Éric Chevillard: Palafox (1990)

This is Éric Chevillard's third novel, the earliest of his I've read, and is just as weird and delightful as any of his others. Animals are once more not only present but to the fore, particularly one of them, as are learned animal experts, all four of them fictitious this time.

At Algernon's table, where he sits with his daughter Maureen and his future son-in-law Chancelade there's an egg which suddenly hatches and a creature which will undergo many metamorphoses and different sizes is born. After some deliberation they call it Palafox after the (real) Duke of Saragossa, who bravely defended Saragossa in 1806. Why? Well, why not, but it was decided on the toss of a coin.

The animal specialists are the entomologist Pierpont, the herpetologist Baruglio, the zoologist Zeigler (who makes several later appearances in Chevillard's novels) and the ichthyologist Cambrelin, all of whom know each other well but don't always get on with one another. Needless to say, Palafox is a mystery to them.

He's a mystery to everyone, although Olympie, who's looking after him and tending to his Gargantuan appetite, gets on well enough with him, and Palafox tolerates her. Until, that is, he escapes and wreaks havoc with the neighbouring world, a festival of mass killing. After he's caught the family watch his brutal fight with a kingfisher (Merlin), his wooing of his former potential mate Merline, and his hour-long copulation with her. Then Palafox wounds Chancelade and something must be done with him.

So Algernon castrates him, hoping to calm his anger, but this doesn't work. After much deliberation, the now prize-winning, leonine Palafox bites a distinguished guest's pet dog's head off and destroys all of china expert Algernon's precious collection. One step too far. Reading Chevillard is like visiting another world, one far removed from, say, Balzac.

My Éric Chevillard posts:
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Éric Chevillard: Oreille rouge | Red Ear (2005)
Éric Chevillard: L'Explosion de la tortue (2019)
Éric Chevillard: La Nébuleuse du crabe | The Crab Nebula (1993)
Éric Chevillard – Au plafond | On the Ceiling
Éric Chevillard: Le Désordre azerty
Éric Chevillard: Dino Egger
Éric Chevillard: Le Vaillant Petit Tailleur
Éric Chevillard: Le Caoutchouc décidément
Éric Chevillard: Palafox
Éric Chevillard: Un fantôme
Éric Chevillard: Du hérisson | Of the Hedgehog
Éric Chevillard: Démolir Nisard | Demolishing Nisard