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 French
writer and poet, whose best-known work is The Devil in the Flesh,
a tale of a love affair between a schoolboy and a young married
woman during the First World War. Radiquet moved to Paris in his
adolescence, as Rimbaud had done years before. Although Radiguet's
style was undeveloped, his insights were universally true.
"Listen, I have something terrible to tell you. In three days
I am going to be shot by the soldiers of God."
(Radiguet to Cocteau in December 1923)
Radiguet was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (Seine), a meteorological
station some eight miles from Paris. His father was a cartoonist.
Almost nothing is known of Radiguet's childhood and education. At
very early age he started to write poetry and in 1918 he arrived
in Paris, where his career as a writer was subsequently short but
astonishing.
At the age of 16 Radiguet became a member of Dadaist and Cubist
circles, and then a protégé on Jean Cocteau. Althought Radiguet
contributed to the magazine Sic, along with such writers
as Louis Aragon, André Breton, and Philippe Soupault, he was not
interested in the many 'isms' that connected and separated intellectuals
during those years. He was drawn instead to the classic tradition
of poetry, especially 18th-century neoclassicism.
Radiguet's first book, LES JOUES EN FEU (published 1925), was a
collection of poems, which he had written at fifteen. In 1921 he
wrote a two-act play LES PÉLICANS, for which Georges Auric composed
the music.
In 1920 Radiguet moved to the fishing village of Carqueiranne,
near Toulon, and then to Piquet, where he wrote several poems and
started work on his first novel, The Devil in the Flesh.
Before the book was published, Cocteau read parts of it at Jean
Hugo's studio at the Palais-Royal. Picasso among others was present;
but Madame de Beaumont fell asleep during the reading. Four years
earlier Apollinaire teased Radiguet: "Don't despair; Monsieur
Rimbaud waited until he was seventeen before writing his masterpiece."
The book made the author rich and famous. DEVOIRS DE VACANES, Radiguet's
second collection of poems appeared in 1921.
 The
Devil in the Flesh was a modern version of Daphnis and Chloë.
It was published first under the title COEUR VERT (Green heart)
and shocked many critics who did not accept its bold freshness.
Most of the events take place in the northern suburbs of Paris.
The fifteen-year-old narrator takes a day off from attending school,
to accompany a nineteen-year-old woman, Marthe Lacombe. She is about
to be married and shops for furniture. After her marriage, her husband
is stationed at the front in the First World War. The boy and Martha
become lovers, and the affair is recorded from the first shy approaches
to violent sensuality, including lovers' quarrels and the immature
boy's cruelty. They take a disastrous trip to Paris, where they
wander endlessly. After giving birth to the narrator's child, Martha
dies, largely from the effects of being forced to walk through Paris
in cold weather because the young man lacks the courage to ask for
a hotel room. In 1952 an irate reader stepped forward and presented
himself as the cuckolded soldier in question.
Radiguet's last novel, Count Orgel Opens the Ball, was published
in 1924. Reminiscent of Mme. De La Fayette's La Princesse de
Cléves (1677), the protagonist, François de Séryeuse, falls
in love with Countess d'Orgel. Although they never meet in the flesh,
the woman feels guilty and confesses her to her husband. François's
mother also is drawn to Paris to resolve the situation. Like Radiguet's
first young hero, François is not able to successfully break free
from home and family. The novel ends as the count passes the matter
off lightly and continues planning costumes and entrances for the
masked ball of the novel's title.
It is probable that Cocteau made more than minor revisions in both
of Radiguet's novels, when they spent summer vacations writing side
by side. Radiguet's career was short. He caught typhoid fever in
Paris in 1923 and died on December 12, 1923 at the age 20. Radiguet's
other works include a volume of poetry, LES JOUES EN FEU (1920).
For further reading: Histoire du roman français depuis
1918 by C.-E. Magny (1959); Introduction to the Devil in the Flesh
by A. Huxley (1932); Raymond Radiguet by D. Noakes (1968); Raymond
Radiguet by M. Crosland (1976); Raymond Radiguet by J. McNab (1984);
Encyclopaedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, ed. by
Steven R. Serafin (1999, vol.3)
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