The Ungrateful Beggar

The Ungrateful Beggar (The Authorʼs Journal, 1892-1895), published in 1898, is the first in the Ungrateful Beggar series (or "The Journal") by Léon Bloy.

Edited for publication by the author, it is a day-by-day account of interactions with friends, artists, wife, children, publishers, landlords, and such events as his hiring on with (and getting sacked from) the Gil Blas, his writing for the Mercure de France, the death of his two boys...; it includes his innermost thoughts, fears, torments, joys, - always in the context of a miserable poverty, and a never-dying Catholic faith, where "all that happens in life is adorable."

Artists interacted with in this period include Henry de Groux, Émile Zola, François Coppée, Remy de Gourmont, Laurent Tailhade, Auguste Rodin, Paul Bourget, Charles Buet, Georges dʼEsparbès. Works that the author wrote and published during this period include: Salvation Through the Jews, Sueur de Sang [Sweating Blood], Histoires désobligeantes [Disagreeable Tales], Léon Bloy devant les cochons [Léon Bloy Before the Swine], Ici on assassine les grands hommes [Great Men Are Slain Here].