Les Fleurs - A tour de force of the macabre, this Thomas Ligotti tale is included in Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe published as part of the Penguin Classics series. You may also listen to an online dramatic reading via the link below. Many are the themes and tropes compressed in a mere eight pages wherein the unnamed narrator writes ten diary entries over the course of eight months, beginning in April bloom and ending in November wither. Below is a sampling of the tale's black orchid fragrance. I encourage you to take a sniff of this dark literary flower.
Lets give our unnamed narrator a name - Gellu. Gellu's first diary entry on April 17th is brief, noting he sent out flowers in the early morning. Flowers play an integral part in the tale, their scent permeating the atmosphere as if an extension of Gellu's dark presence.
On May 1st, so Gellu records, it happened once again - he met Daisy who works at the florist shop, the florist shop "where I paid a visit to gather some sorrowful flowers for Clare who to the rest of the world is still a missing person." Hmm . . . now that sounds ominous. Gellu asks Daisy to show him some flowers "having no overtones of loss" since he wants the flowers for a loved one's memorial. Daisy, in turn, asks him if he is aware there are plants with flowers opening only at night and certain types of violets bloom only in darkness. Gellu requests an arrangement "suitable for the grave of a departed grandmother" and thereafter leave the shop and makes a beeline to a cemetery to locate a headstone that might have the name of his dearly departed. He does find one he judges suitable - the name on the headstone is Clarence.
Gellu returns to the florist shop and his relations with Daisy develop; Gellu now calls his new girlfriend Day. In his May 16th diary entry, Gellu records Day's first visit to his apartment: she adores the well-preserved old ambiance and suggests some plants that would work wonders in his ancient rooms. But then she spots something Gellu would have preferred her not to see at this point in their relationship: one of Gellu's sculptures. Day examines it more closely. Ow! - she pricks her finger and asks if it's suppose to be some kind of cactus since "it has tiny teeth on these big tongue things."
The evening progresses but is interrupted by a detective conducting a followup on what Gellu terms "The Clare Affair." Fortunately, as Gellu explains, he was able to keep the interrogation session outside in the hallway, out of earshot of Day. Why, Gellu asks, are you questioning me again about Clare's mysterious disappearance? The detective provides two answers: 1) certain people in the office where Gellu and Clare worked spoke of a romantic relationship, 2) he discovered Gellu belongs to a certain "offbeat organization."
On September 21st Day pays a visit to the clean offices of the advertising agency where Gellu is employed as a commercial artist. Gellu displays his latest project - a drawing of a nymph with flowers in her hair. Day remarks: "That's really nice," a remark that nearly spoils Gellu's day. He guides her eye to a telling aspect of the drawing; one of the flower stems is growing out of or into the nymph's head. Day doesn't seem to appreciate this particular detail, leading Gellu to reflect that his girlfriend isn't prepared yet to join him in the world of the "offbeat" and subsequently it would be wise not to show her paintings he has hidden in his apartment till at least after they take their vacation in the tropics.
Gellu records their tropical vacation in his November 1st entry. They both are getting tipsy on the hotel veranda, an exploration of the mysterious cereus and other nocturnal flowers, a full departure from geographies known, a gazing skyward where Daisy trembles and asks what's wrong with the stars and sky.
On November 14th, back at his apartment, an exhibition designed for "an extra-aesthetic purpose," Gellu reveals one of his prize painting to Daisy. Here's how Gellu begins his description of the painting itself: "An interior done up very much like my own apartment - a refuge crowding about a window of a disproportionate breadth, so as to direct the viewer's sight telescopically outward. Beyond the window is a vista wholly alien to terrestrial nature and perhaps to all that we deem human. Outside is a gorgeous kingdom of glittering colors and velvety jungle-shapes, a realm of contorted rainbows and twisted auroras."
Daisy reacts, events ensue. From this point on Ligotti's tale borders on horror that may be interpreted as either supernatural or that which is contained within the twisted psychopathology of an artist and his secret offbeat clan. Either way, a reader enters a chilling atmosphere that lingers well beyond the last page.
Link to a reading of Les Fleurs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdcMU...
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