Lautréamont, count de

(1846-1870) (Isidore Ducasse)

   writer

   Isidore Ducasse, who is known by his nom de plume, comte de Lautréamont, was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. Almost nothing else of his early life is known, except that he was the son of a diplomat, studied at the lycée in Tarbes, and prepared to enter the École polytechnique in Paris. In 1868, there appeared anonymously Chants de Maldoror, followed by five more versions, signed by the count of Lautréamont, which went rather unappreciated. After having published under the paradoxical title Poésies two fragments of prose (1870), Isidore Ducasse died under mysterious circumstances at age 24. Critics such as andré breton, however, greatly praised his work, calling it "the revenge of the irrational," and Lautréamont is seen as a precursor of the French literary revolution of the 20th century.