10 Facts About Octave Mirbeau

The grandson of Norman notaries and the son of a doctor, Mirbeau spent his childhood in a village in Normandy, Remalard, pursuing secondary studies at a Jesuit college in Vannes, which expelled him at the age of fifteen.

Independent of all parties, Octave Mirbeau believed that one's primary duty was to remain lucid.

Octave Mirbeau made his own literary debut with Le Calvaire, in which writing allowed him to overcome the traumatic effects of his devastating liaison with the ill-reputed Judith Vinmer, renamed Juliette Roux in the novel.

In 1888, Octave Mirbeau published L'Abbe Jules, the first pre-Freudian novel written under the influence of Dostoevsky to appear in French literature; the text featured two main characters: l'abbe Jules and Father Pamphile.

In Sebastien Roch, Octave Mirbeau purged the traumatic effects of his experience as a student at a Jesuits school in Vannes.

Octave Mirbeau then underwent a grave existential and literary crisis, yet during this time, he still published in serial form a pre-existentialist novel about the artist's fate, Dans le ciel, introducing the figure of a painter, directly modeled on Van Gogh.

Octave Mirbeau wrote six one-act plays, published under the title of Farces et moralites, among them being L'Epidemie.

Octave Mirbeau calls language itself into question, demystifying law, ridiculing the discourse of politicians, and making fun of the language of love.

But, more recently, Octave Mirbeau has been rediscovered and presented in a new light.

Octave Mirbeau lies buried in the Passy Cemetery, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.