1552
The novel was pure "tell-it-all", and not a qualm in the act of publishing it. Entirely auto-biographical, it recounts the adulterous affair that ended her marriage to Philippe Fournel de Crenne, its title - “Les
Angoysses douloureuses qui procédent d’amours” (“The Terrible Torments Inflicted by Love”) - preparing you in advance like a TV anchor at the 9pm watershed; and the name of the author, no, not her birthname, nor entirely her married name, but her pseudonym - Hélisenne de Crenne - so she clearly wasn't
seeking anonymity when she chose it!
It came out in multiple
editions between 1538 and 1560 (the latter posthumously published).
Bio here and here; her anguishes here.
She also published "Les Epistres familieres et invectives de ma dame Hélisenne" ("The Personal and Invective Letters of Madame Hélisenne"), an epistolary novel, in 1539; "Le Songe de ma dame Hélisenne" ("The Dream of Madame Hélisenne"), a rather more allegorical novel, in 1540; and a thoroughly feminist translation of "Les quatre premiers livres des Eneydes" ("The First Four Books of the Aeneid") in 1541, a prose translation which added multiple lines of her own as commentary, enabling her to present Dido somewhat more empathetically than in the original, and to make much of women’s loyalty in love - an interesting theme in the light of her first book! The illustration below shows her presenting her "Eneydes" to the king, Francis I.
And why August 25 for her listing on the blog? We have only one historical
record of her which gives a precise day as well as month and year, and that is
the dictating of her will on this date in 1552.
Full text at Gutenberg Press here
Amber pages
Czar Ivan IV, "Ivan the Terrible", of Russia, born today in 1530. What do you have to do to acquire such a sobriquet? I suspect that I may end up moving this to another date, since clearly merely being born doesn't provide an explanation.
Leonard Bernstein, composer and conductor, born today in 1918; at times he could be Leonard the Terrible - the pop-tunes of "On The Town" and "West Side Story", the schmaltzy sentimentality of "Kaddish" and "Jeremiah". But the"Chichester Psalms". But his conducting of Mahler (when he doesn't go too fast). Writers and artists never die, they are simply re-evaluated by posterity.
And then, more death-dates, of which the first is of little interest, though if he was what the almanac says, then definitely GER.
George Lincoln Rockwell, Nazi leader, assassinated, today in 1967
Frans Hals died, as everyone must, eventually, though whether it was today, or tomorrow, the 26th, or three days later than that, depends entirely on which encyclopedia you take your facts from. And anyway, it's the life that matters, the tracks in the sand that you left behind, and if I am putting up the stop sign on his, it is partly because of the year, 1666, which was regarded as the Devil's number, and so no surprise that London was hit by plagues of rats the year before, and plagues of fire that year, and plagues of continuing superstition in every year since; and partly because...
...today, in 1900, the still existent deity noted in his diary that
In
the year 1897
the
year in which her mother died
Elisabeth
Nietzsche returned home from Paraguay
where
she had been working
with
her husband Bernhard Förster
to
establish an Aryan
anti-Semitic
German colony
known
as Nueva Germania
Just
outside the town of Röcken bei Lützen
in
that farming district southwest of Leipzig
where
she and her brother had been born
Elisabeth
rented a large house on a hill
known
as the Villa Silberblick
and
moved her brother
with
his collected manuscripts
and
his diagnosis of incurable dementia
to
the residence
This
became the new home
of
the Nietzsche Archives
previously
located
at
the family home in Naumburg
and
here Elisabeth received visitors
who
wanted to gawk at
or
pay homage to
the
now-incapacitated philosopher
On
August 25, 1900
shortly
before his 56th birthday
Friedrich
Nietzsche succumbed
to
pneumonia apparently
in
combination with a stroke
His
body was transported to the family gravesite
directly
beside the church in Röcken bei Lützen
where
his mother and sister now also rest
A
plaque on the grave
inscribed
with his name and dates
makes
unequivocally clear
for
all the world to see and understand
that
the philosopher Nietzsche
spokesperson
for Zarathustra
is
dead
Allied forces liberated Paris, today in 1944. The illustration is from my dad's personal photograph album, taken about five weeks later, on the steps of the fountain in the back garden at Versailles
Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Saturn, today in 1981.
Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Saturn, today in 1981.
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can find David Prashker at:
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© 2018 David Prashker
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