RETTÉ, ADOLPHE. - French poet, born in Paris in 1863, died at Beaune on 8 Dec. 1930. He belonged to the first Symbolist group, together with Jean Moréas and Gustave Kahn; he played a notable part in two of the many reviews of that movement, La Vogue and L'Ermitage.
Almost hallucinatory are the phantasmagorias of his first collections of verse: Cloches en la nuit (1889), Thule des Braines (1891), Une belle dame passa (1893), L'Archipel en fleurs (1895). From excessive artifice, accompanied by anarchic posturing and perhaps also by the abuse of narcotics, R. gradually moved to an inspiration drawn directly from the free nature of the forest of Fontainebleau (La forêt bruissante, 1896; Dans la forêt, 1903), and then to a repudiation of Symbolism (Le symbolisme, anecdotes et souvenirs, 1903; Réflexions sur l'anarchie, 1904); then to a frank conversion to Catholicism, affirmed in two of his most interesting books: Du diable à Dieu (1907) and La maison en ordre (1923). After his conversion he published edifying books: Le règne de la bête (1908); Un séjour à Lourdes (1909); Notes sur la psychologie de la conversion (1911); Le soleil intérieur (1923); Les rubis du calice (1924), etc.; and works of criticism: Léon Bloy (1923); Jusqu'à la fin du monde (1926); En attendant la fin (1933).