From disciple Pierre Champion to critic George Trembley, those who have chronicled the life of Marcel Schwob often acknowledge the impulse to create a purely fictional portrait of the author, one modeled on his theory of the art of biography. According to Champion, what should be written of Schwob is an imaginary life, and this view is playfully implemented by Trembley in the introduction to his Marcel Schwob: Faussaire de la nature (1969). There is no certainty, Trembley states, as to the date and place of birth of Marcel Schwob, but documents suggest he was linked to the fifteenth-century band of Coquillards, in whose argot he was fluent. Others claim he had an unhealthy interest in little girls and prostitutes, but add that this passion was tinged with so much piety and pity that the crimes imputed to him were often indistinguishable from acts of kindness. Still others insist...