View source for Petrus Borel

{{Short description|French writer (1809–1859)}}
{{Infobox person
| image              = Petrus Borel.jpg
| birth_date         = 26 June 1809
| birth_place        = [[Lyon]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1859|07|14|1809|06|26}}
| death_place        = [[Mostaganem]], [[French Algeria]]
| occupation         = Writer
| movement           = [[Romantic movement]]
}}
{{French literature sidebar}}
'''Joseph-Pierre Borel d'Hauterive''', known as '''Petrus Borel''' (26 June 1809 – 14 July 1859), was a French writer of the [[Romantic movement]].<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Borel, Petrus}}</ref>

==History==
Petrus Borel was born in [[Lyon]] on 26 June 1809, the twelfth of fourteen children of an [[Ironmongery|ironmonger]]. He studied architecture in Paris but abandoned it for literature.

Nicknamed ''le [[Werewolf|Lycanthrope]]'' ("Wolfman") and the centre of the circle of [[Bohemianism|Bohemians]] in Paris,<ref name="EB1911" /> Borel was noted for his extravagant and eccentric style of writing, foreshadowing [[Surrealism]]. He was occasionally captured in [[drypoint]] by [[Marcellin Desboutin]].<ref>{{citation |url=https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/268525 |title=M15459: Petrus Borel Prints|publisher=Harvard Art Museums |date= |access-date=29 May 2024}}</ref>

Petrus Borel was not commercially successful and was eventually directed to a minor civil service post by his friend [[Théophile Gautier]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Starkie |first=Enid |url=http://archive.org/details/petrusborellycan00star |title=Petrus Borel, the Lycanthrope: His Life and Times |date=1954 |publisher=London, Faber and Faber |others=Internet Archive}}</ref> Borel is considered to be one of the ''[[poète maudit|poètes maudits]]'', like [[Aloysius Bertrand]] or [[Alice de Chambrier]], and is said to have influenced [[Charles_Baudelaire|Baudelaire]] and [[André_Breton|Breton]].<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/rhapsodies-1831-petrus-borel-book-review-sarah-jean-zubair/ |title=Ecstatic and Intoxicate: A French Poet Who Influenced Baudelaire and Breton|publisher=The Times Literary Supplement |date=20 September 2022 |access-date=29 May 2024}}</ref>

Petrus Borel was the subject of a 1954 biography by Irish literary critic [[Enid Starkie]] called ''Petrus Borel: The Lycanthrope''.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} In 1959 Tom Moran translated Borel's 1833 ''[[Champavert|Champavert: Contes Immoraux (Seven Bitter Tales)]]'' via Theo. Gaus' Sons, [[Brooklyn]].<ref>{{citation |url=https://archive.org/details/borel-champavert-seven-bitter-tales/ |title=Champavert: Seven Bitter Tales, Translated from French by Tom Moran|publisher=Internet Archive |date=21 April 2021 |access-date=29 May 2024}}</ref>

==Death==
Petrus Borel died at [[Mostaganem]] in [[French Algeria]] on 14 July 1859.<ref name="EB1911" />

==Works==
* ''Rhapsodies'' (Poems, 1832)
* ''[[Champavert|Champavert. Contes immoraux]]'' (Short stories, 1833)
* ''L'Obélisque de Louqsor'' (1836)
* ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' (Translation, 1836)
* ''Comme quoi Napoléon n'a jamais existé'' (1838)
* ''Madame Putiphar'' (Novel, 1839)
* ''Le Trésor de la Caverne d'Arcueil'' (Novella, 1927)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{EB1911 poster|Borel, Petrus}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Pétrus Borel}}
* {{Librivox author |id=3399}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050208211001/http://www.poesie.webnet.fr/auteurs/borel.html Text of selected Borel poems] (in French)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080808141355/http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a0193.pdf Text of Andreas Vesalius the Anatomist]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borel, Petrus}}
[[Category:19th-century French poets]]
[[Category:1809 births]]
[[Category:1859 deaths]]
[[Category:French horror writers]]
[[Category:19th-century French male poets]]