Zola's Blue Flame Author(s): Michel Butor and Michael Saklad Reviewed work(s): Source: Yale French Studies,

No. 42, Zola (1969), pp. 9-25 Published by: Yale University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2929503 . Accessed: 26/10/2012 03:40
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MichelButor

Zola's blue flame*

of an unchangedcharacteristic The transfer fromperson to person down a family is one of the basic line, its presencewithina family, characteristics of the Ancien Regime. Furthermore, it is one of the roots of the notionof nobility. is conThe hereditary characteristic of tainedin the blood, the same blood beingpresentin all members one family. In truth thisredfluid, from whichflows wounds,is an intiof that special charactertraitwhich so deeply mate manifestation hero. of the founding affects each descendant Zola's physiological is of untoldwealth;one would imagination welcome a studyof him comparableto that of Micheletby Roland Barthes.Fluids, especiallythosecalled class "humours"are veryimportant. For the Rougon-Macquart, Le Docteur Pascal plays almostthe same role as the Etudes philosophiquesin relationto la Comedie Humaine. There all the themesare brought and echoed in a together near-fantastic key. If its relation to the whole is examined, it emerges as an admirable, metaphoric commentary containing some of themost highly poetic scenes of our author. Blood inexhaustibly transmits thedistinctive characteristic among thenobility. In Zola's works, thedistinctive characteristic embodiedby Ad6laide Fouque, thoughdoubtlesspreviously apparent, will onlybe passed on the lengthof timerequiredforthe fictional experiment. In Le DocteurPascal onlyone member ofthefifth generation prominently thischaracteristic, displays theothers, itwouldseem,have notinherited
*This article was originally published in Les Cahiers Naturalistes, XXXIV (1967), 101-113. It is reprinted here by permission of the author. A longer version of the article appeared in Critique,

CCXXXIX (1967), 407-437.

Yale FrenchStudies it. In thissense,Adelaide Fouque's "blood" runsout withthedeathof youngCharles. Charles is the son of Maxime Saccard and a domestic,Justine aroundPlassans, to whichshe reMegot, a nativeof the countryside and has two other turns witha pensionto raise him. She has married children.

Charles at the age of fifteen hardlyseemed twelveyearsold, and he stillhad thestammering of a five-year-old. intelligence He bore a striking resemblanceto his great-great-grandtanteDide, . . . he was of a slender,delicategracemother, fulnesssimilarto one of those small anemic kingscrowned with longpale hair,lightas milk, who are thelast of their line.

Every time he speaks of Charles, Zola refersto this "royal" appearance.

Whenever Charleswas not at his mother's house . .. he was to be foundat the home of F6liciteor anotherrelative, coquettishly dressed,buried in toys and livinglike the small effeminate dauphinof an extinct race. Nevertheless, this illegitimate child withroyal blond hair caused muchpain to old Mme. Rougon. ...

His hemophilia is another of royalty. indication He bleeds freely from thesmallest scratch and especiallyfrom thenose. The ancestressAd6laide Fouque, nicknamedtante Dide, goes mad afterseeingher grandsonSilvereMouretmurdered whenPierre Rougon takes power in Plassans. She is locked away in the Tulettes asylum. Charlesis thentakento see her,and withthepermission of the with her, cutting authorities, he spends afternoons out drawingsof 10

MichelButor soldiers,captains and especiallykings dressed in purple and gold. staysin the room,but one hot Augustday, Usually thewatchwoman she thinksthem resemblance, the extraordinary once again noticing thatshe takes advantageof thisto take a break. bothso well-behaved at theboy,but then all goes well. The old womangazes fixedly At first he starts to fallasleep:

His lily whitehead seemed to bend under his overlyheavy the drawings amongst mane of regal hair; he let it fall gently and fell asleep withone cheek againstthe gold and purple kings.

A glimmer appearsin theeyesof the ancestress.

along An event had just occurred;a red drop was flowing This dropfell,thenanother theedge of thechild'sleftnostril. it.It was theblood, thedew of theblood formed and followed with no bruise or contusionthis time, which was forming, all alone and flowing away in the flacciderosionof emerging flowing over the The dropsbecame a finetrickle degeneracy. A small pool coveredthemand made gold of the drawings. falling ofthetable;then, newdropsformed, itswayto a corner of theroom. one by one, on thefloor heavyand thick,

himself coveredwithblood and calls out, Charles awakes, finds buthisvoice is alreadyweakening. she makes a superhuman Ad6laide thenregainsall her lucidity; effort to cryout,butshe cannotmake a sound.She is almostparalyzed by the shock and looks on, as her own blood runsout. Her royaldeherown likeness, weakensbeforehereyes. gradually scendant, 11

Yale FrenchStudies Charles, now seeminglyasleep and silent, was losing his fromhis veins endlessly,almost last blood. It was flowing skin turneddeathlypale. His lips His lily-white noiselessly. lost theircolor, faded into a wan pink, and finallyturned white.

He opens his eyes forthelast time.Withher own eyes Ad6laide can see his becoming blank.

Suddenly,theybecame blank, theirlightwent out. It was the end, the death of the eyes,and Charles had died without a quiver,emptied whosewaterhas flowedaway. like a spring,

in the blood, He lies there"divinely handsome,his head resting of hair like one those small, anemic amongsthis tousledroyal-blond his last breathuntilthe arrivalof Pascal. The dauphins" breathing F6liciteRougon and his doctorcomes in, accompaniedby his mother out of Ad6laYde's niece Clotilde,and discovershis death,the running blood.

momentarily restores herspeech. The presenceof thesewitnesses Several timesshe shouts,"the gendarme!"Three bloody deaths are superimposedin her mind: the death of her lover Macquart, the to her "race"; the death of her poacherkilledby a gendarme foreign murdered favorite duringthe captureof grandsonSilvere,indirectly Plassans by histwo uncleswho are herown sons,thelegitimate Pierre thedeathof this AntoineMacquart;lastly, Rougon and theillegitimate great-great-grandson who died "by his own hand." Of coursethiswill lead to herown deathseveralhourslater. 12

MichelButor and the lucidityand speech regained The shock of recognition by theheavy after manyyearsof absencehave alreadybeen suggested gaze of the old woman duringthe last pages of ThereseRaquin. We themagain in thesecondof thefourEvangiles,Travail, willencounter in front of thesmokyruinof his standing Qurignon, whenold Jerome to tell them his entirelife, gathersa few people together factory, yearshe had not said a word. forthirty although

storedin thehead of thiseighty-sevenstory What a frightful factsto summarize man,and whata seriesof horrible year-old and thepast,present illuminating of struggle, an entire century was thismind thing of a family! And whata frightening future seemedto sleep,thismindwhichslowlyawakwherethestory would be divulgedin a thatsoon everything ened threatening lips were truth ifthe alreadystammering wave of overflowing words. to shoutdistinct

long speech seems to growout of Ad6laide's Jerome Qurignon's "We mustgiveback . .. we by therefrain twowords.It is punctuated mustgiveback . . ." In the scene in Le Docteur Pascal, Zola explains This sudden thelaw of atonement. to us thatthe"gendarme" represents Zola says: Quirignon, awarenessis the awarenessof guilt.Of Jerome

so manydisastersand an entire He seemed to have survived the of blessed and cursedpersonsonlyto understand family beforegoing point.On the day of awakening, mostimportant thelong agonyof a man who,having to hisdeath,he unfolded believed in his race rooted deep in the empirehe founded, survived long enoughto see the race and empireblown away And he said whyhe was passing of the future. the winds by and whyhe was makingamends. judgment 13

Yale FrenchStudies If Jerome Qurignonsuffers fromindividual guiltas the founder of an industrial empire, how could poor Ad6laide suffer from thesame but this feelings? Of course,littleCharles has "execrable ancestors," adjectivecannotapplyto herwho is theancestor par excellence.In the thereis a hereditary Rougon-Macquartas in the Qurignonfamily, is sharedby different The unity;the same "personality" individuals. Ad6laide or Jerome, gaze of the forefathers, withits long periodsof and silence,during staring whichit recordseverything said and done is the first of the original by its execrable descendants, incarnation in terms of thosepersonsbeingstudied; distinctive characteristic (first theremay have been previousincarnations such as the first Qurignon or Ad6laide's father).Conspicuousguilt,whichcan suddenly restore in all individuals in whose bodies flowsthis"differspeech,is present ent" blood. It is notAd6laYde thepersonwho is guilty, butrather her"blood"; The last drops of guilty blood Corneilledid not say it any differently. words of speech. If the otherindividualsare coincide withthe first the gaze of the forefathers on accountof its activelyguilty, is guilty of is everything silence.WhatCharlesridshimself thatkeptAd6laYde fromspeaking. In Travail,Jerome of all hisknowledge Qurignon delivers himself of his guilty and of the complete history family. Thus, the bloodystain, "ce lac de sang hantepar de mauvais anges" - into which not only young Charles is drained and then of the Rougon-Macquart, drownedbut also the hereditary difference the reports, the evidenceabout theentire represents family so scrupulously accumulated by Doctor Pascal Rougon in his large closet.His who does not share the blood she has so closely mother,FMlicite, on washing thisstainand making espoused,insists it disappear. There is no doubt that Zola himself feltstainedby just such a whichin variouscircumstances and settings difference could become crimeor genius.How could itbe channeled intogenius? vice,revolt, It would certainly be fascinating to studyall themanyreflections and characters in the Rougon-Macquart representative of the author to theothers. in relation But,letus onlydiscussthoseforwhomhe uses 14

MichelButor in manyways theword"genius."Thereis Claude Lantier,thepainter inspired by Cezanne,butmoreby Zola thanby Cezanne, moredeeply in l'Oeuvre,his childhoodfriend, Zola than his otherrepresentation the authorPierreSandoz, an unsuccessful yetgifted Lantier,a genius is undercontrol, in new form, "whenneurosis Claude showsauthentic of the author, the genius."Thereis also Doctor Pascal, last figuration one who has succeededin writing books. Zola is knownto have taken the name MonsieurPascal during theexile in London following the "Dreyfus affair." if thereis some geniusin Doctor Pascal, he conNevertheless, sidershimself a perfect in thelanguage exampleof "innateness" which, of Doctor Lucas as adoptedby Zola, means the signsof heredity are no longerrecognizable in him and thatwithhim thereis a return, at least in appearance,to a more general type. Then thereis Pascal, symbolizing redemption and resurrection. No longeris thereany sign in theexecrableand sometimes nothof his membership gifted family; with ing separateshim fromthose of anotherblood. The difference, all its advantagesforsome of thosehavingit, becomes veryordinary in him. It is not because of his hereditary geniusthatDoctor Pascal his documentation and writes the of theRougon-Maccollects history the history because he writes thatthe hereditary quart,but it is rather in becomes him difference completely unrecognizable and turnsinto pure genius.

This is an execrablefamily, certainly, but one carrying its genius it.It is an irreplaceable within family, though, sinceall Second Empire France confessesand emptiesits guiltyblood in it and through it; indeed,thisis the reasonforwhichon Charles' death,the family suddenlyappearsso royal,something quiteunexpected at first glance. ofLa Faute de l'abbe'Mouretdemonstrates However,a rereading how sensitiveZola was to the medieval idea of man as masterof creation. 15

Yale FrenchStudies However, at this hour the entirepark was theirs.They had sovereignly takenpossessionof it.... On the meadows,the their kingdom weretheirs. The grassenlarged grassand waters unrolling silverrugs beforethem;the waters by continually oftheir pleasures.... Theyruledeverywhere, werethegreatest earthwhich, and thisterrible even overtherocks,thestreams withits monstrous plants,had quiveredunderthe weightof their bodies.... Albineand Sergewalked Onlytheplantshad notsurrendered. the crowdof animalsobedientto them. regallythrough

to be of a positive difference allows an individual The emergence in thatdifferA certain permanence thesole possessorof thisroyalty. thenotion ofnobility, to consolidating contributes ence,whichsupports thisvariation to the advantageof a family line. However,as soon as some usurproyalty, are relegated to therankof mere thedispossessed role by masking animals.Here, theCatholicChurchplaysan essential on earth with thepromise of a kingdom in heaven. theloss ofa kingdom would have gained thosewho underothercircumstances Furthermore find themselves in farworsecondition. The same heredibyusurpation tarystain,insteadof havinga positivevalue, can lead to crime,vice and madness;forinstance, itis onlynecessary thattheblood no longer or thata personbe a Macquart ratherthan a Rougon. be legitimate The fateof JacquesLantier, the"humananimal,"so humanand filled is worsethanthatof an animal. withsuch admirablequalities, of blood, considered as absoAnd ifthe permanence by nobility and if after severalgenerations extremely temporary, lute,is in reality thereigning difference thepositive line,any disappearsfrom hereditary appearingoutsidethisline, even a genius,can remarkable individual a dangerto thosein powerand is thusseen to be remarkonlypresent and mostof the time ablybad. The deposedkingbecomesa monster, himon thethrone is totally theman replacing unworthy. of the Rougon-Macquartunfoldsagainst a The entirehistory To Zola, as to all nineteenth ofusurpation. century writers, background 16

MichelButor Napoleon was obviouslya genius.To theirmindthis explained and almostexcused his seizureof power.In his spurioussuccessorNapoleon III, on the otherhand, the originaldistinctive trait,if indeed it remained recognizable, manifested itself entirely differently. The coup of thesecondof Decemberwas an absoluteusurpation d'e'tat whichof in thedehumanization necessity resulted of millions of people. Old Qurignon repeats,"We mustgiveback, we mustgiveback," and in the contextof Travail we know this means, "We must give we have usurped,"especiallythatrepresented back thefortune by the "Abyss" (the name of his factory)in which,as in the "Voreux" (the in Germinal),thevery mineshaft oftheworkers is devoured. humanity this is the Old Ad6laide does not recounther family's history; task of hergrandson, Doctor Pascal, who has inherited onlyher gaze. In youngCharles' death he too sees the need to give back, give men Drownedin thebloodstainare all the kingswhose back their royalty. thechildhas justcutout.Usingheredity fornovas a technique pictures elistic experimentation should help abolish kings forever.Through theblood of theRougon-Macquart, the blood of all royalor imperial lines should be consumedin forming the characters whichmake up the novels;from thisink theyare drawn.

In Le DocteurPascal thisscene is thedirect resultand, in a way, theoutcomeof another, equallyextraordinary scene.Just before taking to theTulettes wherehe will Charles,accompanied by Clotilde, asylum lose all his blood, the doctorvisitshis illegitimate uncle,old Antoine the at his Macquart, family disgrace, hideawaywherehe spends his days drinking. When they arrivethe dog is continually, yet quietlymoaning. Several timesthe doctor calls out, "Macquart! Macquart!" No one answers.He opens the door; all is dark,and the kitchen is filled with thicknauseating smoke.He opens theshutters. 17

Yale FrenchStudies The doctorwas astonished by what he thennoticed.Everybottle proofspirit was in place. The glass and theempty thing were on the table. Only the chairthe uncle had probablysat legs wereblackened, thefront on showedany signsof thefire; and the strawseat was halfburned.What had become of the ofthechairon thetilefloor, had he gone?In front uncle,where stainedby a pool of grease,only a small heap of ashes remained; next to it lay the pipe, a black pipe, which hadn't even brokenwhen it fell.All thatremainedof him was containedin thishandfulof lightashes. He was also presentin cloud floating out the open windowand in the reddish-brown thelayerofsootwhich kitchen, a horrible had coatedtheentire everything, viscous and fleshcovering grease of transformed to thetouch. repulsive

thefinest, Zola tellsus, combustion," It is a case of "spontaneous wellhe is deep in myth. has everwitnessed. He knowsperfectly a doctor

. . . and nothing remainedof him,not a bone, a toothor a nothing except this small pile of graydust which fingernail, thedraft from thedoorway threatened to blow away.

WhenAntoineMacquart's will is read, it is revealedthathe had of his tomb,"a superbtomb wealthto theerection assignedhis entire of marblewithtwoenormous crying angels,withfoldedwings."Nothto buryin it,however. ing of himremained Far from alarmedbythisscene,Doctor Pascal is amazed:

... (Once And so he died royally like theprinceof drunkards again note this "royally") . . . burningof his own flame, 18

MichelButor burning away in theblazingpyreof hisownbody.... But this is an admirabledeath! To disappearand leave no tracebut a smallheap of ashes and a pipe lying nearby!

The doctorpicksup thepipe in orderto keep "a relic,"he says, but he picks up something else which his niece, Clotilde, had just noticedunderthetable,a scrap,a shred. . . a woman'sgreenglove.

"Look," she shouts,"it's grandmother's glove, you rememlast night." ber,thegloveshe couldn'tfind

Then, theyboth realize that F6licite Rougon, Doctor Pascal's mother, Clotilde'sgrandmother and Charles' great-grandmother, had been presentat the combustion to of old Antoineand didn'tattempt prevent it. She admitsthisa fewmoments laterwhentheymeether at theasylumjust beforethe child'sdeath. This is how the murder of old Antoinetook place. This murder, due to an oversight on the part of his half-sister-in-law seemingly beenplannedfora longtime.Since he had moved Felicite, had, in fact, to the hideawaynear the asylumshe had been giving himpresents of the family of an objecwine,liqueursand brandyin hope of "ridding him she would have buried both tionable old man." When burying "old, dirtylinen and the blood and mud of the two conquests of To do away withold Plassans." We knowsuch a burialis impossible. Antoineis thesame forheras doingawaywiththewritings of her son, at the beginning Pascal. Unfortunately, drinkseems to do wonders foritsvictim by restoring his vitality. After administering thedose she deemedsufficient and thenputting a stop to thistypeof "generosity," shehad to facea longwait.However,on thatvery hotAugustday when she arrived, all was quiet. She too called out, "Macquart! Macquart!" and entered thedarkkitchen. 19

Yale FrenchStudies Her firstsensationwas only that she was chokingon the violent stench of alcoholfilling theroom.Everypiece of furniture seemed to exude this odor; it seemed to permeatethe to thedim entire house. Then,as hereyesbecame accustomed at a light, she finally caughtsightof the uncle.He was sitting bottle empty proofspirit table witha glass and a completely on it.

He is sleepingand doesn'thear her. She acts as thoughhe isn't there.She feelswarm and removesher gloves.She is thirsty, washes a glass and fillsit withwater.Justwhenshe is about to take a drink she stops, dumbfounded, and puts the filledglass down next to her gloves:

She had just noticed that he had probably fallen asleep his pipe, fortheshort, whilesmoking black pipe had fallenin toin amazement. The burning his lap. She stood motionless thepipe, and hispantshad caughtfire. bacco had spilledfrom Througha hole in the material,already the size of a onefrom a red thigh, hundred sous coin, showedhis naked thigh, whicha small blue flamewas rising. At first it was his underwear, his shortsor Felicite thought his shirtwhichwere burning. However,therewas no doubt about it; she clearlysaw the exposed fleshand the smallblue forth flame from and dancingas a flamedartit,light bursting alcohol. It was ing across the surfaceof a glass of flaming quietlyyet silently; hardlyhigherthan a pilot flameburning it was so weak the slightest breeze made it flicker. It was though, theskinwas cracking and the rapidly growing larger, to melt. fatwas beginning He is stillalive; she sees his breathing makinghis chestrise and fall.She calls his name,not to awakenhimthistimebut to be sure,if he is reallydying, thatthereis no chancehe willwake up. 20

MichelButor F6liciteRougon, reassuredthat at least this incarnation of the family shameis dying, drinks downherglass ofwaterin one gulp,then hurriedly picksup one gloveand,thinking she has both,closes thedoor and flees. On stageremain thesignatures of thetwo actors- thegloveand thepipe. A feminine articlepar excellenceconnected withall thevestiary symbolism whichcan be seenin Au Bonheurdes dames,theglove coversthehandand tries to conceal theorigins of an act, an event.The masculine thepipe whichold Antoinealwayscarriedwithhim, article, announces his own death. the Macquart branch;we know the role it Alcohol characterizes plays in L'Assommoirand Germinal.In a way it worksagainstblood the hereditary by preventing characteristic fromemerging. F6licite pliesAntoinewithdrink to obliterate himfrom thefamily. In thesame and theirhirelings way employers do everything to encouragealcoholism amongminers, forthisis thebestwayto keep differences, which appearin certain individuals suchas EtienneLantier, from turning into revolt, encouraging others to reconquer their royalty and lost humaneness. The blood flowing from one individual to another within a family is, in one branch,partially offset by the flowof alcohol in whichit is bathed. ofAntoine However,ifdestruction Macquart,signedbythegreen of the shame of the Rougon family glove,permits concealment and, despiteall, strengthening ofitsreign, thefactthatthisdestruction takes place in a blue flameby the spontaneouscombustion of alcohol will also destroy thisconcealment. Once theconcealing alcohol has burned away,theglovewhichwas to conceal theguilty hand becomesincriminating. In his "royal" death old Antoinebecomes a low-burning flame like old, livingAd6laide. In him a flamesecretly smoulders, waiting to destroyall his alcohol, all that which marksthis henchman, this accomplicein usurpation. The blue flameburning old AntoineMacquart is in factbut the of anotherflame.This is the flamewhichwill burnDoctor harbinger Pascal in effigy, his writings, through manuscripts and papers,in other 21

Yale FrenchStudies words the Rougon-Macquartthemselves as novels, in a firefanned by the angry hand of old F6licite.

Ah, heretheyare.... Into thefire! Into thefire! She had just foundthe papers. Far in back, behindthe pile of notes, thedoctorhad hiddentheblue folders. She was overcome by a fury, a frenzy to destroy thepapers she pickedup by the handful and threw intotheflames.... They'reburning, they'reburning!. . . They'refinally burning! ... They'reburning, it's so beautiful!

A fire burnsin thatnevercleanedchimney at a certain producing It awakenspoor Clotildeasleep near the pointa rumble like thunder. corpseof heruncle,and she criesout:

It's as though you just burnedyourson.

And F6liciteanswers:

Burn Pascal because I burnedhis papers! . . . Well, I would the glory of our family! have burnedthetownto protect You know, though,continuedthe small old woman who in stature, seemedto be growing thatI onlyhad one ambition, of our family.... one desire,thewealthand royalty

Like the kitchenof old Antoinethe room is fullof smoke and she is victorious once again. Will thisfireremain soot. F6licitethinks a secret, willitbe possibleto seal itsashes in thewonderful monument to the Rougons' fortune? Let's see whether we can finda greenglove 22

MichelButor on the table. It stands out so clearlyin the untouchedfamilytree haven'teven F6liciteand Martinethe servant, thatthe two arsonists, thought to look forit there. thissame yetitis from must burn, family Thusthewholewretched flame family thatstemsnotonlygeniusbutthistree,be it a permanent in whichwe see thetreeof Paradou in La Faute de labbe' or lightning, Mouret.

What fewpeople know is thatin the gardentheyhad found a spotof totalbliss.... A place of cool shadows,hiddendeep you thatthere beautiful so marvelously brush, in impenetrable withits enorretreat the entire world- an enchanted forget itwitha roofof leaves.... I was toldthat moustreecovering a wholelifecould be livedtherein thespace of a minute.... It is thereshe is buried.... It was thehappinessof havingsat therewhich killed her. The shade of the tree has a charm whichinducesdeath....

his priesthood since entering Serge Mouret,who has forgotten her: the garden,interrupts

to sit under a tree whose shade has such Isn't it forbidden powers? strange

Albine says solemnly:

Everyonearound here has told me it's Yes, it is forbidden. forbidden. 23

Yale FrenchStudies in the middleof the new This is the tree we will findgrowing thefirst of Zola's Evangiles.Both treeand parcelofland in Fe'condite', willgrowoldertheretogether. inhabitants While readingthe Rougon-Macquartall the alcohol whichhas begunto flowin our veinsmustbe burnedin orderto free insidiously willbecome mosteffective it. Thus our revolt our blood,yetilluminate ourselvesin the baptismal calmness,allowingus to immerse through royalty. waterof rediscovered humoursthat flowin society's If I have discussedtwo harmful alcohol, I must blood and neutralizing usurpative system, circulatory that have an equally fluids two other beneficial at least fluids, mention is milk,specifiof thenovels.The first role in theworkings important of Le Docteur callythe milkwithwhichClotilde,in thelast moments Pascal, nourishesthat happy familyenigma,her son by her uncle. chapteron wet nursesin Fecondite The role of milkin the striking Secondly, and above all, water, the deserves further investigation. thebark thesap thatflows from seminal water, vitalmedium, supremely it witha "fertile mist,"wateras mother of the Paradou tree,bathing miraclesin Lourdes waterwhicheffects in La Joie de vivre,curative because it is water. but simply notbecause theVirginwillsthem, who searchesfor alchemist Doctor Pascal, the twentieth-century

of lifewhichwill fight against theuniversal panacea, thefluid a sciena true, theonlyrealcause of all illness, humandebility, health strength, tificFountainof Youth whichby providing men, new and superior and willpower,wouldcreateentirely

of sheep's brain achieves almost afterfailing withall his extractions water. of distilled miraculous cureswithsimpleinjections stilllife: thepipe on the Let us look once again at thisadmirable old man floor;on the chairthe blue flameintowhichthe intoxicated the empty next to table on the the glove green is beingmetamorphosed; and theglass of water. bottleof proofspirit 24

MichelButor the role whichwaterplays. At the death of Now we understand AntoineMacquartwaterprovesto be thetrueelixirof longlifeforhis to and forthatfamily's "distinctive characteristic" vile "royal"family which it clung, to which it devoted body and soul and which old she possessedforall time. F6licitethought not simply It is onlythe blue flameproducedby the combustion super-alcohol, that keeps of alcohol but of ink, that inexhaustible It alone and blood frombecomingusurpation. hereditary differences thehereditary thewater- intothelightof day. community brings

Translated byMichael Saklad

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