“Amsterdam, it is always water and houses painted black and white, all windows, with sculpted gables and lace curtains; the black, the white splinter in the water. And so it is always water, dead water, iridescent water and gray water, alleys of water that do not end, canals guarded by dwellings like enormous dominos…”
The beginning of Jean Lorrain’s novel Monsieur de Bougrelon, which is excerpted in the latest Saturday European Fiction. Lorrain was a decadent novelist who once fought a duel with Marcel Proust (they both survived). He died at 50 due to drug abuse and the effects of syphillis.
The novel is being published by Spurl Editions in an English translation by Eva Richter on Nov 1, 2016.
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Photo – The cover of Lorrain’s novel Le Vice Errant
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