Maldoror is a modular work primarily divided into six parts, or
cantos; these parts are further subdivided into a total of sixty chapters, or verses. With some exceptions, most chapters consist of a single, lengthy paragraph. The text often employs very long, unconventional and confusing sentences which, together with the dearth of paragraph breaks, may suggest a
stream of consciousness, or
automatic writing. Over the course of the narrative, there is often a
first-person narrator, although some areas of the work instead employ a
third-person narrative. The book's central character is Maldoror, a figure of evil who is sometimes directly involved in a chapter's events, or else revealed to be watching at a distance. Depending on the context of narrative voice in a given place, the first-person narrator may be taken to be Maldoror himself, or sometimes not. The confusion between narrator and character may also suggest an
unreliable narrator. Several of the parts begin with opening chapters in which the narrator
directly addresses the reader, taunts the reader, or simply recounts the work thus far. For example, an early passage warns the reader not to continue: Apart from these opening segments, each chapter is typically an isolated, often surreal episode, which does not seem at first to be directly related to the surrounding material. For example, in one chapter, a funeral procession takes a boy to his grave and buries him, with the
officiant condemning Maldoror; the following chapter instead presents a story of a sleeping man (seemingly Maldoror) who is repeatedly bitten by a
tarantula which emerges from the corner of his room, every night. Another strange episode occurs in an early chapter: the narrator encounters a giant
glow-worm which commands him to kill a woman, who symbolizes
prostitution. In defiance, the narrator instead hurls a large stone onto the glow-worm, killing it: As the work progresses, certain common themes emerge among the episodes. In particular, there is constant imagery of many kinds of animals, sometimes employed in
similes. For example, in one case, Maldoror
copulates with a
shark, each admiring the others' violent nature, while in another, the narrator has a pleasant dream that he is a
hog. These animals are praised precisely for their inhumanity, which fits the work's misanthropic tone: Another recurring theme among certain of the chapters is an urban–rural dichotomy. Some episodes take place in a town or city, while others occur at a deserted
shore, with only a few actors. The juxtaposition of urban city scenes and rural shoreline scenes may be inspired by Ducasse's time in
Paris and
Montevideo, respectively. Other pervasive themes include
homosexuality,
blasphemy, and
violent crime, often directed against children.
Maldorors sixth and final part instead employs a definite change in
style, while retaining most of the themes already developed. The final part (specifically its last eight chapters), intended as a "little novel" which parodies the forms of the nineteenth-century novel, presents a linear story using simpler language. In it, a schoolboy named Mervyn returns home to his well-to-do family in
Paris, unaware that Maldoror had been stalking him. Maldoror writes Mervyn a
love letter, requesting to meet, and Mervyn replies and accepts. Upon their meeting, Maldoror forces Mervyn into a sack, and beats his body against the side of a
bridge, ultimately flinging the boy, tied by his feet, onto the dome of the
Panthéon. This final, violent episode has been interpreted as a killing of the traditional novel form, in favor of
Maldorors experimental writing. == Source material ==