Readers of this blog and The Mutualist should already know the name Claude Pelletier from my in-progress translation of The Socialist Soirées of New York (1873) and some mentions of his Socialist Dictionary. (I’ve also started a translation of his 1848 Solution of the Problem of Poverty.) Pelletier was one of that small, but important group of French anarchists who published much of their work while in America, and, like Joseph Dejacque, he was a member of the International Association of 1855-59. He was essentially a mutualist anarchist in his politics, though he preferred a series of terms of his […]
[I’m working my way through the translation of six shorts stories by Han Ryner, published in French in The Smart Set between July 1913 and January 1920. These initial translation are definitely rough, “working” versions, as I get better acquainted with the peculiarities of Ryner’s style. But I think even the rough renditions give a good indication of what is interesting about the works. For those unfamiliar with the Don Juan story, or who need a refresher, this will probably help.] THE SECRET OF DON JUAN By Han Ryner All of the accounts of the interview of Don Juanand the […]
ORIGINAL The Little Exile By Han Ryner On this heavy, stormy summer Sunday, how did I let myself be led to these noisy celebrations? Under a scorching sun, that my companions declared “almost southern,” I had stopped with the crowd at various points of the town of Sceaux and, in front of some minuscule busts, I listened to the buzz of interminable talk. Through the torpor that wove heat and rhetoric around me, some words, doubtless more often repeated, alone reached my mind. But, in the confused speeches of the orators who succeeded and resembled one another like shrill brothers, […]
