Louys, Pierre

(1870-1925)

   writer

   Born in Gand, Pierre Louis, or Pierre Louys, as he is known, joined the Parnassian writers, who had rebelled against romanticism, rejecting effusive sentiments and the bourgeois values of an increasingly industrialized society. (The name "Parnassian" suggests the objective calm of the olympian gods, in contrast to the subjective storminess of the romantics. Louys married the daughter of the Parnassian poet josé maria heredia). Louys published his first poems in La Conque, a review that he founded (1891) and, inspired by the eroticism of ancient Greek literature, wrote Chansons de Bilitis (1894), prose poems that in turn inspired claude debussy to write three musical compositions. Louys's Aphrodite (1896) was adapted for the stage (1906) and had a notable success, and the author continued his work with La Femme et le Pantin (1898) and Les Aventures de roi Pausole (1901). Louys's other writings include a long poem, Pervigilium mortis (1916), and a novel, Psyché (posthumous, 1927).