Part I of this study, the survey of the thirty-four livres pairs, has provided us with the raw material for a broader investigation of the world of Symbolist literature, as well as introducing certain authors peripheral to the movement (such as Bloy and Péladan) in whom Jarry takes an interest. Naturally, the selectivity of Jarry's list is a limiting factor in the choice of areas to be discussed, and I am not attempting to present the livres pairs as some kind of understated art poétique, but there is a definite structure and progression governing the chapters still to come. In the course of this second part, there are a number of livres pairs that will feature more than once, examined from different but complementary perspectives, which will help to establish aspects of Jarry's literary environment that influence and inform his own work, and help to relate it to that of various contemporaries. This first chapter introduces aspects of thought that are particularly salient in the contemporary auteurs pairs, and that also play an important part in grasping the intellectual flavour of the period. The final chapter outlines a distinctive and more practical literary outcome of the Symbolist trends witnessed by the livres pairs, in the development of a highly individual view of creative humanity, which has a clear relationship to the areas of thought to be examined in this chapter.

It will have become plain that we are dealing with a library that shows tendencies towards Christian faith, and that also leads beyond a fascination with the strange, curious or mysterious, towards the domain of esotericism. The observations on esotericism in this chapter are intended not so much to give a general analysis of the many and varied types of esotericism practised in 1890s France, but rather to illustrate the character of esotericism in the Belle Epoque writing to which Faustroll's library draws our attention. The esoteric references to be discussed are interesting in that they tend to play upon the common fascination with esoterica, rather than delving into any kind of authentic occultism; the literary uses to which such references are put set the tone for various aspects of Symbolist practice, some of which will emerge again later.