In the preceding exploration of metaphysical aspects of both Jarry's work and the environment of the auteurs pairs, it has become clear that the status of leading characters is a distinctive feature of these strands of late-nineteenth-century literature. In the specific case of Jarry, we have seen how figures such as Sengle and Dr Faustroll, despite their hermeticism, play a specific and central part in the reader's relationship with the dimensions to which these figures enjoy access. It thus seems particularly appropriate now to explore Belle Epoque treatments of the literary hero, who is remodelled by various auteurs pairs, and indeed Jarry himself has a great deal to offer in study of the hero. We shall see that Jarry once again demonstrates an interest in contemporary literary trends, which are then developed within his own writing, and by so doing he once again becomes a focus for discussion of his contemporaries.

I am using the word ‘hero’ in its broadest sense, to indicate the central figure of a work without necessarily equating him with the Heroes of antiquity and the tradition of great deeds that goes with them – though Jarry does have a certain interest in such figures, witnessed by the choice of the Odyssey as the seventeenth livre pair. The use of the masculine term ‘hero’ is deliberate, simply because heroines are rather rare in fin-de-siècle writing. Emphasis and viewpoint are almost always masculine, and this even extends to those Rachilde novels where the central character is a woman. Such figures as Raoule de Vénérande (in Monsieur Vénus) and Mary Barbe (La Marquise de Sade) are implacable, dominant and above all masculine – the tone is set with Raoule de Vénérande's habit (one that Rachilde herself had followed) of dressing as a man, and from the resulting inversion of sexual roles. In the two Rachilde livres pairs, there are still no heroines as such. Although Madeleine Deslandes is the central figure of La Princesse des ténèbres, she is a weak character whose characterisation is not fleshed out very far, and the true figure of fascination in the novel is her demonic lover, Hunter.