Ravachol

Contr'un

The Paris Explosion

December 11, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE PARIS EXPLOSION. Paris, April 26.—To state that the explosion last night at the cafe of M. Very, at the corner of the Boulevard Magenta and Rue Sencey has caused a feeling of consternation in this city is to put it very mildly. The truth is that the people of Paris are panic stricken at the audacity of the Anarchists. The feeling of fear is heightened by the apparent impotency of the police to prevent the Anarchists from committing outrages when and where they please. There was a reason for last night’s outrage. It was in M. Very’s cafe that […]
fiction

The Exploits of Ravachol (in progress)

November 29, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE EXPLOITS OF RAVACHOL  The Man with the Dynamite PART ONE THE CRIME OF CHAMBLES I THE INN OF THE GROTTO In these Exploits of Ravachol, the Man with the Dynamite, we will not write a novel, but a history. Why would we take the trouble to invent, when it is enough for us, in order to make the most riveting, original and dramatic narrative that could be imagined, to let speak only the facts, so strange and so striking, the completely unknown facts that we are going to make known,—and to simply recount the life of the man who, […]
Contr'un

Paul Adam’s “Eulogy for Ravachol”

February 22, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
EULOGY FOR RAVACHOL Paul Adam In these times, miracles and saints seem set to disappear. We can easily believe that the souls of contemporaries lack the spirit of sacrifice. The martyrs of this century have always been obscure citizens, maddened by the din of political words, and then gunned down without mercy, in 1830, 1848, and 1871, for the benefit of certain parliamentary situations arranged by a few violent and shifty advocates. And it would even be imprudent to claim that no wish of individual interest committed these unfortunate combatants themselves to seek some electoral profit, arms in hand. The […]