Radiguet was already publishing in reviews at fifteen, and it was scarcely later that he crossed paths with Cocteau. The Devil in the Flesh came out in 1923: in it an adolescent loves the wife of a man sent to the front, and it was less the scandal than the prose, dry and classical, that astonished. He would write two novels before he was twenty-one, and typhoid carried him off in December.
The story
Raymond Radiguet was born at Parc-Saint-Maur on 18 June 1903. At fifteen he was already writing for the reviews; at sixteen, in 1919, he met Jean Cocteau, who became his mentor, his lover and his unofficial publisher.
“The Devil in the Flesh” came out in 1923. The novel tells of a boy's affair with a soldier's wife while the husband is at the front — a scandalous subject, handled in a dry, classical prose more startling than the scandal. It won the Prix du Nouveau Monde on 15 May 1923.
Within the year he finished “Count d'Orgel's Ball”, published after his death: two novels in all, both written before he was twenty-one.
Typhoid took him in December. On the 9th he said something to Cocteau that Cocteau never forgot: “Listen to a terrible thing. In three days I shall be shot by the soldiers of God.”
He died on 12 December 1923 — three days later, exactly — at twenty. He lies in Division 56, in the grave of the Radiguet and Cordonier families.
The grave
A stele in the name of two families, “Radiguet Cordonier”, where the writer's inscription fits in one line: “Raymond Radiguet, poet and novelist, 1903-1923”. Two words of trade for twenty years of life and two novels, the second of which was not yet out when the stone was engraved. Nothing of “The Devil in the Flesh”, nothing of the Prix du Nouveau Monde received seven months before his death.
On site, do not miss
Two words on the stele — “poet and novelist” — for twenty years of life and two novels.
Visitors' questions
Where is Raymond Radiguet's grave?
In Division 56, avenue des Ailantes, third row, in the eastern part of the cemetery — the same Division as the heart-tomb of Jacques-Louis David. The stele bears the names of the Radiguet and Cordonier families.
Jacques-Louis DavidWhat is “Le Diable au corps”?
A novel published in 1923 about an adolescent's affair with the wife of a soldier away at the front. The subject caused a scandal, but it was the prose — spare and classical, from an author of twenty — that astonished people most.
Raymond RousselDid he foretell his own death?
On 9 December 1923 he told Cocteau: “Écoutez une chose terrible. Dans trois jours je vais être fusillé par les soldats de Dieu” — Listen to something terrible. In three days I am going to be shot by God's soldiers. He died of typhoid on 12 December, exactly three days later.
Pierre DesprogesWhat was his connection with Cocteau?
Cocteau met him in 1918, when Radiguet was fifteen, and became his mentor, his lover and his unofficial editor. After his death he published his second novel, “Le Bal du comte d'Orgel”.
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