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paul_viaf's review
4.0
Rachilde is the corporeal essence of a tempest. In the Juggler, she creates an enormously complex creature above gender, above sexuality, above allure, & yet, reflecting as accurately as one ever could, the epitome of these qualities, which could quite possibly inflect autobiographical tones. Rachilde presents her stance on the fickleness of man the instant he obtains the effervescent form of pleasure stemming from sexual intercourse. It is as if the beginning & the end occupy one realm when penetration & consummation meet, climax, & precipitate the death of the interaction. Leon Reille, her male character, is a beast behind closed quarters guised as a gentlemen. He would rape & ravage. He would succumb to animalistic instincts. He is as a jealous god which would have no deviating worship. He is brutal & unremittable. He is rapacious. Eliante, the female protagonist, is stoic, reserved, seductive, plagued, intellectual, & mysterious. She controls her demeanor with a solemn stew, he fidgets with a feverish anguish, she’s engaged with her sexuality to the point that it is an utterly honed craft, whereas he is a child given a complicated toy with which he knows not how to operate. He thrashes about with it as an enthusiastic novice may. Eliante is a master seductress because she is so aloof while tugging upon the thread of passion so vehemently. She has the instincts of a spider. She approaches with a great fervor then retreats with the same ferverish pitch. The psychology of her femininity is a web even unto herself. It as if she weaves with intent to sabotage her own systematic weaving, thus the entirety of the exercise is under her complete acrobatic control. The perplexity of the talents of a juggler. Enthralling to the eye. The element of suspense. The dexterity of keeping elements, juxtaposed, aloft. The act is captivating. Mesmerizing. Eliante is, above everything else, a performer. A performer whom, at times, so talented in deception, seduction, & disguise, often loses sight & control of her roles. Almost Hamletesque, she leaves the reader baffled as to whether the madness is a charade or sincere, & it is so perplexing & so layered, that the character herself becomes this chimeric bystander wandering in the labyrinth of her of own psyche. Leon is a toad, a fool, an adolescent miscreant. He is a fucking tool! This is from the view of a mere man whose brain is developed quite differently from the female sex. Obvious discrepancies in gender roles come into play & yet they are nimbly constructed with the hint of hermaphroditic nuances. The Janus composed simultaneously of two faces. Eliante often shimmers in emotional nudity while wearing the most elegant of clothing. Her experience arouses him while she pities his superfluous façade of nobility. Leon dawns the shroud of fear & yet this fear is draped in adrenaline, as the hunter which aims for a daunting & predatory game. It is not enough to kill the game hare but to slay the lioness &, perhaps in the process, his innocence. It is she the lioness that smells blood & only seems to want to toy with the prey, kill it for killing sake, not for devouring or savoring its flavor. Rachilde seems as modern feminists, perhaps I should rephrase since there has been many reformations of the movement. She seems to downgrade the docile or the perception of the submissive woman. Missie, her niece, is quite the character through description alone. A child amongst a goddess. Rachilde is hypocritical in castigating the way women are subjugated. She proposes obscene things in the subjugation of her niece. She would practically sell her into slavery, if not physical, mental at least. Her manipulations are fanciful. As the tale develops & unfolds, Rachilde juggles the complexity of the characters, friction against the tradition of gender roles, contradictions of romance. I believe Eliante is a failed juggler, a failed entertainer, yet not a failure in the rediscovered IDEA of love, not the ENACTMENT of love. She maneuvers her sensuality in an evasive shifting of weight. She calls upon her suitors while fleeing. She flees their grasp while pursuing them. She is of a curious & cryptic sex. And just when you find Rachilde staves off the pleasures of the flesh with these spectral boundaries, she leaps beyond grips of flesh into godliness. O what a beautiful figure to behold, drenched in the libations of tragedy, flowing freely as the blood of Pentheus spilled by the highest priestess.
yasmineiliana's review
5.0
I read this for a class but I am now absolutely enamored with it. This is definitely in part because of my theatre background. Rachilde has an excellent understanding of theatre (no one is surprised,) and this is one of my favorite novels that I have read over the course of quarantine.
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