Alphonse Daudet: short biography, quotes

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The works of Alphonse Daudet (1840–1897) infused fresh air into French literature and forever became one of its best parts. Born in a southern province, Alphonse Daudet has all the wild imagination of a southerner, but he tried to write about what he saw and experienced.

Childhood and youth

Daude's ancestors were peasants who, at the beginning of the bourgeois revolution, moved to the city of Nimes, where Alphonse Daudet was born in the family of a prosperous owner of a cloth factory. One of his brothers died as a child. This encounter with death shocked the future writer, and he would later talk about it in the novel The Kid. In the same novel, he will describe the deserted factory yard where he spent his childhood and where he imagined himself to be Robinson. It was a fun and carefree time, as Alphonse Daudet had no idea how close his family was to the ruin that came after 1848.

Lyon

The factory was liquidated and the whole family moved to Lyon. Two brothers, Ernest and Alphonse Daudet, studied first at a church school, and then at a lyceum. Children of we althy parents tried to humiliate them and not communicate with them. On the brotherswas the stigma of poverty. However, Alphonse shamelessly skipped lessons at the age of thirteen, preferring the river, boats, tugboats to them - a real whirlpool of life. At the same time, he read a lot and began to write poetry. He was sixteen when he briefly worked as a teacher, and then followed his brother to the capital in 1857.

Paris

In the novel "The Kid" and in the book "Thirty Years in Paris" Daudet vividly describes this first day in the capital city. He experienced great joy from meeting Ernest. However, his existence became semi-bohemian, beggarly - malnutrition, lack of shelter over his head. Once, when he could not pay the rent, he spent half the night on the boulevards. A year later, he was lucky - he published a book of poems that both critics and the public liked. After that, he is invited to the newspaper Le Figaro. And then - more. He, along with his brother, begins to work in the State Chancellery of the Legislative Corps. There is a lot of time left from work. Daudet Alphonse now looks respectable (photo).

Continuing to write, Dode visits Provence, Algeria, Corsica. And from everywhere he brings out impressions that will later pour out on the pages of his works - “Letters from the Mill”, “Nabob”, “Tartarin from Tarascon”. In 1867, Daudet happily married.

He will have two sons and a daughter.

First book

Letters from the Mill (1865–1869), a collection of short stories, is Daudet's first and most significant work.

Small stories and fairy tales have not lost their meaning and charm until today. Daudet received these elegant and truthful, funny and mischievous, sometimes sad stories as a gift while talking with the peasants of Provence.

First novel

It was a semi-biographical novel The Kid (1868). There is a lot of personal in it, but it is impossible to completely identify the hero with Dode. Most of the episodes of the second part are completely invented, and the character of Dode does not coincide with the character of the hero at all. This is a lyrical diary of a growing child. Daudet was the first person in France to tackle this subject.

The Adventures of Tartarin

The biography of Alphonse Daudet, like any artist, is his work, that's why they are given so much space. This book is based on sparkling Provençal humor. Daudet portrayed the life of a stagnant small town, stupid, good-natured, narcissistic inhabitants, who were surpassed by Tartarin. He has a garden with dwarf baobabs, rare weapons and fantasies. He only dreamed of going to Shanghai, as it already seemed to him that he was there. Daudet's Tartarin is a ridiculous projector and windbag.

However, he decided to leave his Tarascon and go to Algeria, where thousands of French rushed, making this country their colony. Daudet ridicules the tales that the French brought civilization to the country. And it turns into a political satire.

Daily routine

Since about 1877, the writer Alphonse Daudet, not distinguished by good he alth, has established a strict order of work and rest. If work fascinates him, then he gets up at 4 o'clock in the morning and works until eight. Then, after an hour's break, he again works until twelve o'clock in the afternoon, then a two-hour rest, and again work from 2 to 18 o'clock, and then from 20 to midnight. At the same time, there is perfect order in the office.

From 1877 to 1889 he wrote thirteen novels, as well as memoirs, stories, essays, articles.

Personal friendship

The writer is gradually becoming very popular. Ed recognizes him as "their own". Goncourt, E. Zola, G. Flaubert, I. Turgenev. Turgenev amazes him with his encyclopedic knowledge. Surely childhood memories of his relatives' ties with Russia emerge. His uncle Guillaume fled revolutionary France and ended up in Russia. In St. Petersburg, he became the owner of a large store and supplier to His Imperial Majesty. Then he was accused of conspiracy and exiled to Siberia. He fled, was caught on the border with China and sent to hard labor. He was released by Emperor Alexander I, who ascended the throne. So from childhood, Alphonse Daudet learned about Russia, and later its literature, in particular the Hunter's Notes, popular in France. And now he briefly, in a friendly circle, communicates with their author, who after dinner can brilliantly comment on Goethe's works. These meetings enrich all five authors, expanding their horizons. Turgenev appreciated Dode very much.

Here is how he spoke about his novels: "If "Fromon and Risler" is depicted by a straight line, then "Nabob" shouldto portray WW like this, and the tops of these zigzags are accessible only to first-class talent".

Big social canvas

The novel Nabob (1877) was hard to write. The writer portrayed widespread deceit, which was covered by ostentatious integrity. Adventurers of all stripes were in power. They begged or bought themselves titles and titles, found warm places. Behind their external grandeur lies an insignificant nature. The hero of the novel, Zhansoulet, came from a poor family of a rusty nail dealer. He speculates in Tunisia and returns to France as a multimillionaire. In Paris, he expects to buy fame and recognition for himself. But he is immediately surrounded by a crowd of experienced predators. Compared to them, Zhansoulet is a pathetic redneck. He is trying to bribe everyone to become a deputy. But, deceived by everyone, he dies alone. Otherwise, the fate of his former comrade, and now the worst enemy - the banker Emerlenga. He becomes one of the financial tycoons of Paris.

Interest in modern life

He was expressed by the writer in the novel Sappho (1884). Daudet took one of the most shameful facts - prostitution, not in order to show juicy details, but then to reveal to the reader the depth of the humiliation and suffering of women who are forced to sell their bodies.

The reader is presented with portraits of sophisticated peddlers, selfish and cruel. Exploiting these women, they easily abandon them, dooming them to need and suffering. The usual fate of the unfortunate is the street, hunger, premature old age.

Alphonse Daudet quotes

Many expressions of the author went to the people and became aphorisms. Only a few can be listed:

• "Only those flaws that you yourself have are successfully ridiculed."
• "A fair wind is sent to us by providence, and it is not resisted."
• "Act, act! It's better to saw wood than to dream, at least the blood will not stagnate in the veins!"

Russian literature of the 19th century is brilliant and incomparable, especially since we read it in the original. But France in the same 19th century gave a galaxy of great writers, among whom, undoubtedly, is the name of Alphonse Daudet. A brief biography, reflected in his best works, is given in this article. He died at the age of 57 and is buried in Pere La Chaise Cemetery.