(Renée Vivien and her lover Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt co...)
Renée Vivien and her lover Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt collaborated on two volumes of short prose, Comeaux and Netsuké, which, translated for the first time into English by Brian Stableford, are here brought together in a single volume. Filled with extravagant exercises in symbolism and bitter-sweet narratives that often hinge on problematic confrontations between two female characters, which are simultaneously affectionate and adversarial, these tales of fantasy and Orientalia illustrate the magnitude of Renée Vivien’s literary achievement and the uncommonly broad spectrum of her interests. Faustina and Other Stories represents a uniquely acute facet of the Decadent polyhedron.
Renée Vivien was an Anglo-French lesbian writer of the Belle Époque. She took to heart all the mannerisms of Symbolism, as one of the last poets to claim allegiance to the school. Her compositions include sonnets, hendecasyllabic verse, and prose poetry.
Background
Renée Vivien, born Pauline Mary Tarn, was born on June 11, 1877, in London, United Kingdom, to John and Mary Tarn. Her father had inherited a fortune from the family merchant trade. They lived mainly in Paris, France until the death of her father in 1886, when Mary brought Pauline and her little sister Antoinette back to England.
Pauline, a highly-strung, sensitive girl, was devastated by both the loss of her father and the loss of her country, for she considered herself French and hated what she felt to be the emotional coldness of England. It didn't help that her mother never gave her much affection, preferring her younger daughter. Isolated from childhood friends, Pauline withdrew into the world of literature and began to envision for herself a future as a writer - in Paris. Her early poems and journals have been preserved, attesting to her remarkably precocious ambition and talent.
Education
Renée was educated at school in Paris until the death of her father. After death, life at home was difficult for her. Vivien met a poet, Amédée Moullé, the father of a friend, and they began a correspondence. Inspired, she decided to become a poet also, but the friendship took an unexpected turn when the married, middle-aged Moullé proposed "marriage" to her. She was tempted by this dream of freedom, and actually ran away from home, but was caught and returned. Her mother, perhaps wanting to get her hands on Renée's inheritance, tried to have her declared insane. Fortunately, the court ruled in Pauline's favor: she was made a ward of the state and placed in lodgings until she came of age at 21.
Career
Upon inheriting her father's fortune at 21, Pauline Mary Tarn emigrated permanently to France. She decided on the pen name Renée Vivien, symbolizing her rebirth, and moved into the family's previous apartment to focus on her writing, which would remain exclusively in French. She was reunited with her close girlhood friend, Violet Shillito.
In Paris, Vivien's dress and lifestyle were as notorious among the bohemian set as was her verse. She lived lavishly, as an open lesbian, and carried on a well-known affair with American heiress and writer Natalie Clifford Barney. However, Barney's frequent infidelities led to an inevitable and abrupt breakup.
Compounding the rupture was the sudden illness and death of Violette Shillito; Renée had neglected their friendship in her preoccupation with Natalie and was overwhelmed with guilt, blaming both herself and Natalie. This happened just as her first book, "Études et Préludes," was being published, making complete enjoyment of her first success impossible.
In 1902, Renée met her next lover, Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt, a wealthy baroness. Renée felt secure enough to continue her writing and produced a staggering volume of work. They published books together under a pseudonym, Paul Riversdale, and also under Hélène's name. The true attribution of these works is uncertain, however; some scholars believe they were written solely by Vivien. Even certain books published under Zuylen's name may be, in fact, Vivien's work.
In 1907, Hélène left Renée, who had not been faithful either, for another woman. Renée had been taking the opiate chloral hydrate since her teens for insomnia and was addicted to the drug, which was by this time attacking her stomach, making eating difficult. She was further weakened by heavy alcohol use, deliberate fasting, and financial worries.
A prolific writer, her principal published books of verse are "Cendres et Poussières" in 1902, "La Vénus des aveugles" in 1903, "A l'heure des mains jointes" in 1906, "Flambeaux éteints" in 1907, "Sillages" in 1908, "Poèmes en Prose" an "Dans un coin de violettes" in 1909, and "Haillons" in 1910.
After Renée's death, her publishers made sure that most of the work left with them was published posthumously, and her total works list 17 volumes of poetry (not including compilations), and 16 volumes of prose, under her various pseudonyms. In addition, there are youthful poems, journals, and the usual bulky correspondence of a writer.
Renee Vivien received notoriety as a British-born poet who wrote exclusively in French in a rigid verse form during the early decades in the 20th century. She was considered a "feminine modernist." Barney produced twenty volumes, consisting of poems, plays, epigrams, essays, and a novel, most of them in French.
Vivien was emotionally distressed throughout her life but seemed to find some consolation in Roman Catholicism, to which she converted shortly before her death.
Views
Renée Vivien's legacy is that she was expressing herself in a very narrow-minded time and place as a female thinker, and presenting her Lesbianism as one of many natural states that simply exist. She also reached back in time to the world of Sappho and other ancient female figures, building poems and stories based on their ideas and images, breathing her own experience into classical forms and fanciful visions.
In turn, her work provides a springboard for the future; she was unafraid to speak of her own despair, her sorrows, her perceptions of a world full of injustice and cruelty, and her dreams for a better world. Like many other female writers and artists of the early 20th century, it has taken time for the world to catch up to her. She thought in particular of the women who would come after her and speaks directly to them.
Personality
Renée's poetry was influenced by Keats and Swinburne; by Baudelaire; by Hellenic culture; by her extensive travels in Norway, Turkey, and Spain; and by her lesbianism.
Renée had always coped with her losses and disappointments throughout life by romanticizing death as a sort of deliverance, which made not caring for herself seem a valid choice.
Renée Vivien was cultivated and very well-traveled, especially for a woman of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. She wintered in Egypt, visited China, and explored much of the Middle East, as well as Europe and America. Contemporaries considered her beautiful and elegant, with blonde hair, brown eyes flecked with gold, and a soft-spoken androgynous presence. Before the manifestations of illness, she was well-proportioned and fashionably slender. She wore expensive clothes and particularly loved Lalique jewelry.
Vivien was terribly affected by her problems in relationships and accelerated into a psychological downward spiral, already in motion. She turned increasingly to alcohol, drugs, and sadomasochistic fantasies. Always eccentric, she began to indulge her most bizarre fetishes and neuroses. Mysterious sexual escapades would leave her without rest for days. She would entertain guests with champagne dinner parties, only to abandon them when summoned by a demanding lover. Plunged into a suicidal depression, she refused to take proper nourishment, a factor that would eventually contribute to her death.
Interests
Travelling
Writers
John Keats, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Charles Baudelaire
Connections
Renée Vivien's first relationship was with American heiress and writer Natalie Clifford Barney, who inspired her to write. By 1901 the tempestuous and often jealous relationship with Natalie Barney had already collapsed. Vivien found Barney's infidelities too stressful. When Barney spent the second half of 1901 in the United States, Vivien chose not to follow; upon Natalie's return, she refused to see her. After their breakup, it was Barney who never resigned herself to the separation. She made strenuous efforts to get Vivien back, efforts that did not end until the latter's death. This included sending mutual friends to visit Vivien (in order to plead on her behalf), as well as flowers and letters begging Vivien to reconsider.
In 1902, Vivien became romantically involved with the wealthy Baroness Hélène van Zuylen, one of the Paris Rothschilds. Hélène was married with children, and their relationship had to be kept quiet. With Hélène, she found the maternal love that had eluded her all her life, but this was not a perfect situation either. While still with Zuylen, Vivien received a letter from a mysterious admirer in Istanbul, Kérimé Turkhan Pasha, the wife of a Turkish diplomat. This launched an intensely passionate correspondence, followed by brief clandestine encounters. Kérimé, who was French-educated and cultivated, nevertheless lived according to Islamic tradition. Isolated and veiled, she could neither travel freely nor leave her husband. Meanwhile, Vivien would not give up the Baroness de Zuylen. In 1907 Zuylen abruptly left Vivien for another woman, which quickly fueled gossip within the lesbian coterie of Paris. Deeply shocked and humiliated, Vivien fled to Japan and Hawaii with her mother, becoming seriously ill on the voyage. Another blow came in 1908 when Kérimé, upon moving with her husband to Saint Petersburg, ended their affair.
