The Torture Garden E-Book

Octave Mirbeau

• Herausgeber: Olympia Press
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

A modern translation of Le Jardin des Supplices.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

The Torture Garden

Octave Mirbeau

PART ONE. MY MISSION

I

II

III

PART TWO. THE GARDEN OF TORTURES

The Torture Garden

Octave Mirbeau

This page copyright © 2007 Olympia Press.

http://www.olympiapress.com PART ONE. MY MISSION

I II III

PART TWO. THE GARDEN OF TORTURES

PART ONE. MY MISSION

Before I relate one of the most frightful episodes of my travels in the Far East, it might be of interest if I briefly explain the circumstances in which I was led to undertake this voyage. It's part of contemporary history.

To those who might be astonished by the anonymity I have jealously preserved in the course of this judicial and painful narrative, I shall say: “Never mind my name!... It is the name of someone who brought much suffering to others and to himself—even more to himself than to others—and who, after many upheavals, and after having one day descended to the depths of human desire, is trying to recover his soul in solitude and obscurity. Peace to the ashes of his sin.”

I

Twelve years ago, no longer knowing what to do and condemned by a series of misfortunes to the harsh necessity of either hanging myself or throwing myself in the Seine, I presented myself as a candidate in the general elections—my last resource—in a department where I knew no one and had never set foot before.

It is true that my candidacy had been officially supported by the cabinet which no longer knew what to do with me and thus found an ingenious and delicate way of freeing itself once and for all from my daily, harassing solicitations.

On this occasion, I had a solemn and familiar interview with the minister who was my friend and an old school friend.

“You see how nice we are to you!” said this powerful, generous friend. “We've hardly saved you from the clutches of the law—and we were hard put to it—and now we're going to make a member of parliament out of you.”

“I'm still not nominated,” I said in a peevish tone.

“No doubt!... But you've got every chance... You're intelligent, charming, prodigal, a good boy when you want to be and you've got the sovereign gift of being able to please... A lady's man, my dear fellow, is always the man of the crowd... I'll answer for you... What you must do is to understand the situation well... Anyway it's very simple...”