The works of Alfons Daudet (1840–1897) have flowed freshly into French literature and forever become one of its best parts. Alphonse Daudet was born in the southern province, and inherent in all the unbridled imagination of the southerner, but he tried to write about what he saw and experienced.
Childhood and youth
The ancestors of Dode were peasants who, at the beginning of the bourgeois revolution, moved to the city of Nimes, in which Alfons Dode was born in the family of a prosperous owner of a cloth factory. One of his brothers died almost as a child. This encounter with death shocked the future writer, and later he will talk about it in the novel "Baby." In the same novel, he describes a deserted factory courtyard, where he spent his childhood and where he imagined himself Robinson. It was a fun and carefree time, since Alfons Daudet did not even suspect 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 Alfons Daudet, studied first at a church school, and then at a lyceum. Children of wealthy parents tried to humiliate them and not communicate with them. The brothers were stigmatized by poverty. However, Alphonse shamelessly skipped classes at thirteen, preferring them to the river, boats, tugboats - a real whirlpool of life. At the same time, he read a lot and began to write poetry. He was sixteen when he did not work as a teacher for long, and then went after his brother in 1857 to the capital.
Paris
In the novel “Baby” and in the book “Thirty Years in Paris”, Daudet will vividly describe this his first day in the capital city. He experienced great joy in meeting with Ernest. However, its existence has become semi-bohemian, miserable - malnutrition, lack of shelter over his head. Once, when he could not pay for the apartment, 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 was invited to the Figaro newspaper. And then more. He and his brother begin to work in the state office of the Legislative Corps. There is a lot of time left from work. Respectable now looks like Dode Alfons (photo).
Continuing to write, Dodet visits Provence, Algeria, Corsica. And from everywhere he makes impressions, which will then spill over onto the pages of his works - “Letters from the Mill”, “Nabob”, “Tartaren from Tarascon”. In 1867, Dode married happily.
He will have two sons and a daughter.
First book
“Letters from the Mill” (1865–1869), a collection of short stories, is the first and significant work of Dode.
Small stories and tales have not lost their significance and charms to this day. These graceful and truthful, funny and mischievous, sometimes sad stories Dode received as a gift, talking with the peasants of Provence.
First novel
It was a semi-biographical novel "The Kid" (1868). It has a lot of personal, but it is impossible to fully identify the hero with Dode. Most episodes of the second part are completely invented, and the character of Dode does not at all coincide with the character of the hero. This is the lyric diary of a growing child. Daudet was the first to take up this topic in France.
The Adventures of Tartaren
The biography of Alfons Daudet, like any artist, is his work, so they are given so much space. This book is based on sparkling Provencal humor. Daudet portrayed the life of an inert little town, stupid, good-natured, narcissistic townsfolk who were all surpassed by Tartaren. It has a garden where dwarf baobabs, rare weapons and fantasies grow. He only dreamed of going to Shanghai, as it seemed to him that he was there. Tartaren at Dode is an absurd searchlight and a dumbbell.
However, he decided to leave his Tarascon and go to Algeria, where thousands of French flocked, making this country his colony. Daudet ridicules the tales that the French carried civilization into the country. And it turns into a political satire.
Schedule
Since about 1877, the writer Alfons Daudet, not distinguished by good health, establishes a strict order of work and rest. If work captivates him, then he gets up at 4 in the morning and works until eight. Then, after a one-hour break, he again works until twelve in the afternoon, then a two-hour rest, and again work from 14 to 18 hours, and then from 20 to midnight. At the same time, the perfect order in the office.
In the period from 1877 to 1889 he wrote thirteen novels, as well as memoirs, short stories, essays, and articles.
Personal friendship
The writer is gradually becoming very popular. Ed recognize him as his. Goncourt, E. Zola, G. Flaubert, I. Turgenev. Turgenev amazes him with his encyclopedic knowledge. Certainly, childhood memories of his relatives' ties with Russia pop up. His uncle Guillaume fled from revolutionary France and ended up in Russia. In St. Petersburg, he became the owner of a large store and supplier of His Imperial Majesty. Then he was accused of conspiracy and exiled to Siberia. He fled, on the border with China he was caught and sent to hard labor. Emperor Alexander I, who ascended the throne, freed him. So from childhood, Alphonse Daudet learned about Russia, and later its literature, in particular, "Notes of the Hunter", popular in France. And now he briefly, in a friendly circle, communicates with their author, who after lunch can brilliantly comment on Goethe's works. These meetings enrich the entire five authors, expanding their horizons. Turgenev greatly appreciated Dode.
Here is how he spoke about his novels: “If“ Fromon and Risler ”is depicted in a straight line, then“ Naboba ”should be depicted as WW, and the tops of these zigzags are accessible only to first-rate talent.”
Great social canvas
The novel Nabob (1877) was difficult to write. The writer portrayed a widespread deception, which was covered by ostentatious decency. Adventurers of all stripes were in power. They begged or bought titles and ranks, found warm places. Behind their outward grandeur lies an insignificant nature. The hero of the novel, Zhansule, emerged from a poor family of a dealer in rusty nails. He speculates in Tunisia and returns to France with a multimillionaire. In Paris, he expects to buy himself fame, recognition. But he is immediately surrounded by a crowd of experienced predators. Compared to them, Zhansule is a miserable hillbilly. He is trying to bribe everyone to become a deputy. But, deceived by all, he dies in solitude. Otherwise, the fate of his former comrade, and now the worst enemy - the banker Emerling, is taking shape. He becomes one of the financial movers of Paris.
Interest in modern life
He expressed himself at the writer in the novel "Sappho" (1884). Dodet took one of the most disgraceful facts - prostitution, not 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.
Before the reader are portraits of refined merchants of living goods, selfish and cruel. Exploiting these women, they easily abandon them, condemning them to need and suffering. The usual destiny of the unfortunate is street, hunger, premature old age.
Alphonse Daudet Quotes
Many expressions of the author went into the people and became aphorisms. Only a few can be listed:
- "Only those shortcomings that you yourself have successfully ridiculed."
- "A fair wind is sent to us by providence, and they do not oppose it."
- "To act, to act! It is better to cut firewood than to dream, at least the blood does not stand still!"
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 Alfons 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 the Père-La-Chaise cemetery.