Is there such thing as a ‘Decadent Translator’?: The case of Georges Hérelle (1848–1935)

Abstract

One never reads the biography of a translator. Translators do not seem to have a biography, their lives are of no interest to the general public and no-one seems to really care for them. Except, of course, if they are creators themselves, poets in their own right, who have endeavoured, here and there, and always for a great writer, to become translators. This is why Georges Hérelle’s personality seems so unique: he is a translator with a biography – and, moreover, his biography has largely determined his first steps in translation. Not that it is necessary to linger too much on his actual life, which has already been written about at length by Professor Clive Thomson. I shall touch only briefly on Hérelle’s biography, but the links between his life and his work as a translator and essayist (for he has also written a short essay on his own work as a translator), are still worth examining. Our intuition – or rather our initial intuition – is that his case offers a wonderful opportunity to explore what exactly translating decadence is, particularly in French, and what the possible definition of a decadent translator could be. Initial intuition, for this hypothesis of a decadent translator has become progressively questionable as Hérelle’s familiarity to us has increased. He has certainly translated decadent writers with commitment and passion: but was he a decadent himself? Our newborn doubts will be addressed here in five short sections.