Editing Octave Mirbeau (section)

===Mirbeau's novels===

====Autobiographical novels====
[[Image:CalvaireJeanniot2.JPG|thumb|left|[[Pierre-Georges Jeanniot]], ''Le Calvaire'' (1901)]]
Mirbeau [[ghostwriting|ghostwrote]] ten novels,<ref>For instance, [http://www.leboucher.com/pdf/mirbeau/mirbeau-ecuyere.pdf ''L'Écuyère''], [http://www.leboucher.com/pdf/mirbeau/mirbeau-levassart.pdf ''La Belle Madame Le Vassart''] and [http://www.leboucher.com/pdf/mirbeau/mirbeau-rue.pdf ''Dans la vieille rue''].</ref> including three for the Swiss writer [[Dora Melegari]].<ref name="Gagel2016">{{cite book|author=Amanda Gagel|title=Selected Letters of Vernon Lee, 1856 - 1935: Volume I, 1865-1884|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUMlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA548|date=26 October 2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-134-97673-7|page=548}}</ref> He made his own literary debut with ''[[Le Calvaire]]'' (''Calvary'', 1886), in which writing allowed him to overcome the [[Psychological trauma|traumatic]] effects of his devastating liaison with the ill-reputed Judith Vinmer (1858–1951), renamed Juliette Roux in the novel.<ref>Cf. Jean-Michel Guignon, « Aux sources du ''Calvaire'' – Qui était Judith/Juliette ? », ''[[Cahiers Octave Mirbeau]]'', n° 20, 2013, p. 145-152.</ref>

In 1888, Mirbeau published [[:fr:L'Abbé Jules|''L'Abbé Jules'']] (''[[Abbé Jules]]''), the first pre-[[Sigmund Freud|Freudian]] novel written under the influence of [[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky]] to appear in French literature;<ref>[[Pierre Michel]], [http://mirbeau.asso.fr/darticlesfrancais/PM-preface%20%20Abbe%20Jules.pdf « ''L'Abbé Jules'' : de Zola à Dostoïevski »], Éditions du Boucher, 2003, p. 3-18.</ref> the text featured two main characters: l'abbé Jules and [[Père Pamphile|Father Pamphile]]. In [[:fr:Sébastien Roch, roman d'Octave Mirbeau|''Sébastien Roch'']] (1890) (English translation: ''[[Sébastien Roch (novel)|Sébastien Roch]]'', 2000), Mirbeau purged the traumatic effects of his experience as a student at a [[Jesuits]] school in [[Vannes]]. In the novel, the 13-year-old Sébastien is sexually abused by a priest at the school and the abuse destroys his life.<ref>[[Pierre Michel]], [http://mirbeau.asso.fr/darticlesfrancais/PM-preface%20Sebastien%20Roch.pdf « ''Sébastien Roch'', ou le meurtre d'une âme d'enfant »], Éditions du Boucher, 2003, p. 3–24.</ref>

====Crisis of the novel====
Mirbeau then underwent a grave [[Existential crisis|existential]] and literary crisis, yet during this time, he still published in serial form a pre-existentialist novel about the artist's fate, ''[[Dans le ciel]]'' (''In the Sky''), introducing the figure of a painter ([[Lucien (Mirbeau)|Lucien]]), directly modeled on [[Van Gogh]]. In the aftermath of the [[Dreyfus Affair]] — which exacerbated Mirbeau's pessimism<ref>[http://mirbeau.asso.fr/dicomirbeau/index.php?option=com_glossary&id=201 « Pessimisme »], in [http://mirbeau.asso.fr/dicomirbeau/ ''Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau''].</ref> — he published two novels judged to be scandalous by self-styled paragons of virtue: [[:fr:Le Jardin des supplices|''Le Jardin des supplices'']] ''([[The Torture Garden|Torture Garden]]'' (1899) and [[:fr:Le Journal d'une femme de chambre|''Le Journal d'une femme de chambre'']] (''[[The Diary of a Chambermaid (novel)|Diary of a Chambermaid]]'') (1900), then ''[[Les Vingt et un Jours d'un neurasthénique]]'' (The twenty one days of a [[Neurasthenia|neurasthenic]] person) (1901). In the process of writing these works, Mirbeau unsettled traditional novelistic conventions, exercising  [[collage]] techniques,<ref>Cf. [http://mirbeau.asso.fr/dicomirbeau/index.php?option=com_glossary&id=674 « Collage »], in [http://mirbeau.asso.fr/dicomirbeau/ ''Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau''].</ref> transgressing codes of verisimilitude and fictional credibility, and defying the hypocritical rules of propriety.

====Death of the novel====
In his last two novels, ''[[La 628-E8]]'' (1907) – including ''[[La Mort de Balzac]]'' – and ''[[Dingo (novel)|Dingo]]'' (1913), he strayed ever further from [[Realism (arts)|realism]], giving free rein to clinical [[fantasy]] elements and casting his cat and his own dog as heroes. These last Mirbeau stories show a complete break with the conventions of realist fiction, also signifying a breakdown of reality.<ref>Cf. [http://mirbeau.asso.fr/dicomirbeau/index.php?option=com_glossary&id=695 « Réalisme »], in [http://mirbeau.asso.fr/dicomirbeau/ ''Dictionnaire Octave Mirbeau'']; and [[Pierre Michel]], [http://mirbeau.asso.fr/darticlesfrancais/PM-OM%20et%20le%20roman.pdf ''Octave Mirbeau et le roman''], Société Octave Mirbeau, 2005.</ref>