All of the following fictional works feature Jane Avril as a principle character. I have purposely decided not to comment on her role in each work as I think it's more fun to allow the reader to discover Jane for themselves. Enjoy.
A Club in Montmartre by Mike Resnick
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"At the cabarets and brothels of Montmartre, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is a well-known visitor. Brilliant, rich and deformed, Toulouse-Lautrec carries on flirtations and relationships with many women - prostitutes as well as famous singers and dancers like Jane Avril. In "A Club in Montmartre", writer Mike Resnick imagines the lonely artist meeting a starving waif, Dany, at the famous Moulin Rouge. Dany, like so many before her, falls under the spell of the dissolute cancan dancer known as La Goulue. Toulouse-Lautrec wages a Faustian battle with La Goulue for the young girl's soul even as he is losing the battle for his own, slipping deeper and deeper into alcoholism and bitterness. This deeply felt story, Resnick's first in a genre other than science fiction, captures the intensity of the genius caught between his limitations and his aspirations.
Toulouse-Lautrec's lively posters and his art are popular with young adults. Part of the "Art Explorers" series, this is a compelling story of overcoming obstacles."
This is a book I thoroughly enjoyed. However, what I couldn't have bargained for was the conclusion to the story which left me feeling rather hopeful that despite the misgivings and perceptions we have about ourselves, others may well see us in a very different light.
Toulouse-Lautrec's lively posters and his art are popular with young adults. Part of the "Art Explorers" series, this is a compelling story of overcoming obstacles."
This is a book I thoroughly enjoyed. However, what I couldn't have bargained for was the conclusion to the story which left me feeling rather hopeful that despite the misgivings and perceptions we have about ourselves, others may well see us in a very different light.
The Montmartre Investigation by Claude Izner
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"November 1891. The body of a young woman is discovered at a crossroads on Boulevard Montmartre. Barefoot and dressed in red, she has been strangled and her face disfigured. That same day a single red shoe is delivered to Victor Legris's Parisian bookshop. Suspecting more than just coincidence, the bookseller sleuth and his assistant Jojo are soon engaged in seeking out the identity of both victim and murderer. In this third investigation set in belle-epoque Paris, we are drawn with Victor into the city's nightlife and the legendary Moulin Rouge and Jane Avril both immortalised by Toulouse-Lautrec, who features in the story."
Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers by Gyles Brandreth
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The fourth in the acclaimed series of Victorian murder mysteries featuring Jane Avril by Gyles Brandreth.
"Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers opens in the Spring of 1890 at a glamorous reception hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Albemarle. All London's haul monde is there, including the Prince of Wales who counts the Albemarles as close friends. Although the heir apparent and the prince of aesthetes are friends, at the party Oscar appears more interested in a young actor, Rex LaSalle, who disarmingly claims to be a vampire.
What begins as a diverting evening ends in a tragedy. As the guests are about to leave, the Duchess is found murdered in an anteroom, two tiny puncture marks in her throat. Desperate to avoid a public scandal, the Prince of Wales asks Oscar and his friend Arthur Conan Doyle to investigate the crime. What they discover threatens to destroy the royal family....and the reputation of Oscar Wilde."
"Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers opens in the Spring of 1890 at a glamorous reception hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Albemarle. All London's haul monde is there, including the Prince of Wales who counts the Albemarles as close friends. Although the heir apparent and the prince of aesthetes are friends, at the party Oscar appears more interested in a young actor, Rex LaSalle, who disarmingly claims to be a vampire.
What begins as a diverting evening ends in a tragedy. As the guests are about to leave, the Duchess is found murdered in an anteroom, two tiny puncture marks in her throat. Desperate to avoid a public scandal, the Prince of Wales asks Oscar and his friend Arthur Conan Doyle to investigate the crime. What they discover threatens to destroy the royal family....and the reputation of Oscar Wilde."
The Story of Blanche and Marie
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This is a Swedish novel by P.O Enquist from 2004. It’s set in Paris in the late 19th early 20th century and is a mix of fact and fiction. Jane Avril is a supporting character.
The two lead characters are Blanche Wittman and Marie Curie. Blanche is Marie’s assistant and friend in the lab, were she experiments with radium. The story is told through three fictive notebooks written by Blanche, called the book of questions. The author “reads” these books in his own book.
Blanche is Charcot’s former patient and medium, one of the hysteria patients turned celebrity at the Salpêtrière. She’s the one depicted in the famous painting of Charcot when gives a public lecture at the Salpêtrière. This is were she and Jane first met in the 1880s, when they both were confined there
Years later, in about 1906, when Jane is a famous dancer and Blanche is a lab assistant, Jane makes a surprise visit a day in June.
She says she wants to talk about old memories. Jane’s clothes are described as extravagant. She has lost a memory, one she needs Blanche’s help to recall. She wants to remember when she danced at the Salpêtrière.
Jane seems desperate to regain the memory of La danse des Fous.
Other famous characters in the book include Sigmund Freud and August Strindberg. Enquist is also the author of The Royal Physician's Visit.
(Contribution by Maria Norrman)
The Crypt Thief by Mark Pryor
The Crypt Thief by Mark Pryor
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Published 14th May 2013
It’s summer in Paris and two tourists have been killed in Père La Chaise cemetery in front of Jim Morrison’s grave. The killer leaves the bodies untouched but moves deeper into the cemetery, where he breaks into the crypt of a long-dead Moulin Rouge dancer. (Jane Avril)
In a bizarre twist, he disappears into the night with part of her skeleton. The cemetery is locked down and put under surveillance, but the thief returns, flitting in and out like a ghost, taking more bones from another legendary can-can dancer under the cover of night. One of the dead tourists proves to be an American and the other a woman linked to a known terrorist; so the US ambassador sends his best man and the embassy's head of security - Hugo Marston to help the French police with their investigation.
At first, Hugo is stumped. How does this killer operate unseen? And why is he stealing the bones of once famous can-can girls
Hugo cracks the secrets of the graveyard, but soon realizes that old bones aren't all this serial killer wants: his ultimate plan requires the flesh and organs of the living. And when the crypt thief spots the former FBI agent on his tail, he decides that Hugo's body will do just fine.
Oh! Père Lachaise - Oscar's Wilde Purgatory by Jim Yates
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At the beginning of Oh, Père Lachaise, Oscar Wilde has been dead for years. His corrupted body has been lain to rest at the Bagneaux Cemetery in Paris and later disinterred and reburied at the Parisians most favourite of resting places; the cemetery of Père Lachaise.
After a turbulent life, surely Wilde's restless soul could expect to find peace at last and in place in paradise. But in the Purgatory attached to the famous Parisian graveyard, his soul is uneasy. He is confused by his exclusion from paradise and tormented by memories of a past besmirched by betrayal, most of all his loving wife Constance and his two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan, still children when he was imprisoned, never to see them again.
Yes, Oscar's years in Purgatory have not been without recompense. With his wit intact he has captivated the souls of Père Lachaise. He has continued to write in an attempt to utilise his talents, which were maturing when virtually destroyed by his trials, imprisonment and premature death. Most importantly, he has made new friends. Amongst the rich cast of characters whose souls surround him in Purgatory are the American singer Jim Morrison, whose grave is both the most visited and yet the most desecrated in the cemetery. Other friends include Chopin, Seurat, Edith Piaf, Alfred de Musset, Colette, Proust, JANE AVRIL, Delacroix and Balzac.
As Oscar's soul declines further and he slides into deep depression, developing obsessions about his genius, his friends rally around him in an attempt to restore the writer to well-being and satisfaction and perhaps guide him into Paradise.
