Les Enfants Terribles (1929 novel)

Summary

Jean Cocteau's *Les Enfants Terribles* (1929) centers on the destructive, insular bond between siblings Paul and Élisabeth, who retreat into a private world called "the Room" after their mother's death. The novel argues that this self-enclosed complicity—charged with "all the public crime and shame and horror of their period"—becomes a microcosm of societal decay, where innocence curdles into tyranny and the "images of God" manifest as "every form of evil imaginable by man." Cocteau uses the siblings' game-like existence to explore how isolation breeds a monstrous, parasitic love that consumes reality itself. The narrative's dreamlike, poetic prose mirrors the characters' descent into a void where "the abyss below, and the abyss above" swallows all meaning. Readers witness how the "tribute exacted by the spirit from the body" (as in the poem *Insomnie*) drives creation and destruction alike, leaving the siblings trapped between childhood fantasy and adult horror. The takeaway is a stark meditation on how private worlds, when severed from moral law, become prisons of their own making.

Key concepts

• The Room — The siblings' private sanctuary, a sealed-off space where they enact rituals and games, representing their rejection of the outside world and its moral codes.
• Complicity in public crime — The idea that the siblings' secret bond makes them "charged with their complicity in all the public crime and shame and horror of their period," linking personal corruption to societal decay.
• Images of God as evil — The concept that "the images of God are summoned, and appear, in the likeness of every form of evil imaginable by man," reflecting how authority figures become vessels for human depravity.
• Insomnie — A poem within the novel describing "the tribute exacted by the spirit from the body" when creative impulse forces the weary to labor in "the field of imaginative thought," sacrificing rest for art.
• The abyss below and above — A recurring image of existential void—"the abyss below, and the abyss above"—symbolizing the siblings' loss of grounding and descent into nothingness.
• The grave statue of mourning — A personified "deuil" (mourning) that "comes to sit at my side," representing how grief becomes a constant, sculptural companion in the characters' lives.

From the book

Title: Les Enfants Terribles (1929 novel) by Jean Cocteau← A Study of Victor Hugo ( 1886 ) by Algernon Charles Swinburne → First published in 1886, this is a transcription of the first edition. All of the text was previously published in periodicals. Pp. 1-38 [to the words "in the prose of Victor Hugo."] previously printed in The Nineteenth Century , July 1885. pp. 14-29. Pp. 38 [commencing with the words "There is not, it seems to me"] to 82 [to the words "the greatest of the century"] and pp. 85 [commencing with the words "Far different in the promise"] to the end of 106, previously printed in The Ninteenth Century , August 1885, pp. 294-311. Pp. 82 [commencing with the words "Every word of the thirty-eight lines"] to 85 [to the words "aspiration to pass beyond it."], previously printed…

Popular questions readers ask

• The text details that "A Study of Victor Hugo" was initially published as fragments across various periodicals over several years. What might this staggered publication process reveal about the nature of literary scholarship or the economics of publishing in the late 19th century, and how might it compare to modern academic dissemination?
• If Swinburne's "study" was compiled from previously published, distinct sections, how might this influence the overall coherence, thematic unity, or critical argument of the final book for a contemporary reader? Explain the potential challenges or advantages this structure presents.
• The work is explicitly noted as being in the public domain. Beyond simply meaning it's free to use, what are the deeper academic, creative, or historical implications for a critical work like this entering the public domain, particularly in relation to its subject, Victor Hugo?
• By connecting the information about Chatto & Windus publishing Swinburne's "study" with the diverse range of titles listed in their 1902 catalogue, what can you infer about the publisher's identity, their target audience, or the broader literary marketplace at the turn of the 20th century?
• Swinburne's work is presented as "A Study of Victor Hugo." Based on the provided context (its fragmented origin, publication by a general literature publisher), what does the term "study" signify in this late 19th-century context, and what might its implied purpose be for both the author and the reader compared to, for instance, a biography or a mere review?