Editing Octave Mirbeau (section)

====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.