Short Fiction by Xavier de Maistre (digital e reader txt) ๐
Description
Xavier de Maistre lived mostly as a military man, fighting in France and Russia around the turn of the 19th century. In 1790 a duel he participated in led him to be put under arrest in Turin; during his confinement in a tiny chamber, he wrote his most famous work, โA Journey Round My Room.โ
โJourneyโ is a short story written as a parody of the grand travelogues popular at the time. He frames his six weeksโ confinement as a long journey across the unknown land of his room, visiting the furniture, the paintings on the wall, and even venturing to the north side. De Maistre didnโt hold the work in very high regard, but after his brother had it published in 1794 it became a fast success, eventually calling for a sequel (โA Night Journey Round My Roomโ), and warranting allusions in fiction by writers like D. H. Lawrence, Wilkie Collins, W. Somerset Maugham, and Jorge Luis Borges.
The rest of his literary corpus is modest, and consists entirely of short works. โThe Leper of the City of Aostaโ is a philosophical dialogue on the struggles of a leper whose days are seemingly filled with unending sorrow; โThe Prisoners of the Caucasusโ is the fictional narrative of a captured general and his faithful servant, set against a rich background of Cossack factions in the Caucasus of Imperial Russia reminiscent of Tolstoyโs Hadji Murรกd; and โThe Young Siberianโ is the true story of Prascovia Lopouloff, a poor Russian girl who sets out on a journey to secure an imperial pardon for her exiled father.
De Maistre never set out to have a literary career, but his carefully-considered output made him famous across the continent.
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- Author: Xavier de Maistre
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โStay in welcome,โ said the leper, turning quickly round, โif you do not fear to do so after looking at me.โ
The officer stood for some moments motionless with surprise and terror at the sight of this unfortunate being, whom leprosy had completely disfigured.
โI will gladly stay,โ he said, โif you will accept the visit of a man whom sheer chance has led hither, but whom a lively interest in your case detains.โ
The Leper
Interest?โ โโ โฆ I have never moved aught but pity.
The Officer
I should indeed be happy if I could offer you any consolation.
The Leper
It is a great consolation to me but to see a human being, and to hear one of those human voices which generally seem to shun me.
The Officer
Allow me, then, to spend a little time in conversing with you, and in seeing your dwelling.
The Leper
By all means, if agreeable to you. (As he spoke, the leper covered his head with a large felt hat, the falling brim of which hid his face.) Come, (he added,) this way, to the south side. I tend a little flowerbed that may please you; you will find there some rather rare specimens. I procured the seed of all the flowers that grow wild in the Alps, and have tried to get them to double, and to beautify them by cultivation.
The Officer
Some of these flowers do indeed seem quite new to me.
The Leper
Look at that little rosebush. It is the thornless rose, which grows on the high Alps. But it is already losing its peculiarity, and throws out more and more thorns under cultivation.
The Officer
It should be the emblem of ingratitude!
The Leper
If any of these flowers please you, you may gather them without fear, and you will run no risk in carrying them about you. I planted them, and I have the gratification of watering them, and seeing them; but I never handle them.
The Officer
Why so?
The Leper
I should fear to sully themโ โโ โฆ and I could not then venture to offer them for acceptance.
The Officer
And what will you do with them?
The Leper
The people who bring my food from the hospital do not hesitate to make them into nosegays. Sometimes, too, the children from the town come to my garden-gate, when I go at once to my tower, lest I should frighten or harm them. From my window I see them skip about and pick a flower here and there. When they go away they look up at me, and say, โGood day, Leper;โ and that cheers me a little.
The Officer
You have managed to get together here a great variety of plants. I see you have vines and several kinds of fruit-trees.
The Leper
The trees are still young. I planted them myself; and so I did that vine, which I trained along the old wall, whose broad top makes me a little walk. It is my favourite spot. Mount those stones; they are a flight of steps of my own handiwork. Keep along by the wall.
The Officer
What a delightful retreat! And how well suited for the meditations of a recluse.
The Leper
I am very fond of it. I look from here upon the country and the labourers in the fields. I see what is going on in the meadow, but am seen by no one.
The Officer
The quietness and retirement of this spot are wonderful. We are in a town, and yet might fancy ourselves in a desert.
The Leper
Solitude is not always to be found in the midst of forests and rocks. The unhappy are alone everywhere.
The Officer
What were the circumstances that brought you here? Is this your native place?
The Leper
I was born by the seaside, in the principality of Oneille, and have only lived here for fifteen years. As to my history, it is but one long unbroken misery.
The Officer
Have you always lived alone?
The Leper
I lost my parents in my infancy. I never knew them. The one sister who was left to me has been dead two years. I never had a friend.
The Officer
Poor man!
The Leper
Such is Godโs will.
The Officer
And may I ask your name?
The Leper
Alas! mine is a terrible name. I am known as the Leper. My family name and that which religion conferred upon me on the day of my birth, have remained undivulged. I am the Leper. No other title have I to the kindness of men; and I trust they may never know who I am.
The Officer
And the sister you lostโ โdid she live with you?
The Leper
She lived for five years with me in this dwelling. She was in the same unhappy case as myself; she shared my sorrows, and I did my best to relieve hers.
The Officer
And how do you now occupy yourself in this profound solitude?
The Leper
An account of the occupations of such a solitary being as I am could not but be very monotonous to a man of the world, whose happiness is derived from the activity of social life.
The Officer
Ah! little do you know the life of which you speakโ โa life in which I have never found happiness. I am often alone from choice; and, perhaps, there is more likeness between our thoughts than you suppose. But, still, I admit that unbroken solitude seems very awful to me. I can hardly picture it to myself.
The Leper
The Imitation of Jesus Christ teaches us that he who loves his cell will find in it peace. I am beginning to feel the truth of these consoling words. The sense of loneliness is relieved by labour. The man who works is never altogether wretched. Of this I am a proof. In fine weather, the cultivation of my garden and flowerbed gives me enough employment; and during winter I make baskets and mats. I also make my own clothes. Every day I prepare my food from the provisions brought me from the
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