The Novels of Louise Michel

Louise Michel wrote a great number of novels in her lifetime. For all those we have, many more have been lost to time. Louise herself says in her memoirs:

Who could count the songs scattered to the harsh winds of Haute-Marne in my nest at Vroncourt! The verses clinging to hawthorns or the paths along the roads! The forgotten attempts in my classroom desk! And later, ask the winds, the prisons, the sea, the cyclones. Do I even know where all of it has gone?

Some of the manuscripts she mentions having written, though they do not exist today, include The Book of Hermann, The Wisdom of a Fool, Literature in Crochet, The Devilries of Chaumont, Of Woman Through the Ages, The Memoirs of Hanna the Nihilist, The Children’s Encyclopedia, The Book of the Penal Colony; The Conscience and The Book of the Dead.

She goes on to say:

As for the unfinished scenarios and novels started here and there, which I never had the time to finish due to events, I don’t even count them. Among them is The Pillagers, an idea that came to me at the same time as Digeon…

Here are links to those books of Louise Michel which happily remain:

Le Livre du Jour de l’an, Historiettes, Contes et Légendes pour les Enfants

A New Year’s Book: Little Histories, Tales and Legends for Children (1872)

Louise Michel Le Livre du Jour de l'an cover
Louise Michel Le Livre du Jour de l’an cover

Contes et Légendes

Tales and Legends, with a facsimile preface by Henri Rochefort (1884)

Louise Michel Contes at Legendes original cover

Légendes et Chants de Gestes Canaques

Legends and Songs of the Kanaks (1885)

Louise Michel Legendes Canaques original cover
Louise Michel Legendes Canaques original cover

Les Microbes Humains

The Human Microbes (1886)

Louise Michel Les Microbes Humains cover
Louise Michel Les Microbes Humains cover

L’Ere Nouvelle, Pensée Dernière, Souvenirs de Calédonie

The New Age, Latest Thoughts, Memories of Caledonia (1887)

L'ere Nouvelle par Louise Michel
L’ere Nouvelle by Louise Michel – original cover

Lectures Encyclopédiques par Cycles Attractifs

Encyclopaedic Readings by Cycles of Attraction (1888)

Lectures Encyclopediques by Louise Michel - original cover
Lectures Encyclopediques by Louise Michel – original cover

Le Monde Nouveau

The New World (1888)

Le Monde Nouvelle par Louise Michel original cover
Le Monde Nouvelle par Louise Michel original cover

Les Crimes de l’Epoque

Crimes of the Age, new short stories (1888)

Les Crimes de l'Epoque cover Louise Michel
Le Monde Nouvelle par Louise Michel original cover

Prise de Possession

The Appropriation, publication by the Anarchist group of Saint-Denis (Libertarian Youth), Saint Denis (1890)

La Chasse aux Loups

The Wolf Chase (1891)

Le Monde Nouvelle par Louise Michel original cover

Oeuvres Posthumes

Posthumous Works, Volume 1 “Before the Commune”, preface by Laurent Tailhade (1905)

Le Claque-Dents

The Teeth Clackers (undated)

Collaborations

La Misère

Misery, in collaboration with Jean Guétré

*Note: Louise states that she only wrote from the Toulon chapter.

Les Méprisées

The Despised Ones, a novel of Parisian customs and mores, in collaboration with Jean Guétré

*Note: Louise claims that she wrote ‘not one line’ of this, but kept her name on it to avoid disputes.

Le Bâtard Impérial

The Imperial Bastard, in collaboration with Jean Winter (1883)

Les Paysans

The Peasants, in collaboration with Emile Gautier