INFORMATION ON THE BOOK OF MASKS
From The Publisher: The selection is based on a series of essays on contemporary writers published as The Book of Masks by the foremost critic and author of the period: Remy de Gourmont. (The "masks" are remarkable portrait drawings by Felix Vallotton.) De Gourmont's essays brilliantly evoke the pre-occupations of each author, their genius and shortcomings, while simultaneously describing, and contributing to, the literary theories of the movement. His introduction provides one of the most important overviews of Symbolism and describes its gradual subsidence into its "dark side": decadence. De Gourmont's book consisted solely of essays, but the editor of this anthology has added characteristic texts from each writer to accompany them. Nearly fifty are included, ranging from the extraordinary obscure and unjustly forgotten to the literary giants of the day. Here are works by Gide, Mallarme and Verlaine which have never before appeared in English.
From The Reader's Catalog(Barnes & Nobel): An important collection of fin-de-sicle writing including hard-to-find works by such figures as Leon Bloy, Rachilde, Gustave Kahn, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Marcel Schwob, and the American expatriate Stuart Merrill. With illustrations by Felix Vallotton
C O N T E N T S
Editor's Preface . . . 7
Remy de Gourmont 
Texts from The Book of Masks, Colours, Proses Moroses and
La Latin Mystique . . . 11
Paul Adam
From Tea at Miranda's, Second Evening: The Hague, pearl~grey
... and At The Railway-Station . . . 23
Jean Moreas
From Tea at Miranda's, Second Evening: La Faenza . . . 29
Léon Bloy
Salamander The Vampire . . . 37
André
Gide The Tractate
Narcissus, (Theory of the Symbol) . . . 43
Paul Claudel
Five texts from The East I Know . . . 5I
Francis Jammes
Of Things . . . 57
Laurent Tailhade
Aristophanesque Poems . . . 61
Pierre Quillard
Conversation Concerning the Lfe and Death of Ravachol . . . 67
Rachilde
Frog-Killer . . . 73
Alfred Vallette
In Perpetuum . . . 83
Félix Fénéon
The Bird-Charmer, and selected 3 Line Novels . . . 89
Camille Mauclair
Thus the Blood of the Spirit Cried Out . . . 93
Georges Eekhoud
Chardonnerette . . . 99
Maurice Maeterlinck
Poems from Hot-Houses . . . 107
Tristan Corbière
Paris by Night, and Paris by Day . . . 113
Jules Laforgue
The Aquarium . . . 117
Arthur Rimbaud
Vowels, and Farewell . . . 121
Adoiphe Retté
From Thule of the Mists: Nightfumes . . . 125
Robert de Montesquiou
Poems from Blue Hydrangeas, and Goldsmith & Glass-maker
. . . 133
Ephraïm Mikhaël
Miracles, and Armentaria . . . 139
Stuart Merrill
Miracles: Ecstasy, Apocalypse . . . 145
Joris-Kari Huysmans
Saint Lydwine of Schiedam, and Chiorotic Ballad . . . 149
Pierre Louÿs
A New Sensation and extracts from The Young Girl's Handbook
of Good Manners . . . 157
Albert Samain
From Hyalis the Blue-Eyed Faun . . . 167
Jehan Rictus
From Fil-de-Fer . . . 173
Hugues Rebell
Dizzy Spells: Surprises, Night . . . 177
Jean Lorrain
The Gloved Hand . . . 183
The Comte de Lautréamont
From Les Chants deMaldoror . . . 189
Édouard
Dujardin The Iron
Maiden . . . 195
Gustave Kahn
Prose Interludes from Nomadic Palaces . . . 199
Paul Verlaine
The Signpost . . . 205
G-Albert Aurier
Nocturne . . . 214
Stéphane
Mallarmé
With Upraised Nails... and The Supposed Old Woman . .
. 215
Henri de Régnier
The Stoy of Hermagoras . . . 223
Jules Renard
From Natural Histories . . . 229
Maurice Barrès
Hate Conquers All . . . 233
Saint-Pol-Roux
Prose poems from Pauses in the Procession . . . 239
Francis Poictevin
Jacques: Dreams, Reveries and Parisian Sketches ... 249
Paul Fort
The Queen of Queens & her Lover the Great Blue Lake . . .
257
Ernest Hello
The Ntght~time Washerwoman . . . 261
Émile Verhaeren
The Horse-Fair at Opdorp, and Rain . . . 269
Villiers de L'Isle-Adam
Swan -Killer . . . 277
Marcel Schwob
Four stories from The Book of Monelle, and one from The King
in The Golden Mask . . . 279
Omitted authors . . . 293
Notes . . . 295
Bibliography . . . 299
Future issues of The Ark~ive & other Atlas publications . . . 301
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