My Journal: 1896-1900

My Journal: 1896-1900 by Léon Bloy (AD 1846-1917) is the second diary in the Ungrateful Beggar series.

Edited for publication, the diary chronicles four and a half years in the tortured, perpetually destitute, but “perfectly adorable” life of the intransigeant Catholic writer and his family. It also recounts seventeen months in voluntary exile in the northern climes of Protestant Denmark where, despite his hopes for a new beginning, misfortune and misery followed him and his circumstances went quickly from bad to worse. 

“[January 11, 1899] Journey to Kolding, small neighboring village where we will live as best we can. There is a minuscule Catholic church here, too vast for its parishioners. Emotion to see a humble crèche of the Epiphany with the German magi and camels waiting for us. We are now so far removed from France that it is only here, within these few square meters, on this Catholic islet lost in the middle of Lutherʼs ice floes, that God can speak to us and we can speak to God.” 

Despite everything – and perhaps because of it – the writer was able to produce in this time period Je MʼAccuse... and The Son of Louis XVI, while gathering material for what would later become Exegesis of Commonplaces and Blood of the Poor.  

My Journal: 1896-1900 by Léon Bloy (AD 1846-1917) is the second diary in the Ungrateful Beggar series, showcasing the struggles of a prominent figure in Catholic literature. Edited for publication, this diary chronicles four and a half years in the tortured, perpetually destitute, but “perfectly adorable” life of the intransigeant Catholic writer and his family. It also recounts seventeen months in voluntary exile in the northern climes of Protestant Denmark, where, despite his hopes for a new beginning, misfortune and misery followed him, and his circumstances went quickly from bad to worse.  

“[January 11, 1899] Journey to Kolding, a small neighboring village where we will live as best we can. There is a minuscule Catholic church here, too vast for its parishioners. Emotion to see a humble crèche of the Epiphany with the German magi and camels waiting for us. We are now so far removed from France that it is only here, within these few square meters, on this Catholic islet lost in the middle of Luther’s ice floes, that God can speak to us and we can speak to God.”  

Despite everything – and perhaps because of it – Léon Bloy was able to produce during this time period significant works such as Je M’Accuse... and The Son of Louis XVI, while gathering material for what would later become Exegesis of Commonplaces and Blood of the Poor, adding to the legacy of French authors in the realm of Catholic literature.

Four Years of Captivity in Cochons-sur-Marne: 1900-1904 by Léon Bloy (originally Quatre ans de Captivité à Cochons-sur-Marne) is the third diary in the Ungrateful Beggar series, a notable work in Catholic literature. This autobiography, edited for publication, chronicles four years in the life of the French author Léon Bloy after he and his family returned to France from Denmark, settling in Lagny on the Marne, approximately 40 kilometers outside Paris. The narrative spans a wide emotional spectrum, from gut-wrenching grief and sorrow as the family teeters on the brink of absolute poverty while being relentlessly pursued by creditors and landladies, to fierce outrage against the pettiness, avarice, and hypocrisy of the bourgeois and wealthy. It also offers uplifting praise for God, celebrating all that is beautiful in life despite the suffering, along with sharp satire and humor that brings laughter even amid tears.

“Terrible day! The lack of wine and fortifying alimentation, the threat of a lack of coal, the human certitude of being unable to feed our children tomorrow, the impossibility of continuing to live here and the impossibility of escaping, the apparent abandonment of everyone and the evident hostility of so many people; finally, and above all, that infinitely dolorous expectation of a liberator who never comes; all that together puts us two steps away from despair. While we stiffen our wills, our house is shaken by a tempest and the sky is sad like death without God. For whom then do we suffer thus?”

The Biography of Léon Bloy: Memories of a Friend, published in 1921, serves as the official biography of the notable French author Léon Bloy (1846-1917), penned by his close friend, René Martineau. For the last eighteen years of Bloy’s life, René Martineau and Léon Bloy shared a strong friendship.

"The first time I met Léon Bloy was at the train station in Lagny, in 1901." Lagny, also known as Lagny-sur-Marne or, as Léon Bloy humorously referred to it, "Cochons-sur-Marne" (with "cochons" meaning "pigs" in French), was the backdrop for much of Bloy’s struggle. He detailed these hardships in his published journal, Four Years of Captivity in Cochons-sur-Marne (Quatre ans de Captivité à Cochons-sur-Marne), marking four agonizing years in the life of this significant figure in Catholic literature. According to René Martineau, these years represented an "unexpected contact of the most vulgar provincial villagers with the least common of French writers."

The biography continues to trace Bloy’s journey beyond Lagny, capturing his time in Montmartre and Bourg-la-Reine, just outside of Paris, until his death. It also delves into Bloy’s formative years, drawing from insights provided by the writer himself, his wife, Mme. Bloy, as well as letters and testimonies from friends.

This work is as much a biography as it is a defense of Léon Bloy, whose literary reputation suffered due to a "conspiration of silence" during and after his lifetime. As René Martineau aptly states, "One will recognize in him [Bloy] an honest, affectionate, solitary man, with a ponderous mind and full of bravery, as neither the injustices nor the poverty that he faced had prevented him from achieving the most original, eloquent, and powerful works of our era... His complete works, while entering into literary history, will serve as Léon Bloy’s best defense against posterity, cementing his legacy among the great French authors and reinforcing his status within Catholic literature."

My Journal: 1896-1900 by Léon Bloy (AD 1846-1917) is the second diary in the Ungrateful Beggar series, showcasing the struggles of a prominent figure in Catholic literature. Edited for publication, this diary chronicles four and a half years in the tortured, perpetually destitute, but “perfectly adorable” life of the intransigeant Catholic writer and his family. It also recounts seventeen months in voluntary exile in the northern climes of Protestant Denmark, where, despite his hopes for a new beginning, misfortune and misery followed him, and his circumstances went quickly from bad to worse.  

“[January 11, 1899] Journey to Kolding, a small neighboring village where we will live as best we can. There is a minuscule Catholic church here, too vast for its parishioners. Emotion to see a humble crèche of the Epiphany with the German magi and camels waiting for us. We are now so far removed from France that it is only here, within these few square meters, on this Catholic islet lost in the middle of Luther’s ice floes, that God can speak to us and we can speak to God.”  

Despite everything – and perhaps because of it – Léon Bloy was able to produce during this time period significant works such as Je M’Accuse... and The Son of Louis XVI, while gathering material for what would later become Exegesis of Commonplaces and Blood of the Poor, adding to the legacy of French authors in the realm of Catholic literature.

Four Years of Captivity in Cochons-sur-Marne: 1900-1904 by Léon Bloy (originally Quatre ans de Captivité à Cochons-sur-Marne) is the third diary in the Ungrateful Beggar series, a notable work in Catholic literature. This autobiography, edited for publication, chronicles four years in the life of the French author Léon Bloy after he and his family returned to France from Denmark, settling in Lagny on the Marne, approximately 40 kilometers outside Paris. The narrative spans a wide emotional spectrum, from gut-wrenching grief and sorrow as the family teeters on the brink of absolute poverty while being relentlessly pursued by creditors and landladies, to fierce outrage against the pettiness, avarice, and hypocrisy of the bourgeois and wealthy. It also offers uplifting praise for God, celebrating all that is beautiful in life despite the suffering, along with sharp satire and humor that brings laughter even amid tears.

“Terrible day! The lack of wine and fortifying alimentation, the threat of a lack of coal, the human certitude of being unable to feed our children tomorrow, the impossibility of continuing to live here and the impossibility of escaping, the apparent abandonment of everyone and the evident hostility of so many people; finally, and above all, that infinitely dolorous expectation of a liberator who never comes; all that together puts us two steps away from despair. While we stiffen our wills, our house is shaken by a tempest and the sky is sad like death without God. For whom then do we suffer thus?”

The Biography of Léon Bloy: Memories of a Friend, published in 1921, serves as the official biography of the notable French author Léon Bloy (1846-1917), penned by his close friend, René Martineau. For the last eighteen years of Bloy’s life, René Martineau and Léon Bloy shared a strong friendship.

"The first time I met Léon Bloy was at the train station in Lagny, in 1901." Lagny, also known as Lagny-sur-Marne or, as Léon Bloy humorously referred to it, "Cochons-sur-Marne" (with "cochons" meaning "pigs" in French), was the backdrop for much of Bloy’s struggle. He detailed these hardships in his published journal, Four Years of Captivity in Cochons-sur-Marne (Quatre ans de Captivité à Cochons-sur-Marne), marking four agonizing years in the life of this significant figure in Catholic literature. According to René Martineau, these years represented an "unexpected contact of the most vulgar provincial villagers with the least common of French writers."

The biography continues to trace Bloy’s journey beyond Lagny, capturing his time in Montmartre and Bourg-la-Reine, just outside of Paris, until his death. It also delves into Bloy’s formative years, drawing from insights provided by the writer himself, his wife, Mme. Bloy, as well as letters and testimonies from friends.

This work is as much a biography as it is a defense of Léon Bloy, whose literary reputation suffered due to a "conspiration of silence" during and after his lifetime. As René Martineau aptly states, "One will recognize in him [Bloy] an honest, affectionate, solitary man, with a ponderous mind and full of bravery, as neither the injustices nor the poverty that he faced had prevented him from achieving the most original, eloquent, and powerful works of our era... His complete works, while entering into literary history, will serve as Léon Bloy’s best defense against posterity, cementing his legacy among the great French authors and reinforcing his status within Catholic literature."

My Journal: 1896-1900 by Léon Bloy (AD 1846-1917) is the second diary in the Ungrateful Beggar series, showcasing the struggles of a prominent figure in Catholic literature. Edited for publication, this diary chronicles four and a half years in the tortured, perpetually destitute, but “perfectly adorable” life of the intransigeant Catholic writer and his family. It also recounts seventeen months in voluntary exile in the northern climes of Protestant Denmark, where, despite his hopes for a new beginning, misfortune and misery followed him, and his circumstances went quickly from bad to worse.  

“[January 11, 1899] Journey to Kolding, a small neighboring village where we will live as best we can. There is a minuscule Catholic church here, too vast for its parishioners. Emotion to see a humble crèche of the Epiphany with the German magi and camels waiting for us. We are now so far removed from France that it is only here, within these few square meters, on this Catholic islet lost in the middle of Luther’s ice floes, that God can speak to us and we can speak to God.”  

Despite everything – and perhaps because of it – Léon Bloy was able to produce during this time period significant works such as Je M’Accuse... and The Son of Louis XVI, while gathering material for what would later become Exegesis of Commonplaces and Blood of the Poor, adding to the legacy of French authors in the realm of Catholic literature.

Four Years of Captivity in Cochons-sur-Marne: 1900-1904 by Léon Bloy (originally Quatre ans de Captivité à Cochons-sur-Marne) is the third diary in the Ungrateful Beggar series, a notable work in Catholic literature. This autobiography, edited for publication, chronicles four years in the life of the French author Léon Bloy after he and his family returned to France from Denmark, settling in Lagny on the Marne, approximately 40 kilometers outside Paris. The narrative spans a wide emotional spectrum, from gut-wrenching grief and sorrow as the family teeters on the brink of absolute poverty while being relentlessly pursued by creditors and landladies, to fierce outrage against the pettiness, avarice, and hypocrisy of the bourgeois and wealthy. It also offers uplifting praise for God, celebrating all that is beautiful in life despite the suffering, along with sharp satire and humor that brings laughter even amid tears.

“Terrible day! The lack of wine and fortifying alimentation, the threat of a lack of coal, the human certitude of being unable to feed our children tomorrow, the impossibility of continuing to live here and the impossibility of escaping, the apparent abandonment of everyone and the evident hostility of so many people; finally, and above all, that infinitely dolorous expectation of a liberator who never comes; all that together puts us two steps away from despair. While we stiffen our wills, our house is shaken by a tempest and the sky is sad like death without God. For whom then do we suffer thus?”

The Biography of Léon Bloy: Memories of a Friend, published in 1921, serves as the official biography of the notable French author Léon Bloy (1846-1917), penned by his close friend, René Martineau. For the last eighteen years of Bloy’s life, René Martineau and Léon Bloy shared a strong friendship.

"The first time I met Léon Bloy was at the train station in Lagny, in 1901." Lagny, also known as Lagny-sur-Marne or, as Léon Bloy humorously referred to it, "Cochons-sur-Marne" (with "cochons" meaning "pigs" in French), was the backdrop for much of Bloy’s struggle. He detailed these hardships in his published journal, Four Years of Captivity in Cochons-sur-Marne (Quatre ans de Captivité à Cochons-sur-Marne), marking four agonizing years in the life of this significant figure in Catholic literature. According to René Martineau, these years represented an "unexpected contact of the most vulgar provincial villagers with the least common of French writers."

The biography continues to trace Bloy’s journey beyond Lagny, capturing his time in Montmartre and Bourg-la-Reine, just outside of Paris, until his death. It also delves into Bloy’s formative years, drawing from insights provided by the writer himself, his wife, Mme. Bloy, as well as letters and testimonies from friends.

This work is as much a biography as it is a defense of Léon Bloy, whose literary reputation suffered due to a "conspiration of silence" during and after his lifetime. As René Martineau aptly states, "One will recognize in him [Bloy] an honest, affectionate, solitary man, with a ponderous mind and full of bravery, as neither the injustices nor the poverty that he faced had prevented him from achieving the most original, eloquent, and powerful works of our era... His complete works, while entering into literary history, will serve as Léon Bloy’s best defense against posterity, cementing his legacy among the great French authors and reinforcing his status within Catholic literature."