félix fénéon: novels in 3 lines

Félix Fénéon was the author of more than 1000 news items published in the French newspaper Le Matin in 1906. Novels In Three Lines represents a collection of that impressive body of work. Anonymously, Félix summarized stories of murder, mischief, and folly all in a space of 3 lines. His "prose" was characterized by an underlying humor and irony which demonstrated his deftness at numbing a reader to the darkest events of the day. The years he spent working as a low level clerk for the French War Deparment might be to thank. Interestingly enough, until 1940 no one really cared to find out who the man writing all the witty poems about death and misfortune was.

I like picking this up from time to time and starting from a random page. I'm a sucker for 100 year old dark humor. Only the French kind though. Big ups to my man Luc Sante for a wicked introduction and spot on translation.