ROUSSEL, Raymond

One of the great eccentrics of early modern French literature, Roussel was born rich and, shall we say, touched. A maniac in the true sense of the word, he wrote at nineteen a novel entirely in alexandrines (nearly 6,000 of them); he later used parentheses with an abandon that others find inspiring. An admirer of Jules Verne above all others, Roussel wrote about largely imaginary travels in Africa, first in prose and then (decades later) in verse, publishing both books...