Irony, humor, and the quest for authenticity in Verlaine’s prose

Through his prose work, Verlaine reconfigured the autobiographical story and lent it a certain instability of genre. In it, he reveals a divided and complex self that nevertheless seems to be searching for some kind of unity. Thanks notably to his meticulous use of epanorthosis, the poet adds traces of humor and irony to his work, while continuing to describe episodes representative of the life of a cursed poet.