Resumen de Pierre Glaudes Entre diatribe et allégorisme satirique: l’affaire Dreyfus dans “Le Jardin des supplices” et “Le Journal d’une femme de chambre
Written in the sizzling atmosphere of the Dreyfus Affair, Le Jardin des supplices and Le Journal d’une femme de chambre mark a step toward satire in Mirbeau’s novels. Diatribes take more and more space, and the traditional themes of initiation and voyage are woven into allegories on the dangers of anti-Dreyfusardism: the aggravation of violence and the acceptance of cynicism. Yet Mirbeau’s hate for anti-Semites and the sarcasms he piles upon them can seem, at a certain level, turned against himself, who was ferociously anti-Semitic at the time he published the weekly «Les Grimaces». His novels are tinged with cruel irony, for they betray his feelings of guilt; the odious anti-Dreyfusard characters who serve as foil to his ideals of justice and freedom also represent his past self – a past self who still lurks inside him, threatening to take over. The present Mirbeau is a just man, but one very aware of his flaws; he knows we all nurse feelings of hate for who is not like us, and that those feelings are harder to eradicate than we like to believe
