; to uplifting praise for God for all that is adorable in life in spite of the suffering; to out-and-out satire and comicalness that will make the reader laugh before he can dry the tears."Terrible day! The lack of wine and fortifying alimentation, the threat of a lack of coal, the human certitude of being unable to feed our children tomorrow, the impossibility of continuing to live here and the impossibility of escaping, the apparent abandonment of everyone and the evident hostility of so many people; finally, and above all, that infinitely dolorous expectation of a liberator who never comes; all that together puts us two steps away from despair. While we stiffen our wills, our house is shaken by a tempest and the sky is sad like death without God. For whom then do we suffer thus?"

" Mon cher André, ce n¿est pas moi qui te donne ce livre, le plus impor- tant, peut-être, de tous ceux que j¿ai pu écrire jusqüà ce jour.C¿est mon fils André qui te le donne, mon douloureux fils André que Dieu m¿a repris dans son innocence baptismale et qui a dix-huit ans, au- jourd¿hui, dans le Paradis.Il en eût été le dédicataire et il convient que tu prennes sa place, en cette manière. Je veux croire que telle est sa volonté.Il eût aimé Napoléon comme tu l¿aimes, et votre commun Patron, le grand Apôtre de la Croix, te fera comprendre, si tu l¿interroges avec amour, ce qüil y avait de désirable et de magnifique dans la souffrance du plus glorieux de tous les mortels. Nous sommes au soir du monde, mon cher enfant ; tu seras témoin, peut-être, des divines et terribles choses que le vainqueur des rois semble avoir si grandiosement préfigurées.Puisse l'Ame de Napoléon agrandir ton c¿ur et te servir de réconfort pour les épreuves inconnues.LÉON BLOY. 5 mai 1912."

Le Désespéré, a été considérée comme importante tout au long de l'histoire de l'humanité. Dans un effort pour s'assurer que ce travail ne soit jamais perdu, nous avons pris des mesures pour assurer sa préservation en republiant ce livre dans un format moderne pour les générations actuelles et futures. Ce livre complet a été retapé, remanié et reformaté. Comme ces livres ne sont pas des scans des publications originales des auteurs, le texte est lisible et clair.

Celle qui pleure (Notre Dame de la Salette), a été considérée comme importante tout au long de l'histoire de l'humanité. Dans un effort pour s'assurer que ce travail ne soit jamais perdu, nous avons pris des mesures pour assurer sa préservation en republiant ce livre dans un format moderne pour les générations actuelles et futures. Ce livre complet a été retapé, remanié et reformaté. Comme ces livres ne sont pas des scans des publications originales des auteurs, le texte est lisible et clair.

Le Salut par les Juifs; Édition nouvelle revue et modifiée par l'auteur, a été considérée comme importante tout au long de l'histoire de l'humanité. Dans un effort pour s'assurer que ce travail ne soit jamais perdu, nous avons pris des mesures pour assurer sa préservation en republiant ce livre dans un format moderne pour les générations actuelles et futures. Ce livre complet a été retapé, remanié et reformaté. Comme ces livres ne sont pas des scans des publications originales des auteurs, le texte est lisible et clair.