L'école belge de l'étrange

[Hieronimo]

In case anyone might be interested, fresh translations of Marcel Béalu posted here: Marcel Béalu: from Memoirs of the Dark | diseased gardens.com

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I tried to find Yellowish Haze's cover gallery but the link seems dead, but I found this one.
https://www.facebook.com/MaraboutFan.../photos_stream

[yellowish haze]

Thanks, Robert. I haven't realized such a page was there on FB. The covers should still be visible in my album: THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK

Let me know if you can see it.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Yes, I can see it now.

[david]

I just put up a new Franz Hellens translation at WFR. The story is "The Double" which Edward Gauvin mentions in his post about Hellens' work.

The Double | Weird Fiction Review

And here's Gauvin's essay on Hellens and his work:

The Many Doubles of Franz Hellens | Weird Fiction Review

[xylokopos]

I just finished reading de Ghelderode's L'écrivain public, the first story in Sortilèges, and I am stunned by the relentless Ligottian character of the piece. I don't just mean this in connection to the Borgesian notion that writers create their precursors, I mean the similarities in tone, theme and even language are uncanny. I suppose that Ligotti channels de Ghelderode the same way he channels Schulz or HPL occasionally, but a story built around an unreliable narrator living at the edge of town and his relationship with a wax effigy demands to be called Ligottian, even if it predates Ligotti's birth. At some point, the narrator says he felt évidée dans l'obscurité sidérale, which could be translated as "hollowed out in starry blackness" and if that is not something TL could, or indeed, has written, I am the chief of staff for the Mongol army.

Anyway, I can't wait to read the rest of the stories. My copy is the Gallimard edition, very cheap, very spartan. I bought it in the only French bookstore of this city, where I also found a copy of Cendrars' La Main coupée, which I didn't purchase, even though it was dirt cheap - Folio edition - because I am an idiot. De Ghelderode has an eye for obscure detail in psychological variation, a bit like de Maupassant: he transmits subtle change in emotion or perception with rare insight and elegance.

As always, I am astonished at how I have managed not to read writers, who seem to have written with me in mind as their ideal reader. My gratitude to the thread starter and everyone else participating in this thread. If my acquaintance with de Ghelderode is any indication, many pleasures await me in the Belgian School of the Strange.

[yellowish haze]

I just noticed Edward Gauvin was recently interviewed in reference to Anne Richter's story "The Great Pity of the Zintram Family", which he translated into English.

"Temporal Dislocation in a Changing World": An Interview with Edward Gauvin

The Great Pity of the Zintram Family

Edit: And his translation of Paul Willem's "The Cathedral of Mist" is due to be published this year in May by Wakefield Press.

[xylokopos]

I just found out that Wakefield Press will publish the first comprehensive English translation of de Ghelderode's Sortilèges in October. This is a collection of stories I am still reading, as slowly as I possibly can, because it is a treasure chest of decadent and macabre delights. [Also because I don't have any bloody time anymore and I am a slower reader in French]

Ideally, you should just preorder it after you finish reading this post. Pure magnificence.

[Gnosticangel]

RE. I just found out that Wakefield Press will publish the first comprehensive English translation of de Ghelderode's Sortilèges in October. This is a collection of stories I am still reading, as slowly as I possibly can, because it is a treasure chest of decadent and macabre delights. [Also because I don't have any bloody time anymore and I am a slower reader in French]

Thanks Xylokopos for this reminder. The new de Ghelderode translation had been on my calendar but I hadn't realized that I could preorder it. I will fix that omission now!

Wakefield Press presents some amazing work through rare english translations, (though I sometimes wish that they would publish physically larger editions). I am currently enjoying their recent publication of "The Cathedral of Mist," by Paul Willems, which is wonderful.

Willems_Mist

[Malone]

Thanks, Xylokopos, for the de Ghelderorode alert.

Over the last few years I've visited Bruges and Ghent. There is something incredibly haunting about those towns: the Gothic Catholic architecture combined with the winding, twisty streets that are often empty, and the melancholy mood is captivating. No wonder Huysmans et al were so enchanted by it.