My Suicide

Henri Roorda – a Swiss anarchist, math teacher, and columnist – shot himself in 1925, but left behind this essay, which examines his life and philosophy of “joyful pessimism.” 


In this baleful, little-known treatise, Henri Roorda presents debt and boredom in a world of capital as “his reasons for going,” and he dissects these motivations with such astuteness that his anatomy of himself and his perceived failures becomes spellbinding. “My Suicide” is both melancholy and humorous, political and deeply personal – a meditation on unfulfilled desires and the “uselessness of old age.” 


Translated from French by Eva Richter, “My Suicide” appears in English for the first time from Spurl Editions. 


“Every now and then my suicide seems a little like a ‘farce’ to me. Oh! Why is the line that separates trivial things from serious things not better marked?” — Henri Roorda