Copyright © Zulma, 2014
Translation copyright © 2015 by Jennifer Grotz
First published in France as Théorie de la vilaine petite fille by Zulma
First edition, 2015
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Available.
ISBN-13: 978-1-940953-21-2
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Design by N. J. Furl
Open Letter is the University of Rochester’s nonprofit, literary translation press: Lattimore Hall 411, Box 270082, Rochester, NY 14627
In living memory of Élie Delamare-Deboutteville
Real or invented, all the facts and characters evoked in this novel belong to the domain of the imagination.
Contents
III. From a Drinker’s Point of View in the Saloon Across the Street
IV. Hast Thou Entered into the Treasures of the Snow
V. When Heaven and Earth Shall Tremble
VI. In the Abyss Where We Got Lost
VII. Some Details About the Meeting
VIII. Polk’s War Was Not a Polka
IX. The Night of Sleepwalkers Recounted by Maggie
X. First Conversation with Mister Splitfoot
XI. Reverend Gascoigne and Family
XII. If You Forget Me in the Desert
XIII. Evening Visitors to the Haunted House
XIV. Maggie’s Diary
XV. The Columns of Duality
XVI. In the Waves of Boiling Blood
Part Two: Rochester
I. I Want Only a Long Drunkenness
II. Maggie’s Diary
III. Exploration of a Mining Field
IV. Oneida! Oneida!
V. Like Galloping Carriage Horses
VI. Assembly at Corinthian Hall
VII. Fox & Fish Spiritualist Institute
VIII. Farewell Dear Mother
IX. The Aspiring Medium
X. When to Burn Her Diary?
XI. The Sleeping and the Dead
XII. The Life of Phantoms
XIII. The Conquest of Ice
XIV. And Now We Roam in Sovreign Woods
XV. With the Permission of Frederick Douglass and Ralph Waldo Emerson
Part Three: New York
I. Recent Disagreements
II. Livermore’s Good Influence
III. The Green Fairy and the Murderer
IV. The Necromancers of the Old World
V. A Normal Life
VI. The Two Widows of Notting Hill
VII. Mens agitat molem
VIII. Three Letters for a Betrayal
IX. Poltergeist at the Academy of Music
X. With Congratulations from Mister Splitfoot
Epilogue
Translator’s Acknowledgments
About the Author
Some things are inescapable;when they arrive, one must receive them.
—Jan Van Ruysbroeck
The sun at dusk lit the staircase through the upstairs window. Seated on a step of unfinished wood, Kate studied the dust motes. They floated inside a shaft of light, one of the many suspended throughout the house. Fascinated, she held her breath. Each particle seemed to follow its own trajectory in the dancing company of its tiny neighbors, of which there were thousands, millions, more than the stars fixed or spinning through the moonless nights. Motionless, so as not to stir the air, Kate tried hard to distinguish a single mote among them with the idea of not losing
