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= Alphonse_Daudet =
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Introduction
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Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist.
He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and
Lucien Daudet.
Early life
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Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged
to the 'bourgeoisie'. His father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk
manufacturer--a man dogged through life by misfortune and failure.
Alphonse, amid much truancy, had a depressing boyhood. In 1856 he left
Lyon, where his schooldays had been mainly spent, and began his career
as a schoolteacher at Alès, Gard, in the south of France. The position
proved to be intolerable and Daudet said later that for months after
leaving Alès he would wake with horror, thinking he was still among
his unruly pupils. These experiences and others were reflected in his
novel 'Le Petit Chose'.
On 1 November 1857, he abandoned teaching and took refuge with his
brother Ernest Daudet, three years his senior, who was trying, "and
thereto soberly", to make a living as a journalist in Paris. Alphonse
took to writing, and his poems were collected into a small volume,
'Les Amoureuses' (1858), which met with a fair reception. He obtained
employment on 'Le Figaro', then under Cartier de Villemessant's
energetic editorship, wrote two or three plays, and began to be
recognized in literary communities as possessing distinction and
promise. Morny, Napoleon III's all-powerful minister, appointed him to
be one of his secretaries--a post which he held till Morny's death in
1865.
Literary career
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In 1866, Daudet's 'Lettres de mon moulin' ('Letters from My
Windmill'), written in Clamart, near Paris, and alluding to a windmill
in Fontvieille, Provence, won the attention of many readers. The first
of his longer books, 'Le Petit Chose' (1868), did not, however,
produce popular sensation. It is, in the main, the story of his own
earlier years told with much grace and pathos. The year 1872 brought
the famous 'Aventures prodigieuses de Tartarin de Tarascon', and the
three-act play 'L'Arlésienne'. But 'Fromont jeune et Risler aîné'
(1874) at once took the world by storm. It struck a note, not new
certainly in English literature, but comparatively new in French. His
creativeness resulted in characters that were real and also typical.
'Jack', a novel about an illegitimate child, a martyr to his mother's
selfishness, which followed in 1876, served only to deepen the same
impression. Henceforward his career was that of a successful man of
letters, mainly spent writing novels: 'Le Nabab' (1877), 'Les Rois en
exil' (1879), 'Numa Roumestan' (1881), 'Sapho' (1884), 'L'Immortel'
(1888), and writing for the stage: reminiscing in 'Trente ans de
Paris' (1887) and 'Souvenirs d'un homme de lettres' (1888). These,
with the three Tartarins-'Tartarin de Tarascon', 'Tartarin sur les
Alpes', 'Port-Tarascon'-and the short stories, written for the most
part before he had acquired fame and fortune, constitute his life
work.
'L'Immortel' is a bitter attack on the Académie française, to which
august body Daudet never belonged. Daudet also wrote for children,
including 'La Belle Nivernaise', the story of an old boat and her
crew. In 1867 Daudet married Julia Allard, author of 'Impressions de
nature et d'art' (1879), 'L'Enfance d'une Parisienne' (1883), and some
literary studies written under the pseudonym "Karl Steen".
Daudet was far from faithful, and was one of a generation of French
literary syphilitics. Having lost his virginity at the age of twelve,
he then slept with his friends' mistresses throughout his marriage.
Daudet would undergo several painful treatments and operations for his
subsequently paralysing disease. His journal entries relating to the
pain he experienced from tabes dorsalis are collected in the volume
'In the Land of Pain', translated by Julian Barnes. He died in Paris
on 16 December 1897, and was interred at that city's Père Lachaise
Cemetery.
* The story of Daudet's earlier years is told in his brother Ernest
Daudet's
[
https://archive.org/stream/monfrreetmoisou00daudgoog#page/n12/mode/2up
'Mon frère et moi']. There is a good deal of autobiographical detail
in Daudet's 'Trente ans de Paris' and 'Souvenirs d'un homme de
lettres', and also scattered in his other books. The references to him
in the 'Journal des Goncourt' are numerous.
Political and social views, controversy and legacy
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Portrait of Alphonse Daudet
Daudet was a monarchist and a fervent opponent of the French Republic.
He was an antisemite, though less famously so than his son Léon. The
main character of 'Le Nabab' was inspired by a Jewish politician who
was elected as a deputy for Nîmes. Daudet campaigned against him and
lost. Daudet counted many antisemitic literary figures amongst his
friends, including Edouard Drumont, who founded the Antisemitic League
of France and founded and edited the anti-Semitic newspaper 'La Libre
Parole'. It has been argued that Daudet deliberately exaggerated his
links to Provence to further his literary career and social success
(following Frederic Mistral's success), including lying to his future
wife about his "Provençal" roots.
Numerous colleges and schools in contemporary France bear his name and
his books are widely read and several are in print.
Works
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Major works, and works in English translation (date given of first
translation). For a complete bibliography see .
* 'Les Amoureuses' (1858; poems, first published work).
* 'Le Petit Chose' (1868; English: 'Little Good-For-Nothing', 1885; or
'Little What's-His-Name', 1898).
* 'Lettres de Mon Moulin' (1869; English: 'Letters from my Mill',
1880, short stories).
* 'Tartarin de Tarascon' (1872; English: 'Tartarin of Tarascon',
1896).
* 'L'Arlésienne' (1872; novella originally part of 'Lettres de Mon
Moulin' made into a play)
* 'Contes du Lundi' (1873; English: 'The Monday Tales', 1900; short
stories).
* 'Les Femmes d'Artistes' (1874; English: 'Artists' Wives', 1896).
* 'Robert Helmont' (1874; English: 'Robert Helmont: the Diary of a
Recluse', 1896).
* 'Fromont jeune et Risler aîné' (1874; English: 'Fromont Junior and
Risler Senior', 1894).
* 'Jack' (1876; English: 'Jack', 1897).
* 'Le Nabab' (1877; English: 'The Nabob', 1878).
* 'Les Rois en Exil' (1879; English: 'Kings in Exile', 1896).
* 'Numa Roumestan' (1880; English: 'Numa Roumestan: or, Joy Abroad and
Grief at Home', 1884).Daudet's Grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
* 'L'Evangéliste' (1883; English: 'The Evangelist', 1883).
* 'Sapho' (1884); (English: 'Sappho', 1886).
* 'Tartarin sur les Alpes' (1885; English: 'Tartarin on the Alps',
1891).
* 'La Belle Nivernaise' (1886; English: 'La Belle Nivernaise', 1892,
juvenile).
* 'L'Immortel' (1888; English: 'One of the Forty', 1888).
* 'Port-Tarascon' (1890; English: 'Port Tarascon', 1890).
* 'Rose and Ninette' (1892; English: 'Rose and Ninette', 1892).
*
* 'La Doulou' (1930; English: 'In The Land of Pain', 2003; translator:
Julian Barnes).
* 'The Last Lesson'
References
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Bibliography
* Dobie, G. Vera (1949). 'Alphonse Daudet'. London and New York:
Nelson.
* Roche, Alphonse V. (1976). 'Alphonse Daudet'. Boston: Twayne
Publishers.
* Sachs, Murray (1965). 'The Career of Alphonse Daudet: A Critical
Study'. Harvard University Press.
Further reading
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* Burton, Richard (1898).
[
https://archive.org/stream/literarylikings00burtgoog#page/n130/mode/2up
"Björnson, Daudet, James: A Study in the Literary Time-spirit."] In:
'Literary Likings'. Boston: Copeland and Day, pp. 107-130.
* Conrad, Joseph (1921).
[
https://archive.org/stream/notesonlifelette00conruoft#page/24/mode/2up
"Alphonse Daudet."] In: 'Notes on Life & Letters'. London: J. M.
Dent & Sons Ltd., pp. 25-31.
* Crawford, Virginia M. (1898).
[
https://archive.org/stream/contemporaryrev23unkngoog#page/n194/mode/2up
"Alphonse Daudet,"] 'The Contemporary Review', Vol. 73, pp. 182-192
(Rep. in
[
https://archive.org/stream/cu31924026928691#page/n59/mode/2up
'Studies in Foreign Literature.'] Boston: L. C. Page & Company,
1899, pp. 49-77.)
* Croce, Benedetto (1924).
[
https://archive.org/stream/europeanliteratu030060mbp#page/n323/mode/2up
"Zola and Daudet".] In: 'European Literature in the Nineteenth
Century'. London: Chapman & Hall, pp. 312-325.
* Daudet, Léon (1898).
[
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t3st7j206;view=1up;seq=11
'Alphonse Daudet'.] Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
* Doumic, René (1899).
[
https://archive.org/stream/contemporaryfre01frosgoog#page/n142/mode/2up
"Alphonse Daudet."] In: 'Contemporary French Novelists'. New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell & Company, pp. 127-174.
* Favreau, Alphonse R. (1937). "British Criticism of Daudet, 1872-97",
'PMLA', Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 528-541.
* Gosse, Edmund (1905).
[
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t4qj7bc71;view=1up;seq=124
"Alphonse Daudet".] In: 'French Profiles'. New York : Dodd, Mead and
company, pp. 108-128.
* Hamilton, C. J. (1904).
[
https://archive.org/stream/gentlemansmagaz141unkngoog#page/n590/mode/2up
"The Early Struggles of Alphonse Daudet"], 'The Gentleman's Magazine',
Vol. CCXCVII, pp. 597-608.
* Hemmings, F. W. J. (1974). "Alphonse Daudet". In: 'The Age of
Realism'. Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp. 194-200.
* Henry, Stuart (1897).
[
https://archive.org/stream/hourswithfamousp00henriala#page/30/mode/2up
"M. Daudet."] In: 'Hours with Famous Parisians'. Chicago: Way &
Williams, pp. 31-76.
* James, Henry (1894).
[
https://archive.org/stream/partialportraits00jameiala#page/194/mode/2up
"Alphonse Daudet."] In: 'Partial Portraits'. London: Macmillan &
Co., pp. 195-239.
* Major, John C. (1966). "Henry James, Daudet and Oxford", 'Notes
& Queries', Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 69-70.
* Matthews, Brander (1901).
[
https://archive.org/stream/historicalnovelo00matt#page/108/mode/2up
"Alphonse Daudet".] In: 'The Historical Novel and Other Essays'. New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 109-146.
* Maurice, Arthur Bartlett (1901).
[
https://archive.org/stream/bookman54unkngoog#page/n80/mode/2up
"Daudet and the Making of the Novel"], 'The Bookman', Vol. 13, pp.
42-47.
* Mauris, Maurice (1880).
[
https://archive.org/stream/frenchmenoflette00maurrich#page/218/mode/2up
"Alphonse Daudet."] In: 'French Men of Letters.' New York: D. Appleton
and Company, pp. 219-244.
* Moore, Olin H. (1916). [
https://www.jstor.org/stable/432780 "The
Naturalism of Alphonse Daudet"], 'Modern Philology', Vol. 14, No. 3,
pp. 157-172.
* Oliphant, Margaret (1879).
[
https://archive.org/stream/blackwoodsmagaz125edinuoft#page/92/mode/2up
"The Novels of Alphonse Daudet,"] 'Blackwood's Magazine', Vol. 125,
pp. 93-111.
* Powers, Lyall H. (1972). "James's Debt to Alphonse Daudet",
'Comparative Literature', Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 150-162.
* Ransome, Arthur (1913).
[
https://archive.org/stream/portraitsspecula00ransuoft#page/56/mode/2up
"Alphonse Daudet".] In: 'Portraits and Speculations'. London:
Macmillan & Co., pp. 57-70.
* Raffaëlli, Jean François (1899).
[
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015048483138;view=1up;seq=972
"Alphonse Daudet and his Intimates"], 'Lippincott's Magazine', Vol.
64, pp. 952-960.
* Sachs, Murray (1948). "The Role of Collaborators in the Career of
Alphonse Daudet", 'PMLA', Vol. 73, No. 1, pp. 116-122.
* Sachs, Murray (1964). "Alphonse Daudet and Paul Arène: Some
Umpublished Letters", 'Romanic Review', Vol. 55, pp. 30-37.
* Saylor, Guy Rufus (1940). 'Alphonse Daudet as a Dramatist'.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
* Sherard, Robert Harborough (1894).
[
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009324834;view=1up;seq=145
"Alphonse Daudet at Home"], 'McClure's Magazine', Vol. 3, pp. 137-149.
* Sherard, Robert Harborough (1894).
[
https://archive.org/stream/alphonsedaudetbi00sheruoft#page/n5/mode/2up
'Alphonse Daudet: Biographical and Critical Study']. London: Edward
Arnold.
* Taylor, Una A. (1913).
[
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030193596;view=1up;seq=225
"The Short Story in France"], 'The Edinburgh Review', Vol. 218, No.
445, pp. 137-50.
* Whibley, Charles (1898).
[
https://archive.org/stream/modernlanguagequ02modeuoft#page/n31/mode/2up
"Alphonse Daudet,"] 'The Modern Quarterly of Language and Literature',
Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 16-21.
External links
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*
*
*
*
[
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=%22Daudet,%20Alphonse,%201840-1897.%22&type=author&inst=
Works by Alphonse Daudet], at Hathi Trust
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