The Sacred Fire

The present volume contains De Lautrec’s short novel The Sacred Fire (1904), and a selection from short prose poems (1898). The latter benefit from being juxtaposed with the former because one of the episodes of the novel reveals the circumstances in which they were composed, with not only explains their surreal nature but allows them to serve as an illustration of the argument made in that episode.

The Sacred Fire opens with a description of a secret ritual practiced by one of the cults of the French Occult Revival, and much of the discussion featured in the story deals with the nature and philosophy of magic. Despite its ground-breaking nature, it never achieved publication in volume form until now.

The prose poems are among the most important precursors of surrealism, contemporary with the most significant contributions that Alfred Jarry made to the preliminary foundations of that movement. They are among the most extreme examples of the Decadent Movement, and together with the short novel a fascinating commentary on its psychology and esthetics.