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Champavert: Contes Immoraux by “Pétrus Borel, le lycanthrope,” here translated as Champavert: Immoral Tales by Pétrus Borel the Lycanthrope, was initially published in Paris by Eugène Renduel in 1833. It was the second book to appear under the signature of Pétrus Borel, having been preceded by a volume of poems entitled Rhapsodies, published the previous year. It was not the last such publication, although the later ones were, so to speak, illusory, for reasons explained in the preface to Champavert.
The preface in question explains that “Pétrus Borel” was the pseudonym of someone named Champavert, who had recently committed suicide, and that the collection of stories was an initial sampling from the papers he left behind—including the story of Champavert’s suicide. Like the narrative voice that describes Champavert’s death retrospectively in the final passage of the final item in the collection, someone or something did live on after that alleged suicide, but it was not the same person; the Pétrus Borel who had secretly been “Champavert le lycanthrope” was dead, and had indeed committed suicide, spiritually and artistically. As is obvious to any reader of Champavert, the Pétrus Borel who published the novel Madame Putiphar [Potiphar’s Wife] (1838) and several further stories—including “La Nonne de Penaranda” [The Nun of Penaranda] (1842) and “Le Trésor de la caverne d’Arceuil” [The Trasure of the Cave of Arcueil] (1843) in the Revue de Paris and “Miss Hazel” (1844) in the Revue pittoresque—was not the same person, and signaled the fact by omitting to add “le lycanthrope” to his signature.
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Always insulting them in his velvet verses.
Please! Spare us your autocratic airs;
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