SOURCE: "The Suicide of 'La Comedienne' in Rachilde's La Jongleuse," in Continental, Latin-American and Francophone Women Writers, edited by Eunice Myers and Ginette Adamson, University Press of America, 1987, pp. 55-61.

In the following essay, Ziegler analyzes the implications of the sadistic behavior of Rachilde's female protagonists, focusing on the novel The Juggler.

Swords and daggers, bayonets and scalpels: all the pointed instruments men use for invading others' bodies are appropriated by the women characters in the novels of Rachilde. In the evolution of "l'amour compliqué" [Maurice Barrès, Preface, Monsieur Vénus] that Barrès sees emerging in these works, the men are stripped of masculinity and weapons. They become vulnerable and sexless while the women turn into predators and warriors. Indeed, one need only consult Praz's list of "Belles dames sans merci," figures like Huysmans' Madame de Chantelouve or Clara, the torture-loving nymphomaniac in Mirbeau's Le Jardin...