I have just started reading a collection of stories by Marcel Schwob (translated by Iain White) and was pleasantly startled by the opening sentence of “Train 081”:

The great terror of my life seems far distant from the shrubbery in which I am writing.

Marcel Schwob (1867-1905) was a friend of Alfred Jarry, and the dedicatee of Ubu Roi. I may have more to say as I read the book, The King In The Golden Mask & Other Writings (1982).