- Jean Giraudoux
Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (
August 15 ,1882 –January 31 ,1944 ) was a Frenchnovelist ,essayist ,diplomat andplaywright . He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period betweenWorld War I andWorld War II . [Brockett, Oscar. "History of the Theatre" Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1968. p. 621.]Biography
Born in
Bellac ,Haute-Vienne , Giraudoux's father, Léger Giraudoux, worked for the Ministry of Transportation. Giraudoux studied at theLycée Lakanal , inParis and upon graduation traveled extensively around Europe. After his return to France in 1910, Giraudoux accepted a position with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With the outbreak of World War I, he served with honors and in 1915 he became the first writer ever to be awarded the wartime Legion of Honor. [Fowlie, Wallace. "Jean Giraudoux" in Gassner, John and Edward Quinn ed. "The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama." New York, Thomas Crowell. 1969. p. 359.]He was married in 1918, and in the subsequent period between the two World Wars Giraudoux produced the majority of his writing. He first achieved literary success through several of his novels, notably "Siegfried et le Limousin" (1922) and "Eglantine" (1927), but it is his plays that gained him international renown. A meeting with
Louis Jouvet , in 1928, stimulated his writing.Before
World War II he published in 1939 a highly antisemitic political essay called "Pleins pouvoirs" ("Full power").He is buried in the
Cimetière de Passy in Paris.Partial listing of works
* Comedies
** "Amphitryon 38"--see "Amphitryon "; (in French "Amphitryon 38")
** "Apollo of Bellac " (in French "L'Apollon de Bellac")
** "The Madwoman of Chaillot " (in French "La Folle de Chaillot")
*Dramas
** "The Trojan war will not take place " (in French "La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu", presented in English-speaking countries as "Tiger at the Gates").
** "Electra" (in French "Électre")
** "Ondine" (in French "Ondine")
** "Sodom and Gomorrah" (in French "Sodome et Gomorrhe")French Wikipedia has a page on Jean Giraudoux.
Trivia
* Giraudoux's name is gratified on a Parisian wall in
François Truffaut 's 1959 film "The 400 Blows " as a reference to the writer.Notes
External links
* [http://www.theatrehistory.com/french/giraudoux002.html The Theatrical Art of Jean Giraudoux]
* [http://www.site-magister.com/ondine.htm Analysis of the play "Ondine"] (in French)
* (public domain in Canada)
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