Vincent van Gogh? Émile Zola? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: The famous Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh has been credited with the following fervent statement:
I would rather die of passion than of boredom.
Surprisingly, this remark has also been ascribed to the prominent French novelist Émile Zola. Would you please elucidate this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1883 Émile Zola wrote a novel that contained an instance of this saying in French. In October 1884 Vincent van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother Theo that included the quotation as part of a larger excerpt from Zola’s novel. Thus, both well-known figures employed the saying, but Zola was the originator.
In 1833 Émile Zola released “Au Bonheur des Dames” which has been given several different English titles: “The Ladies’ Paradise”, “The Ladies’ Delight”, and “The Shop Girls of Paris”. The book was part of an important and popular series of twenty novels called: Les Rougon-Macquart. The saying under examination was spoken by a character named Octave Mouret while he was conversing with a character named Paul Vallagnosc. Boldface has been added to excerpts:1
Agir, créer, se battre contre les faits, les vaincre ou être vaincu par eux, toute la joie et toute la santé humaines sont là!
— Simple façon de s’étourdir, murmura l’autre.
— Eh bien! j’aime mieux m’étourdir… Crever pour crever, je préfère crever de passion que de crever d’ennui!
Ils rirent tous les deux, cela leur rappelait leurs vieilles discussions du collège.
In 1883 a translation of Zola’s novel by Frank Belmont was published under the title “The Ladies’ Paradise”. The passage above was rendered as follows:2
“To act, to create, to struggle against facts, to overcome them or be overthrown by them, all health, all human joy consists in that!”
“Simple method of diverting one’s self.”
“Well, I prefer diverting myself. Death against death, I would rather die of passion than of ennui!” They both laughed, this reminded them of their old discussions at college.
Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Would Rather Die of Passion Than of Boredom”