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Anry RenieFrench writer
Date of Birth: 28.12.1864
Country:  France |
Content:
Biography of Henri de Régnier
Henri de Régnier, the renowned and enigmatic recluse, was a French writer known as the "most French of all French writers" (B. Eichenbaum) and a "poet of poetry and prose" (M. Kuzmin). He captivated readers with the precision and refinement of his phrases. Despite his ordinary and seemingly mundane life, Régnier was born with a gift for storytelling.
Henri François Joseph de Régnier was born on December 28, 1864, in the small town of Gonfleur in Normandy. His father, a childhood friend of Gustave Flaubert, served as a customs inspector there. Régnier vividly depicted his early childhood impressions in his novella "White Clover" (from the collection "Shades of Time").
In 1871, his family moved to Paris, where his father took on a position as a tax inspector. At the age of ten, Régnier was enrolled in the Collège Stanislas. It was during his time in school that Régnier began writing poems, with his first ones dating back to when he was fourteen years old. In addition to poetry, he also started working on a poem called "Love of Virtue," which promised to be something similar to his favorite A. de Musset's poem "Namouna," but his manuscript was taken away by his teacher. Interestingly, Régnier's literary pursuits and school compositions did not receive much approval from his teachers. One of them, the well-known literary and theater critic Larumme, used to read Régnier's compositions aloud in class and laugh at them. Many years later, when Larumme met his former student, who had become a famous writer by then, he exclaimed, "Is it you who wrote such amusing things?!"
During his time at the Collège, Régnier avidly and diligently read various authors, without following any particular system of selection. Alongside Lord Byron and Victor Hugo, he read Voltaire's "Philosophical Letters," his tragedies, and immediately switched to the plays of Crébillon, an 18th-century French playwright. After graduating from college and passing the baccalaureate exam in 1883, Régnier enrolled in the Faculty of Law. Initially, he considered a diplomatic career at the insistence of his parents, but literature had an irresistible pull on him, and his imagination never rested.
In 1885, Régnier's first published poems appeared in the journal "Lutèce" under the pseudonym Guig Vinny (Vignix), indicating the influence of A. de Vigny and Victor Hugo on his work. In the same year, his first book of poems, titled "Tomorrow," was published in Paris under his real name, Henri de Régnier. Despite his inexperience, the book showed originality and an attempt to think independently.
In the opening poem, "Dedication," he defined his poetic task as the "revival of the past, immortalizing its fleeting moments." This goal would guide Régnier throughout his life.
Readers and critics received his book favorably, charmed by the tone of soft, almost watercolor-like melancholy that would permeate all of Régnier's works, connecting his poetry and prose.
Following his debut collection, Régnier published several other books of poems, including "Consolation" (1886), "Landscapes" (1887), and "Episodes" (1888). According to the literary critic Jean Guiraud, who knew Régnier well, the poet's thoughts evolved over four years through these four books: "Tomorrow" represents the first encounter with life, the discrepancy between dreams and reality, and the sorrow that arises from this discovery. "Consolation" illustrates wisdom and reconciliation, with sorrow subsiding while dreams continue to live in the poet's soul. He creates palaces, gardens, groves, landscapes - his own "Landscapes" - wherein the "Episodes" of this intimate inner life unfold.
Throughout the entire decade from the mid-1880s to the mid-1890s, Régnier was actively involved in literary activities. He collaborated prolifically in rapidly changing literary journals that featured symbolist writers such as Laforgue, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Kahn, Samain, and Viélé-Griffin. He also participated in the editing and publishing of the journal "Writers for Art" (1886-1887) with René Ghil, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Villiers de L'Isle-Adam as leading contributors, in the newspaper "La Wallonie" where he served as an editor, and in the almanac "Political and Literary Review" (1890-1893), where he published a significant portion of his short stories, his first foray into prose (which, though exceptional, was not widely recognized as his debut as a prose writer), later included in the collection "The Jade Scepter."
In 1894, Régnier began contributing to the journal "Mercure de France," which became the publisher of all his works. Simultaneously, he released separate volumes of poems, such as "Ancient and Romantic Poems" (1890), "As in a Dream" (1892), and "Arethusa" (1895). Later, he would combine them into single-volume collections: "Poems 1887-1892" (1895) and "The Best Poems" (1899).
The poems from this period were undoubtedly influenced by symbolism, yet they lacked the haziness, affectation, and "magical imagery" that many of Régnier's contemporaries, who were associated with the movement, succumbed to. Régnier's poems possessed a deep clarity, plasticity, and elegance. Symbolism, under the pen of the "aristocrat of poetry," transformed into subtle and intricate allegory, shedding its enigmatic and abstract meaning.
From the mid-1890s, when Régnier turned thirty, he increasingly leaned towards prose. His seclusion in his Parisian apartment became a regular pastime. He would spend day and night working on sheets of paper, rarely venturing out and only visiting a few friends.
Among these friends was the last of the Parnassians, the great master of the sonnet and translator José-Maria de Heredia. Régnier began attending his salon in 1888. It was here that he met Guy de Maupassant and Léon de Lisle, among other celebrities of the time. However, it was Heredia's three daughters, each attractive and talented in their own right, that captured Régnier's attention. The youngest, Marie, was a gifted novelist and poetess who had already been writing beautiful poems and successfully translating Spanish-speaking authors into French. The young people, sharing common interests and engaging in captivating conversations about everything in the world, particularly literature, found themselves drawn to each other. Henri, described as a handsome young man with an open and clear face, a high forehead, translucent gray-blue eyes, graceful movements, and a serious and almost always shy demeanor (Jean de Guiraud), won Marie's heart. She had an attentive and interested listening ability, and he had to overcome his agonizing shyness in her presence. In 1896, Henri de Régnier and Marie de Heredia married.
"From this moment," as one of Régnier's researchers wittily noted, "the biography of the writer for us practically comes to an end because his subsequent life lacked any notable events" (A. Smirnov, "A. de Régnier, Novelist and Storyteller." Preface to the 30-volume edition of Régnier's collected works, 1925. Quoted from the edition: A. de Régnier. Collected Works in 5 Volumes. Vol. 5. The Jade Scepter. St. Petersburg, "Severo-Zapad" Publishing House, 1993. Series: "Women's Library. Cameo").
For the next thirty years, Régnier led a quiet existence, immersed in literary work, occasionally interrupted by trips, including several to his beloved Italy, particularly Venice, and a visit to the United States in 1900, where he delivered several extensive lectures on the history of poetry, touching on contemporary trends.
"As for his emotional experiences," Smirnov adds, "despite Régnier never shying away from society and being described by friends as friendly and highly engaging in conversation, his inherent restraint veiled his inner life, and few dared to penetrate beyond it."
From the early 1900s, Régnier increasingly reached new heights in prose. His major novels, such as "Twice Loved" (1900), "Fear of Love" (1907), "Me, Her, and Him" (1907), "The Sinner" (1920), "Extraordinary Lovers" (1901), "Mr. de Bréo's Encounters" (1904), "By the Whim of the King" and "The Living Past," became beloved works for generations, translated into all European languages, and devoured to the point of tattered bindings. These books were filled with a unique musicality of words, images, and plots. When reading them, one got the sense that it was like translating painting into words, with both the words and entire episodes being vivid and expressive.
Henri de Régnier had such a passionate love for life that he described everything that fascinated his poetic soul in vivid details: colors, sounds, emotions, shapes of objects, and phenomena. His novels varied in style. In contemporary settings, he used a direct and figurative style with a fast pace and captivating plot ("The Holidays of a Modest Young Man"). In historical novels ("By the Whim of the King"), Régnier often employed an archaic style with slightly heavy, ornate phrasings. Words, for him, were primarily carriers of a certain timbre, akin to a musical composition, in which his spirit and essence resided. Words were sacred to Régnier.
Later, Joseph Brodsky would compare Régnier's novels to Mozart's symphonies and sonatas, which was the most extraordinary and precise comparison because painting and music were Régnier's two greatest passions that accompanied him throughout his life.
Critics wrote that Régnier's style was romantic; his style, if one may say, was classically romantic. According to Mallarmé, Régnier's novels were elegant poems written in prose.
Many of his works have become classics of the French language and are still studied by modern philology and literature students.
His significant literary studies, such as "Images and Characters" (1901) - featuring interesting articles on Hugo, Musset, and Michelet - and "Plots and Incidents" (1906) - containing fascinating notes and studies on Versailles in the 18th century and writers of that time (such as Chateaubriand, Nerval, and others) - have retained their relevance. Régnier also wrote several plays in the tradition of Molière and his masks, as well as a large number of elegant prose poems dedicated to his beloved city, Paris, where he passed away on May 23, 1936. He was a member of the French Academy and a Knight of the Legion of Honor. On the table next to his bed lay a half-opened volume of stories, "The Jade Scepter." Emphasized on its pages was the phrase, "I don't know why my book wouldn't please you..."
