Long Fiction:
Merlette, 1886
Sixtine: Roman de la vie cérébrale, 1890 (VeryWoman: A Cerebral Novel, 1922)
Les Chevaux de Diomède, 1897 (The Horses of Diomedes, 1923)
Le Songe d’une femme, 1899 (The Dream of a Woman, 1927)
Une Nuit au Luxembourg, 1906 (A Night in the Luxembourg, 1912)
Un Coeur virginal, 1907 (A Virgin Heart, 1921)
Lettres d’un satyre, 1913 (Mr. Antiphilos, Satyr, 1922)
Short Fiction:
Le Fantôme, 1893 (The Phantom, 1992)
Proses moroses, 1894
Histoires magiques, 1894 (Studies in Fascination, 1992)
Le Pèlerin du silence, 1896
D’un pays lointain, 1898
Couleurs, 1908 (Colors, 1929)
La Patience de Griseldis, 1921
The Angels of Perversity, 1992 (includes The Phantom, Studies in Fascination, and other stories)
Drama:
Lilith, pb. 1892 (English translation, 1946)
Théodat, pb. 1893 (English translation, 1916)
La Princesse Phénissa, pb. 1895
Le Vieux Roi, pb. 1897 (The Old King, 1916)
L’Ombre d’une femme, pb. 1924
Poetry:
Divertissements, 1912 (translated in Remy de Goncourt: Selections from All His Works, 1928)
Nonfiction:
Le Latin mystique, 1892
Le Livre des masques, 1896 (The Book of Masks, 1921)
Le Deuxième Livre des masques, 1898
Esthétique de la langue française, 1899 (What Is Pure French?, 1922)
La Culture des idées, 1900 (The Cultivation of Ideas, 1921)
Le Problème du style, 1902
Le Chemin de velours, 1902 (Path of Velvet, 1921)
Physique d’amour: Essai sur l’instinct sexuel, 1903 (The Natural Philosophy of Love, 1926)
Épilogues, 1903-1913 (4 volumes)
Promenades littéraires, 1904-1927 (7 volumes)
Promenades philosophiques, 1905-1909 (7 volumes
Philosophic Nights in Paris, 1920)
Dialogues des amateurs sur les choses du temps, 1905-1907, 1907
Nouveaux dialogues des amateurs sur les choses du temps, 1907-1910, 1910
Lettres à l’Amazone, 1914 (Letters to the Amazon, 1931)
Pendant l’orage, 1915
Dans la tourmente, 1916
Pendant la guerre, 1917
Lettres intimes à l’Amazone, 1928
Miscellaneous:
Remy de Goncourt: Selections from All His Works, 1928 (2 volumes)
Rémy de Gourmont (goor-mohn) represents a type of literary figure not uncommon in the nineteenth century, the detached observer of life. As a celebrated poet he contributed to the Imagist movement of the early twentieth century. A prolific novelist and short-story writer, he exhibited a lifelong fascination for the scientific study of sexuality, and these theoretical dramas offer an aesthetic contrast between intellectual heroes and the women who captivate them.
After having been educated in Caen, a northern seaport near the English Channel, Gourmont went to Paris in 1883. That same year he assumed the position of assistant librarian at the Bibliothèque Nationale; he remained in this position until 1891, when he was dismissed for writing a seemingly unpatriotic, pro-German article in the Mercure de France, a periodical that he founded in collaboration with several other writers associated with the Symbolist movement, among them Joris-Karl Huysmans, Henri de Régnier, and Alfred Vallette.
The book that perhaps displays Gourmont’s critical abilities at their fullest is The Book of Masks, a study of the accomplishments and individuality of the Symbolist poets. This work was followed by Épilogues, a set of essays on contemporary life published in the Mercure de France. One of the most valuable achievements of Gourmont’s career was the identification of such seminal figures of the late nineteenth century literary landscape as Huysmans, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Friedrich Nietzsche.
The later studies Promenades littéraires and Promenades philosophiques cover a wide range of intellectual topics. Nevertheless, as he demonstrated in his Le Problème du style, Gourmont’s principal interest remained focused on the question of literature as a pure art form. One of the salient features of his artistic approach to literature was his practice of breaking up traditional images and ideas into parts so that these divisions could be individually scrutinized and reassembled into new patterns and associations.
After 1891 Gourmont became afflicted with the chronic and disfiguring disease lupus. After that time the most intense part of his life was lived in his own mind. This is reflected in his novels The Horses of Diomedes, A Night in the Luxembourg, and A Virgin Heart. Although few of his characters really come alive, these novels are illuminated by a compelling and individual intelligence. In A Night in the Luxembourg Gourmont also reveals a traditional Gallic defiance of orthodox Christianity.
Rémy de Gourmont died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Paris in 1915 while writing a condemnation of the German bombing of Rheims Cathedral after the 1914 escalation of war. This final reflection on militarism and morality is yet another confirmation of his discursive, analytical thinking.