Residence · late 1880s
Lodgings of Péladan and Henriette Maillat
Address · Angle de la rue de Seine et de la rue des Beaux-Arts, 75006 Paris
Metro · Saint-Germain-des-Prés (4) / Mabillon (10)
Today · Private, seen from the street. Residential buildings, seen from the street.
The story
Rue des Beaux-Arts, opened at the beginning of the 19th century, leads into rue de Seine, a stone's throw from the École des beaux-arts and the Institut. It is a neighborhood of booksellers, print dealers and modest hotels; Oscar Wilde would die in 1900 in the hotel on rue des Beaux-Arts. Joséphin Péladan, who had come from Lyon, led the life of a still little-known writer here. His first novels, illustrated by Félicien Rops, were then beginning to make his name in literary circles.
Churton notes that he lived with Henriette Maillat at the top of a house on the corner of the two streets. She, the author of a few novels, had had an affair with Huysmans in 1888; her letters are said to have inspired the character of Mme Chantelouve in Là-bas, a novel about contemporary Satanism. The episode shows how closely the circles of Péladan and Huysmans overlapped before the Boullan affair. Péladan, for his part, was then developing his theories of Idealist art in journals such as L'Artiste.
The book gives neither the number nor the exact dates of the stay. The intersection therefore lends itself to evocation rather than a precise visit: you pass it on the way from Saint-Germain-des-Prés to the Seine. You can see the old facades of these narrow streets, little changed since the 19th century, and then continue to the quai Malaquais and the bouquinistes. The area around the Institut is still one of galleries and booksellers, as it was when Péladan was writing his first books here.
To be checked · The book gives neither the number nor the exact dates; marker placed at the intersection.