Jules Laforgue's Insolent Refusal of Beauty

Jules Laforgue (1860–1887), born in Montevideo and died in Paris, consistently rejected seriousness and the pursuit of becoming a great man, as it contradicted his aesthetic principles. During his short life, he associated with Gustave Kahn, Paul Bourget, Edouard Dujardin, T. de Wyzewa, and Fénéon. He read French gazettes to the grandmother of Wilhelm II in Prussia, translated Whitman, and practiced art criticism. Laforgue invented free verse and 'prose blanche,' creating a body of work that combines the most astonishing bad taste with the most insolent refusal of Beauty.