This long-awaited biography of Alfred Jarry reconstructs a life both "ubuesque" and pataphysical. When Alfred Jarry died in 1907 at the age of thirty-four, he was a legendary figure in Paris—but this had more to do with his bohemian lifestyle and scandalous behavior than his literary achievements. A century later, Jarry is firmly established as one of the leading figures of the artistic avant-garde. Even so, most people today tend to think of Alfred Jarry only as the author of the play Ubu Roi, and of his life as a string of outlandish “ubuesque” anecdotes, often recounted with wild inaccuracy. In this first full-length critical biography of Jarry in English, Alastair Brotchie reconstructs the life of a man intent on inventing (and destroying) himself, not to mention his world, and the “philosophy” that defined their relation. Brotchie alternates chapters of biographical narrative with chapters that connect themes, obsessions, and undercurrents that relate to the life. The anecdotes remain, and are even augmented: Jarry's assumption of the “ubuesque,” his inversions of everyday behavior (such as eating backward, from cheese to soup), his exploits with gun and bicycle, and his herculean feats of drinking. But Brotchie distinguishes between Jarry's purposely playing the fool and deeper nonconformities that appear essential to his writing and his thought, both of which remain a vital subterranean influence to this day.

Alfred Jarry’s (1873–1907) creation of the monster-tyrant Ubu in his play Ubu Roi was a watershed in theater history and brought him instant notoriety following its Paris premiere in 1896. In this concise, critical biography, Jill Fell explores this and the many achievements that this multi-talented and influential writer and playwright crammed into his short life. Drawing on numerous anecdotes and the early publications of the Collège de ’Pataphysique, Fell traces Jarry’s growth and influence, as he rapidly established his literary reputation as a prose writer, journalist, art critic, and playwright. Along the way, Fell explores his interaction with a wide cast of avant-garde characters, including Gauguin, Rachilde, Wilde, Beardsley, and Apollinaire. The quarrels that punctuated Jarry’s life—and the extravagance and the drinking that drained his meager wealth—form the background to this portrait of an obsessive writer, committed to his craft and undeterred by his worsening domestic circumstances. Inthis entertaining biography, Jarry’s spirit and his inventions clearly emerge as an inspiration to the great figures of experimental twentieth-century theatre, art, and literature. Alfred Jarry will inform and delight readers who wish to learn more about this fascinating, unconventional figure.

Stunning, controversial work that immediately outraged audiences at the 1896 premiere with its scatalogical references, features a cruel, gluttonous, and grotesque main character — the author's metaphor for modern man.

The first of two volumes that will finally bring all of Jarry's works into English. It begins with his two privately printed books, Black Minutes of Memorial Sand and Caesar Antichrist; followed by philosophical, practical and aesthetic essays, To be and To Live, Time in Art. It concludes with Jarry's own selection of journalism, texts which indulge in wild speculation and black humour (Andre Breton coined the latter term in order to describe them). This collection helps explain his importance to the appearance of the modern movement in French literature.

"The text of the book is supported by more than fifty illustrations. Some are Jarry's own and some are those of contemporaries, such as Aubrey Beardsley, Emile Bernard, Pierre Bonnard, Max Elskamp, Charles Filiger, Paul Gauguin, Gerhard Munthe, Henri Rousseau, and Felix Vallotton. Others relate to an iconic intertext, hitherto unexplored. Alfred Jarry: An Imagination in Revolt sheds light on an underresearched area of fin-de-siecle French culture and art history, establishing Jarry's role as a major figure in the origins of modernism."--Jacket.

"This catalogue is published on the occasion of the first major museum exhibition in America devoted to the French writer and artist Alfred Jarry (1873-1907). The eclectic, enigmatic bent of Jarry's achievements and the fugitive nature of his early works have posed challenges to the perception of his complex role in the acceleration of modernism. By exploring artifacts of his enterprises in print and on paper, the catalogue Alfred Jarry: The Carnival of Being aims to contribute to a broader appreciation that has already begun: to position Jarry as a crucial hinge connecting the nineteenth- to the twentieth-century avant-garde, and to begin by considering Jarry's exploitation of the medium of the book as both cause and effect of his place in the spectral projects of modernism"--

The act of love is of no importance, since it can be performed indefinitely.' With that remark, the gentleman adventurer Andre Marcueil sets into motion an outrageous plot of scientific experiments nd technological heroism focused on author Alfred Jarry's trinity of obsessions: sex, alcohol, and bicycles. Like a mock Jules Verne, Jarry describes the manner in which the 'Supermale' ultimately proves his claim; after 82 times with a woman, attending doctors hooks him up to a machine instead with whom he merges in the book's final climax.'