author
Édouard Dubus
1863–1894
A French Symbolist poet and literary journalist, he moved through the intense artistic circles of fin-de-siècle Paris and left behind work marked by decadence, mysticism, and melancholy. His life was brief, but his name remains tied to the restless energy of the era.
1 Audiobook
Les vrais sous-offs: Réponse à M. Descaves
by Georges Darien, Édouard Dubus
About the author
Born in Beauvais on June 14, 1864, Édouard Dubus was a French poet, lawyer, and literary journalist associated with Symbolism and the decadent movement. He also helped found the third Mercure de France, placing him close to the small magazines and avant-garde debates that shaped late 19th-century French literature.
Dubus is best remembered for Quand les violons sont partis, published in 1892, and for the posthumous poems later gathered with it. Accounts of his life often note his interest in mysticism and occult ideas, which fit naturally with the mood and imagery of the fin-de-siècle world he wrote in.
He died in Paris on June 12, 1895, just before turning 31. Because his career was so short, his body of work is limited, but it still offers a vivid glimpse of the darker, dreamlike side of French poetry in the 1890s.