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'The ‘Raymond’ who sends his tender thoughts is Raymond Roussel, the French poet, playwright and novelist. And ‘little Charlotte’ is Charlotte Dufrène, Roussel’s housekeeper and closest friend (after his mother, Mme. Marguerite Roussel, who had died some years before the postcard was penned). Based on the colour photograph, ‘showing a street of an extremely modern town, with fine buildings and a tramline’, Roussel’s biographer François Caradec has imagined that his hotel room overlooked Collins Street, its northern windows faced away from Melbourne’s city centre (Caradec 175). Yet this is a double fabrication, not only because little was known about the poet’s visit to Australia in 1920 – where he went, where he stayed, what he saw – but also because the postcard itself exists only in reproduction, described and transcribed by the writer and ethnographer Michel Leiris, with Dufrène’s permission, in an essay titled ‘Le Voyageur et son Ombre’ (‘The Wanderer and His Shadow’) published in 1935, two years after Roussel’s death.' (Introduction)
Notes
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Epigraph: My little Charlotte, You would not like Melbourne, for it is full of handsomes [sic] cabs. I adore it, for I love this form of locomotion. I have already used the candle-powered heater, for it is winter here; during the first part of the crossing, I think they would have melted without my lighting them. As my room faces due north, I have the sun all day. There are delicious oysters and as there is no ‘r’ in the month, it is the perfect season for them. One evening, I intend to eat kangaroo soup, which is a great Australian specialty. Horse races are a passion. There are seven tracks in Melbourne and every other city likewise; as for towns, they all have at least one. This is the home of Melba; her real name is Armstrong and Melba is a stage name taken from Melbourne. There are two beach resorts near here called Brighton and Menton. It’s really worthwhile to come so far so as to be able to make an excursion from Brighton to Menton, which I have done! A thousand tender thoughts, Raymond
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Cordite Poetry Review
- Ashbery Mode 2019 anthology poetry
- The Diminishing Paradise : Changing Literary Perceptions of Australia 1984 single work criticism
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