Roussel, Raymond

(1877-1935)

   writer

   Born in Paris to a wealthy bourgeois family, Raymond Roussel studied at the Paris Conservatory until, at age 17, he felt himself called to be a poet. He began a large work in Alexandrian verse, Les Doublure (published 1897), a detailed description of the Carnival in Nice. The writing put him in an ecstatic state, but it was not the success he had hoped it would be. He continued, nonetheless, to write, composing poems (La Vue, 1903; Le Concert, 1904; La Source, 1904) before beginning his important prose work, Impressions d'Afrique (published 1910), an imaginary description of Africa filled with strange devices. A play that he developed from it caused a scandal. This was followed by Locus Solus (1914), written in a similar way, the two plays L'Étoile au front (1924) and La Poussière de soleils (1927), as he continued to work on a large poem also in Alexandrian verse, Nouvelles Impressions d'Afrique (published 1932), in which the text is interspersed with a play in parentheses. From 1920 to 1921, Roussel traveled widely, but he said that this period failed to inspire him and he ceased writing in 1932. He died mysteriously in a palace in Palermo, italy, poisoned by barbiturates. in 1989, a great amount (10,000 pages) of his manuscripts were discovered. Considered one of the most extraordinary writers of the 20th century, Roussel, for his bizarre works and eccentric lifestyle, drew a critical response from many of his illustrious contemporaries, and he has been claimed as a precursor by authors associated with the surrealists (andré breton), the OuLiPo, and semioticians and poststructuralists. marcel proust, jean cocteau, and michel foucault all recognized his genius and influence.