Other Non-Fiction Strindberg, August: Plaidoyer d'un Fou V.1 June 2012

[forcheville]

Written in French in 1887–88, Swedish author August Strindberg's novel Le Plaidoyer d'un fou (Confession of a Fool) was first published in an 1893 German translation and subsequently released in a manicured French version in 1895. The German version was taken to court on indecency charges in Vilhelmine Berlin, the French version became a scandal, and Strindberg never authorized the novel for publication in Sweden.

Although Le Plaidoyer d'un fou helped cement Strindberg's reputation at home and abroad as a paranoid misogynist, it also provides a complementary trajectory for understanding the emergence of European transnational prose modernism. In its conception, publication, and reception, Le Plaidoyer d'un fou straddles both national and linguistic borders; its plot involves travel trajectories that link Sweden with the continent, and Stockholm with Paris. This novel tells a story of adultery, divorce, and lesbian desire, while tracing, through a first-person voice, the narrator's professed descent into madness.


This is the 1895 French edition. It was extracted from a Swedish literature PD text site.

This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

To report a copyright violation you can contact us here.