Clemente Palma, son of the well
anthologized Ricardo, was born and died in Lima (though he spent
many of his intervening years in Europe). The Biblioteca Nacional
de Peru gives the year of his birth as 1872 (other sources give
1873) and 1946 as the year of his death. In addition to political,
cultural and literary criticism, Palma is best known for three
published works of fiction: Malevolent
Tales, Malignant Tales, the novella Mors Ex Vita
(usually included in Malignant
Tales) and the as yet un-englished
novel, XYZ – noted as one of the earliest
efforts of Peruvian science fiction.
Malevolent and Malignant
Tales are in the family of contes cruelles – certainly
Palma, by no means a provincial writer (most of his tales featured
European narrators and settings) - was familiar with Villiers and
the other French fin-de-sieclist decadents. They are brief, sharp
witted and black humored pieces exotically seasoned with black
magic, blasphemy, necrophilia, classical mythology and various
forms of corruption, catastrophe and disease. The language is
poetic, veined with rich erudition and interspersed with recondite
vocabulary, in the manner of Rolfe (though much less violet),
Heron-Allen, etc.
Palma owes his obscurity not only to the chance
factors of birth (Peru rather than Paris or London; obscured in
the shadow of a famous father), and language (La
Decadence might have had a few token Englishmen, but very
few who wrote in Spanish) – but through considerable effort on his
own part – most notably, trashing the work of a young countryman,
Cesar Vallejo, in print in Lima. He was an author of the type most
admired by Alexander Theroux (his Doctor
Crucifer is magnificent): he could draw and paint as well
as write.
Malcolm F. Lawrence
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