Some time ago I brought up a French detective writer's
name in connection to Matt Roth's theories about Nabokovian "versipel"
and werewolves ( Fred Vargas: "Seeking whom he may devour").
Now I chose to mention her once again
(2006, "Dans les Bois Éternels"), because the translation of
this novel might bring up problems that are similar to the translation
of John Shade's verses, among other issues concerning
literary criticism.
This time Vargas has loaded her novel
with alexandrines incessantly recited by a policeman, Veyrenc
who, as compulsively now as in the past when he heard his grandmother recite
Racine (Dryden's contemporary), expresses his feelings and thoughts in
heroic couplets. Veyrenc's dodecassilabic outpour is considered an
affliction, often with comic effect.
A revelatory sample of one of his musings:
"Hélas, je ne le puis, Seigneur, car tout m'y porte/Le sang de mon ancêtre à
ce péché m'exhorte".
Veyrenc's compulsion allows Fred Vargas to explore
her talents in seventeenth-century verse and get them published as an
integral part of the novel.