Sandy Hobbs | Dear Mr Thoms # 35, 1994

Stories about architects or sculptors who commit suicide when they discover an error in their work are widespread and have been discussed on a number of occasions by writers interested in contemporary legend (e.g. Degh and Vazsonyi, 1978, McCulloch, 1987, Hobbs, 1992, Simpson, 1992).

One of the cases I mentioned in my article in Foaftale News concerns the Parc Montsouris in Paris. I quoted three contemporary guidebooks which all told essentially the same story. On the day the Parc opened, the artificial lake suddenly dried out and the engineer who designed it committed suicide.

I have since discovered that the Blue Guide: Paris and Versailles (Robertson, 1992, pp 85-86) also caries the story. No doubt other guidebooks do likewise. However, there is a limit to what I am willing to spend on guides to Paris. I bought the Blue Guide in a fire sale!

I must also be said that not all books for tourists tell this story. One which does not is A Traveller’s History of Paris (Cole, 1994). The author describes the Parc Montsouris (pp. 282-283) and discusses its planning and building. Unlike the guides which carry the suicide story, Cole mentions the name of the engineer responsible for the work, Adolph Alphand.

Reading this, I thought I might be able to make some progress in checking out the accuracy of this particular suicide story. However, I have discovered a problem. The works I consulted mention an architect-engineer called Alphand, Lavedan’s French Architecture (1979) and Le Petit Robert 2 (Rey, 1987). However, they both refer to him as Jean-Charles Alphand. The same person? Probably, since Le Petit Robert attributes the Parc Montsouris to him. If he is indeed the engineer in question, he appears to have taken a long time to decide to commit suicide. The same source gives is death as 1891. The Parc Montsouris opened in 1878.

References:

Cole, Robert. A Trveller’s istory of Paris. Moreton-in-Marsh: Windrush Pressm 1994.
Degh, Linda and Vazsonyi, “The Crack on the Red Goblet or Truth and Modern Legend, in Folklore in the Modern World, (Ed. Richard Dorson), pp 253-272. The Hague: Mouton.
Hobbs, Sandy, “Errors, Suicides, and Tourism” Foaftale News 27, 1992, 2-4.
Lavedan, Pierre. French Architeture, (Revised Edition). London: Scholar Press, 1979.
McCulloch, Gordon. “Suicidal Sculptors: Scottish Versions of a Migratory Legend”, in Perspectives on Contemporary Legend Volume II (Ed. Gillian Bennett, Paul Smith and J.D.A. Widdowson), pp 109-116. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1987.
Rey, Alain (Ed.). Le Petit Robert 2: Dictionnaire Universel des Noms Propres (Revised Edition). Paris: Le Robert, 1987.
Robertson, Ian. Blue Guide: Paris and Versailles (Eighth Edition). London: A & C Black, 1992.
Simpson, Jacqueline, “More Suicidal and Homicidal Architects”, Foaftale News 28, 1992, 5-6.

Footnote

Gillian Bennett

Five texts should be added to the growing bibliography of the “Architect’s/Engineer’s Blunder”. None of these appear to be cited in FOAFtale News 27 (September 1992) 2-4; 28 (December 1992) 5-6.

The first, perhaps most obvious, one is Mick Goss’s article in The Unknown, which covers some of the same ground as Gordon McCulloch’s paper; there’s also a mention of the story n Nigel Pennick’s article about walled up trains in the London underground. Finally, there are two articles in Folklore in the early decades of this century, in which the author discusses variants where a jealous master builder either kills the pupil who outshines him or commits suicide(motif W181.2.1). The note by Rose is a follow-up to Crooke’s articles: Rose suggests that the story originated in foundation sacrifices (an outdated theory, perhaps, but worth mentioning!). Here are the citations:

Crooke, W. “Prentice Pillars: The Architect and His Pupil”, Folk-Lore 29 (1918): 219-25.

Crooke, W. “Prentice Pillars: The Architect and His Pupil”, Folk-Lore 31 (1920): 323-24.

Goss, Michael, “Legends For O
ur Time 1: The Architect’s Blunder”, The Unknown (July 1987): 10-16.

Pennick, Nigel. “Urban Folklore of the London Underground”, Folklore Frontiers 6 (1987): 8-11.

Rose, H. A. “Prentice Pillars”, Folk-Lore 34 (1923): 381.