Les Enfants Terribles — Jean Cocteau (Penguin Modern Classics)

Description

'Les Enfants terribles' by Jean Cocteau is a haunting 1929 novel about siblings Paul and Élisabeth, whose intensely private world gradually becomes detached from ordinary life. After Paul is injured by a snowball thrown by his schoolmate Dargelos, he is confined to his bedroom, where he and Élisabeth develop an elaborate private “game” that increasingly blurs the boundary between fantasy and reality. As they withdraw further into their isolated world, their relationships with Gérard and Agathe become entangled in jealousy, desire and emotional manipulation. Cocteau combines dreamlike imagery, psychological intensity and the atmosphere of adolescence to create a disturbing exploration of obsession, isolation and self-destruction.