Page 16 Fall 1991
"The
Juggler." A novel by Rachilde. 215 pages soft cover.
Available through Rutgers University Press; 109 Church St.; New
Brunswick, NJ 08901. $12.95.
The
republication of Rachilde's novel "The Juggler," now
translated into English for the first time since its original
publication in 1900, marks a rediscovery of the prolific French author
Marguerite Eymery Vallette (known as Rachilde), notorious in her time
but eclipsed since. Witty, passionate, and elegantly composed,
"The Juggler" weaves
together complex theories
while maintaining a poetic, mythical quality.
Juggling
historians might appreciate the emergence of a new image for the
juggler in literature. In Rachilde's work, juggling keeps its
traditional flavor of mystery and exoticism while playing a central
role both literally and metaphorically. The aristocratic heroine,
Eliante Donalger, is in fact a juggler and amateur performer -
possibly the first hobbyist juggler to appear in a work of fiction.
Though unusual for a woman in her position, her juggling skills do not
exceed the realm of possibility. Her act consists primarily of
juggling three daggers, with a dramatic shoulder throw to finish.
"She
juggled very simply, but really, with heavy knives, quite sharp, and
what would have been ordinary for an artiste at the Folies Bergere
or Olympia, seemed amazing for a society woman." She also
performs flamenco dancing with exceptional style and expression
(look out, Francis Brunn!)
Wrapped
in an air of mystery and intrigue, the singular Eliante Donalger
dominates the novel as well as Parisian society. The story is
actually a prolonged tete-a-tete between the widowed, worldly
Eliante and the young, idealistic Leon Reille, a medical student who
becomes obsessed with unravelling the secrets of Eliante's
personality. Yet he is almost afraid to learn too much about her
past and what it has made her. Loathe to spoil the mysterious power
of her attraction by giving away the secrets of her soul,
yet dying to pass on her knowledge to a younger generation, Eliante
draws out the drama while Leon urges her to perform her finishing
trick before she is ready to pass the hat.
Eliante's
avoidance of physical passion is bound up with her artistic desire
for immortality, a yearning which increases as her youth fades.
During Leon's first visit, she torments him by claiming to be in
love with a life-size alabaster juggler which "has stayed young
because he has never cried his secret to anyone."
Eliante's.
fantastical imagination leads her to channel her sexual energy into
her artistic pursuits - juggling, dancing, writing - and she seems
satisfied with platonic relationships when it comes to humans.
"I find it absurd that a man cannot have an intimate chat with
a woman ... even one he loves." While feminists might applaud
these futuristic speeches, Rachilde leaves many ambiguities,
implying that Eliante's philosophies are self-defeating:
"Love,
everywhere love! and she, the great actress, or the great victim of
her own juggling, perhaps still did not know what it was,
practically speaking. Vibrant and above the earth like a flaming
torch consuming itself, she kept it all and yet dreamed of giving it
all." Whether Eliante's view of love is truly her ideal or just
a response to an imperfect society which typecasts women is left for
the reader to decide.
Eliante's
juggling act symbolizes both her isolation from the rest of society
and her contradictory desire to communicate and entertain. While
Leon admires her skillful manipulation of daggers, he laments the
fact that they separate her from the rest of society: "..
.she juggled to please herself. It was as though one could feel
another blade both perfidious and passive vibrate in her. She amused
herself naively, absolutely, with the unusual pleasure she procured
for them, and she needed too the acute desire of the looks focused
on her, all the vibration of an atmosphere charged with amorous
electricity."
For
Eliante, the act of inspiring love overshadows the details of
lovemaking, and it is in her role as entertainer that she finds the
heroic and artistic parts of herself. Eliante goes to bizarre
lengths to fulfill her creative desires, leading us on to a macabre
conclusion which might leave readers wishing that plastic clubs had
been invented 100 years earlier.
Rachilde's
characters are so colorfully drawn that it is easy to lose track of
"The Juggler's" larger pattern, but clearly this is a work
of ideas which invites the reader to ponder the balance between love
and art, providing rich food for thought through few definite
conclusions. The beauty of the language (even in translation) must
be experienced first-hand, and the use of juggling contributes much
to this highly unusual by
Cindy Marvel! |