Xavier Forneret
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Xavier Forneret (1809-1884) was a French dramaturge, poet and journalist. In the 1830s, he was a member of the Bouzingo, a group of poets which advocated a radical bohemian romanticism in life and art; contemporaries and kindred spirits included Gerard de Nerval and Theophile Gautier. His reputation was partly rehabilitated by Andre Breton, who included some of Forneret's poems and aphorisms in his Anthology of Black Humor.
The Grand Prix de l'Humour Noir Xavier Forneret is named in his memory. Recent winners include Serge Joncour, Franz Bartelt and Tom Sharpe.
A collection of Forneret's work is to be published in 2007 under the title Écrits complets.
[edit] Select bibliography
- Contes et récits
- Deux destinées, 1834
- L'homme noir, 1835
- Vingt-trois. Trente-cinq, 1835
- Rien... quelque chose, 1836
- Sans titre, 1838
- Vapeurs, ni vers ni prose et sans titre, par un homme noir, blanc de visage, 1838
- Encore un an de "sans titre", 1840
- Pièce de pièces, temps perdu, 1840
- Voyage d'agrément de Beaune à Autun, 1850
- Lettre à Victor Hugo, 1851
- Lignes rimées, 1853
- Mère et fille, 1854
- L'infanticide, 1856
- Ombre de poésie, 1860
- Quelques mots sur la peine de mort, 1861
- Broussailles de penséees, 1870
[edit] Reference to Forneret in popular culture
In the 1992 British horror-romance film, Tale of a Vampire, a centuries-old vampire and scholar (Julian Sands) approaches an occult-specialist librarian (Suzanna Hamilton) whom he sees reading an antique volume of Forneret's works. He tells her that his favorite poem by Forneret is "Le pauvre honteux"—about a starving man who eats his own hand.
