Maurice Level
Encyclopedia
Maurice Level was a French
writer of fiction and drama who specialized in short stories of the macabre which were regularly printed in the columns of Paris
newspapers and sometimes staged by le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol
, the repertory company in the Pigalle district devoted to melodramatic productions which highlighted blood and gore. Level's short stories may be weak in characterization and motivation, but they are strong on obsession and violence. Their surprise endings are reminiscent of the stories of Guy de Maupassant
. As editor John Robert Colombo noted in Stories of Fear and Fascination (2007), Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
French critics see Level as the heir of the Symbolist writer Villiers de l'Isle-Adam; British critics, as the successor of Edgar Allan Poe
; American critics, as the contemporary of H. P. Lovecraft
. Of this fiction, Lovecraft himself observed in Supernatural Horror in Literature (1945), "This type, however, is less a part of the weird tradition than a class peculiar to itself--the so-called conte cruel, in which the wrenching of the emotions is accomplished through dramatic tantalizations, frustrations, and gruesome physical horrors." Critic Philippe Gontier wrote, "We can only admire, now almost one hundred years later, the great artistry with which Maurice Level fabricated his plots, with what care he fashioned all the details of their unfolding and how with a master's hand he managed the building of suspense." Level's stories, with their gratuitous acts and mindless brutality, may be seen as precursors of "thriller" fiction and "slasher" films.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
writer of fiction and drama who specialized in short stories of the macabre which were regularly printed in the columns of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
newspapers and sometimes staged by le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol
Grand Guignol
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
, the repertory company in the Pigalle district devoted to melodramatic productions which highlighted blood and gore. Level's short stories may be weak in characterization and motivation, but they are strong on obsession and violence. Their surprise endings are reminiscent of the stories of Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents....
. As editor John Robert Colombo noted in Stories of Fear and Fascination (2007), Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box is an independent, Canadian literary publisher, founded in 1993 by George A. Vanderburgh. Based in Shelburne, Ontario, and in Sauk City, Wisconsin, the company is headed by George Vanderburgh....
French critics see Level as the heir of the Symbolist writer Villiers de l'Isle-Adam; British critics, as the successor of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
; American critics, as the contemporary of H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. Of this fiction, Lovecraft himself observed in Supernatural Horror in Literature (1945), "This type, however, is less a part of the weird tradition than a class peculiar to itself--the so-called conte cruel, in which the wrenching of the emotions is accomplished through dramatic tantalizations, frustrations, and gruesome physical horrors." Critic Philippe Gontier wrote, "We can only admire, now almost one hundred years later, the great artistry with which Maurice Level fabricated his plots, with what care he fashioned all the details of their unfolding and how with a master's hand he managed the building of suspense." Level's stories, with their gratuitous acts and mindless brutality, may be seen as precursors of "thriller" fiction and "slasher" films.
Selected Works in French
- L'épouvante: Roman (1908)
- Vivre pour la patrie (1909)
- Les Portes de l'Enfer (1910)
- Les Oiseaux de nuit (1913)
- L'Alouette: Roman (1918)
- Mado (1919)
- Le Manteau d'arlequin: Roman (1919)
- L'Ombre: Roman (1921)
- Le Crime: Roman (1921)
- Au pays du tendre (1921)
- Les mortes étranger (1921)
- L'Ile sans nom (1922)
- Le Marchand des secrets (1923)
- La Cité de voleurs: Roman (1924)
- L'Engima de Bellavista (1929)
Selected Works in English
- The Grip of Fear (1909) translated by Alys Eyre Macklin
- a.k.a. Crises: Tales of Mystery and Horror (1920)
- a.k.a. Grand Guignol Stories (1922)
- Those Who Return (1923) translated by Bérengère Drillien
- Stories of Fear and Fascination: The Fiction of Maurice Level (2007) edited by John Robert Colombo with appreciations by Philippe Gontier, Battered Silicon Dispatch BoxBattered Silicon Dispatch BoxThe Battered Silicon Dispatch Box is an independent, Canadian literary publisher, founded in 1993 by George A. Vanderburgh. Based in Shelburne, Ontario, and in Sauk City, Wisconsin, the company is headed by George Vanderburgh....
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