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DAUDET, ALPHONSE (1840-1897)
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See also:DAUDET, See also:ALPHONSE (1840-1897) , See also:French novelist, was See also:born at See also:Nimes on the 13th of May 1840. His See also:family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The See also:father, See also:Vincent Daudet, was a See also:silk manufacturer—a See also:man dogged through See also:life by misfortune and failure. The lad, amid much truancy, had but a depressing boy-See also:hood. In 1856 he See also:left See also:Lyons, where his schooldays had been mainly spent, and began life as an See also:usher at See also:Alais, in the See also:south. The position proved to be intolerable. As See also:Dickens declared that all through his prosperous career he was haunted in dreams by the miseries of his See also:apprenticeship to the blacking business, so Daudet says that for months after leaving Alais he would See also:wake with horror thinking he was still among his unruly pupils. On the 1st of See also:November 1857 he abandoned teaching, and took See also:refuge with his See also:brother Ernest, only some three years his See also:senior, who was trying, " and thereto soberly," to make a living as a journalist in See also:Paris. Alphonse betook himself to his See also:pen likewise, —wrote poems, shortly collected into a small See also:volume See also:Les Amoureuses (1858), which met with a See also:fair reception,—obtained employment on the See also:Figaro, then under See also:Cartier de Villemessant's energetic editorship, wrote two or three plays, and began to be recognized, among those interested in literature, as possessing individuality and promise. See also:Morny, the See also:emperor's all-powerful See also:minister, appointed him to be one of his secretaries, —a See also:post which he held till Morny's See also:death in 1865,—and showed him no small kindness. He had put his See also:foot on the road to See also:fortune. In 1866 appeared Lettres demon See also:moulin,which won the See also:attention of many readers. The first of his longer books, Le See also:petit See also:chose (1868), did not, however, produce any very popular sensation. It is, in its See also:main feature, the See also:story of his own earlier years told with much See also:grace and pathos. The See also:year 1872 produced the famous Aventures prodigieuses de Tartarin de See also:Tarascon, and the three-See also:act piece L'Arlesienne. But Fromont jeune et Risler aine (1874) at once took the See also:world by See also:storm. It struck a See also:note, not new certainly in See also:English literature, but comparatively new in French. Here was a writer who possessed the See also:gift of See also:laughter and tears, a writer not only sensible to pathos and sorrow, but also to moral beauty. He could create too. His characters were real and also typical; the rates, the men who in life's See also:battle had flashed in the See also:pan, were touched with a See also:master See also:hand. The See also:book was alive. It gave the illusion of a real world. See also:Jack, the Story of an illegitimate See also:child, a See also:martyr to his See also:mother's selfishness, which followed in 1876, served only to deepen the same impression. Henceforward his career was that of a very successful man of letters,—publishing novel on novel, Le Nabab (1877), Les Rois en exil (1879), Numa Roumestan (1881), Sapho (1884), L'Immortel (1888),-and See also:writing for the See also:stage at frequent intervals; giving to the world his reminiscences in Trente ans de Paris (1887), and Souvenirs d'un homme de lettres (1888). These, with the three Tartarin, Tartarin the mighty See also:hunter, Tartarin the mountaineer, Tartarin the colonist,—and the admirable See also:short stories, written for the most See also:part before he had acquired fame and fortune, constitute his life See also:work. Though Daudet defended himself from the See also:charge of imitating Dickens, it is difficult altogether to believe that so many similarities of spirit and manner were quite unsought. What, however, was purely his own was his See also:style. It is a style that may rightly be called "impressionist," full of See also:light and See also:colour, not descriptive after the old See also:fashion, but flashing its intended effect by a masterly juxtaposition of words that are like See also:pigments. Nor does it convey, like the style of the Goncourts, for example, a See also:constant feeling of effort. It is full of felicity and See also:charm,—un charmeur See also:Zola has called him. An intimate friend of Edmond de See also:Goncourt (who died in his See also:house), of See also:Flaubert, of Zola, Daudet belonged essentially to the naturalist school of fiction. His own experiences, his surroundings, the men with whom he had been brought into contact, various persons who had played a part, more or less public, in Paris life—all passed into his See also:art. But he vivified the material supplied by his memory. His world has the See also:great gift of life. L'Immortel is a See also:bitter attack on the French See also:Academy, to which See also:august See also:body Daudet never belonged. Daudet wrote some charming stories for See also:children, among which may be mentioned La Belle Nivernaise, the story of an old boatand her See also:crew. His married life—he married in 1867 Julia Allard —seems to have been singularly happy. There was perfect intellectual See also:harmony, and Madame Daudet herself possessed much of his See also:literary gift; she is known by her Impressions de nature et d'art (1879), L'Enfance d'une Parisienne (1883), and by some literary studies written under the See also:pseudonym of Karl See also:Steen. In his later years Daudet suffered from See also:insomnia, failure of See also:health and consequent use of See also:chloral. He died in Paris on the 17th of See also:December 1897. The story of Daudet's earlier years is told in his brother Ernest Daudet's Mon See also:frere et moi. There is a See also:good See also:deal of autobiographical detail in Daudet's Trente ans de Paris and Souvenirs d'un See also:home de lettres, and also scattered in his other books. The references to him in the See also:Journal See also:des Goncourt are numerous. See also L. A. Daudet, Alphonse Daudet (1898), and See also:biographical and See also:critical essays by R. H. Sherard (1894) ; by A. Gerstmann (1883) ; by B. Diederich (1900); by A. Hermant (1903), and a bibliography by J. Brivois (1895); also The See also:Works of Alphonse Daudet, translated by L. Ensor, H. See also:Frith, E. Bartow (1902, etc.). See also:Criticism of Daudet is also to be found in F. Brunetiere, Le See also:Roman naturaliste (new ed., 1897); J. See also:Lemaitre, Les Contemporains (vols. ii. and iv.); G. Pellissier, Le Mouvement litteraire au XIX' siecle (189o); A. See also:Symons, Studies in See also:Prose and See also:Verse (1904). (F. T. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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