Publishing Vitriol: Rachilde, Léon Bloy, and the Mercure de France

Abstract: In 1899 the avant-garde writers Rachilde and Léon Bloy both penned critiques of Émile Zola’s Fécondité , which was serialized in L’Aurore at the height of the Dreyfus affair. This article analyses the pair’s vitriolic responses to Zola’s novel, their ideological position against the values it enshrined, and the differing levels of ease with which they were able to publish their opinions. Highlighting Alfred Vallette’s decision to refuse Bloy’s Je m’accuse at the Mercure de France ’s publishing house, it considers the thin but flexible line separating acceptable and unacceptable forms of public discourse at the fin de siècle .