AR and the Symbolist movement


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Posted by Jeremy Kriewaldt on October 25, 2005 at 00:43:11 from 202.138.212.58 user JeremyKriewaldt.

My recent AR reading has been the literary criticism that AR wrote in the period between Bohemia in London and his departure for Russia. The most important parts of this seemed to me to be A History of Storytelling, the literary biographies of Poe and Wilde and the preface to the translation of A Night in the Luxembourg.

An interesting theme running through this, particularly bearing in mind the curious passage in History of Storytelling concerning a meeting between AR and Remy de Gourmont is that it appears that AR was somewhat influenced by de Gourmont. However, this doesn't appear to be dealt with in Glenn Burne's book, Remy de Gourmont: his ideas and their influence in England and America (which seems to be more concerned with his influence on TS Eliot and Ezra Pound). Nor is there anything significant mentioned in either the Autobiography or the Life (Brogan). I have also looked in Signaling from Mars and can't find any relevant letters.

One of the interesting issues that this raises is the use of symbolism in AR's stories. Remembering that de Gourmont was a leading light, and a philosophical supporter, of the Symbolist movement in France, as well as a leading criticand the open admiration of him that AR expresses in his critical works,, it is curious that we have few examples of openly influence in AR's work .


I was wondering:
1. has anyone seen any writing that indicates any further interest by AR in Symbolist ideas?
2. are there any letters or other correspondence between AR and de Gourmont (or others mentioning de Gourmont or the Symbolist movement)?
3. are there any clues for whether this is something that is worth pursuing.

The AR that wrote the critical works in the late Edwardian period was clearly someone who had quite some appreciable talents as a critic and user of ideas (if not an inventor of ideas himself). Where did this go to? Perhaps it got lost in the Wilde trial, or in Russia or in the Russian Revolution. Perhaps this is another part of a life that AR lived and was one which, being associated with that period, he did not wish to resurrect.


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