Biography

Wright, Barbara. Introduction to The Supermale by Alfred Jarry, translated by Ralph Gladstone and Barbara Wright, pp. i-vi. New York: New Directions, 1964.

Brief account of Jarry's life. "Against the tragic negativity of his personal life," observes Wright, "Jarry almost to the end practiced every sort of positive artistic creativity."

Criticism

Beaumont, Keith. Alfred Jarry: A Critical and Biographical Study. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984, 364 p.

Survey of Jarry's life and works. Beaumont devotes chapters to the discussion of Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician; Messalina; and The Supermale. The section on Messalina is excerpted above.

Brotchie, Alastair. Introduction to Days and Nights: Novel of a Deserter. The Other Alcestis by Alfred Jarry, translated by Alexis Lykiard, Stanley Chapman, and John Harman, pp. 7-13. London: Atlas Press, 1989.

Offers an overview of Days and Nights, identifying autobiographical sources for the short novel.

Cutshall, J. A. '"Excuses Madame Rachilde': The Failure of Alfred Jarry's Novels." Forum for Modern Language Studies XXIV, No. 4 (October 1988): 359-74.

Traces the publication history of Jarry's fiction. Observing that Jarry's works failed to sell even when first published, Cutshall discusses the reasons why as well as the resulting impact on Jarry's writing.

Additional coverage of Jarry's life and works is contained in the following sources published by Gale Research: Contemporary Authors, Vol. 104; and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vols. 2, 14.