Editing Alphonse Daudet

{{Short description|French novelist}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Alphonse Daudet
| image            = Alphonse Daudet 2.jpg
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1840|5|13|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Nîmes]], [[File:Flag of France.svg|20px]] [[July Monarchy|Kingdom of France]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1897|12|16|1840|5|13|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Paris]], [[File:Flag of France.svg|20px]] [[French Third Republic|French Republic]]
| occupation       = Novelist, [[short story]] writer, playwright, poet
| movement         = [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalism]]
| genre            = 
| notable_works    = 
| influenced       = 
| signature        = Signature Alphonse Daudet.jpg
| spouse           = [[Julia Daudet]]
| children         = [[Léon Daudet]];
[[Lucien Daudet]];
[[Edmée Daudet]]
}}
'''Alphonse Daudet''' ({{IPA|fr|dodɛ|lang}}; 13 May 1840{{snd}}16 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of [[Julia Daudet]] and father of Edmée, [[Léon Daudet|Léon]] and [[Lucien Daudet]].

==Early life==
Daudet was born in [[Nîmes]], France.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/reviewofreviewsw17newy#page/160/mode/2up "Sketch of Alphonse Daudet,"] ''Review of Reviews'', Vol. 17, No. 2, 1898, p. 161.</ref> 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 [[Hippolyte de Villemessant|Cartier de Villemessant]]'s energetic editorship, wrote two or three plays, and began to be recognized in literary communities as possessing distinction and promise. [[Duc de Morny|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.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Daudet, Alphonse|volume=7|page=848|first=Frank Thomas|last=Marzials}}</ref>

==Literary career==
[[File:Windmill of Alphonse Daudet.JPG|thumb|left|Daudet's [[Windmill|mill]]]]

In 1866, Daudet's ''[[Lettres de mon moulin]]'' (''Letters from My Windmill''), written in [[Clamart]], near Paris, and alluding to a [[windmill]] in [[Fontvieille, Bouches-du-Rhône|Fontvieille]], [[Provence]],{{Citation needed|date=March 2017}} 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 (play)|L'Arlésienne]]''. But ''[[Fromont and Risler|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.<ref name="EB1911"/>

''[[Jack (Daudet novel)|Jack]]'', [[Illegitimacy in fiction#Written works|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 (novel)|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 [[Tartarin]]s<ref>Sachs, Murray (1966). "Alphonse Daudet's Tartarin Trilogy," ''The Modern Language Review,'' Vol. 61, No. 2, pp. 209–217.</ref>–''[[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.<ref name="EB1911"/>

''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".<ref name="EB1911"/>

Daudet was far from faithful, and was one of a generation of French literary [[syphilitic]]s.<ref>"Alphonse Daudet's Illness", ''The British Medical Journal'', Vol. 2, No. 3745, 1932, p. 722.</ref> 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 ''[[Goncourt Journal|Journal des Goncourt]]'' are numerous.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Political and social views, controversy and legacy==
[[Image:Alphonse Daudet.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Alphonse Daudet]]
[[File:Alphonse Daudet 3.jpg|thumb|Alphonse Daudet, circa 1860 ([[The J. Paul Getty Museum]])]]

Daudet was a monarchist and a fervent opponent of the French Republic. He was an antisemite, {{Citation needed|date=June 2021}} though less famously so than his son [[Léon Daudet|Léon]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Bernanos, Georges|title=La grande peur des bien-pensants|publisher=Le livre de poche|date=1998|isbn=978-2-253-93302-1}}</ref> The main character of ''Le Nabab'' was inspired by a Jewish politician who was elected as a deputy for Nîmes.<ref>Mosse, Claude (2009). "Alphonse Daudet, Ecrivain Provencal?", ''Actualite de l'Histoire'', No. 103, p. 71.</ref>  Daudet campaigned against him and lost.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}} 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''.<ref name="Gérard Gengembre 1998, p266">Gérard Gengembre, professeur de littérature française à l'Université de Caen. In DAUDET, Alphonse. ''Lettres de mon moulin'', Paris, Pocket, 1998, {{p.|266}}. (Pocket classiques ; 6038). {{ISBN|2-266-08323-6}}</ref> 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.<ref>Mosse (2009), pp. 68–70.</ref>

Numerous colleges and schools in contemporary France bear his name and his books are widely read and several are in print.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

==Works==
Major works, and works in English translation (date given of first translation). For a complete bibliography see {{Interlanguage link multi|Works by Alphonse Daudet|fr|3=Œuvres d'Alphonse Daudet}}.
* ''[[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 (play)|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 (Daudet novel)|Jack]]'' (1876; English: ''Jack'', 1897).
* ''[[Le Nabab (Daudet)|Le Nabab]]'' (1877; English: ''The <!--SIC: spelled Nabob in English, Nabab in French-->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).[[File:7DNR2346.jpg|thumb|Daudet's Grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris]]
* ''[[L'Evangéliste]]'' (1883; English: ''The Evangelist'', 1883).
* ''[[Sapho (novel)|Sapho]]'' (1884<ref>[[:File:Daudet - Sapho, 1884.djvu]]</ref>); (English: <!--SIC: Sappho spelled with two P's in English-->''Sappho''<!--SIC... Σαπφώ=sapfo -->, 1886).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daudet |first1=Alphonse |title=Sappho: Between the Flies and Footlights. Arlatan's Treasure |date=1899 |publisher=[[Little, Brown]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y04oJX9lZOUC |access-date=4 June 2023 |language=en}}</ref>
* ''[[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).<ref>White, Nicholas (2001–2002). "Paternal Perspectives on Divorce in Alphonse Daudet's "Rose et Ninette" (1892)", ''Nineteenth-Century French Studies'', Vol. 30, Nos. 1/2, pp. 131–147.</ref>
*{{citation|title=Un paysan du Midi. Vie d'enfant|language=French |location=Paris|publisher=E. Dentu |year=1894|pages=503  |author=[[Batisto Bonnet]] |others=translated by Alphonse Daudet}}
* ''[[In the Land of Pain|La Doulou]]'' (1930; English: ''In The Land of Pain'', 2003; translator: [[Julian Barnes]]).
* ''[[:s:The Last Lesson|The Last Lesson]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

'''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==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* 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.&nbsp;107–130.
* [[Joseph Conrad|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.&nbsp;25–31.
* Crawford, Virginia M. (1898). [https://archive.org/stream/contemporaryrev23unkngoog#page/n194/mode/2up "Alphonse Daudet,"] ''The Contemporary Review'', Vol. 73, pp.&nbsp;182–192 (Rep. in [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924026928691#page/n59/mode/2up ''Studies in Foreign Literature.''] Boston: L. C. Page & Company, 1899, pp.&nbsp;49–77.)
* [[Benedetto Croce|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.&nbsp;312–325.
* [[Léon Daudet|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.
* [[René Doumic|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.&nbsp;127–174.
* Favreau, Alphonse R. (1937). "British Criticism of Daudet, 1872–97", ''PMLA'', Vol. 52, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;528–541.
* [[Edmund Gosse|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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;597–608.
* Hemmings, F. W. J. (1974). "Alphonse Daudet". In: ''The Age of Realism''. Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;31–76.
* [[Henry James|James, Henry]] (1894). [https://archive.org/stream/partialportraits00jameiala#page/194/mode/2up "Alphonse Daudet."] In: ''Partial Portraits''. London: Macmillan & Co., pp.&nbsp;195–239.
* Major, John C. (1966). "Henry James, Daudet and Oxford", ''Notes & Queries'', Vol. 13, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;69–70.
* [[Brander Matthews|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.&nbsp;109–146.
* [[Arthur Bartlett Maurice|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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;219–244.
* Moore, Olin H. (1916). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/432780 "The Naturalism of Alphonse Daudet"], ''Modern Philology'', Vol. 14, No. 3, pp.&nbsp;157–172.
* [[Margaret Oliphant|Oliphant, Margaret]] (1879). [https://archive.org/stream/blackwoodsmagaz125edinuoft#page/92/mode/2up "The Novels of Alphonse Daudet,"] ''Blackwood's Magazine'', Vol. 125, pp.&nbsp;93–111.
* Powers, Lyall H.  (1972). "James's Debt to Alphonse Daudet", ''Comparative Literature'', Vol. 24, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;150–162.
* [[Arthur Ransome|Ransome, Arthur]] (1913). [https://archive.org/stream/portraitsspecula00ransuoft#page/56/mode/2up "Alphonse Daudet".] In: ''Portraits and Speculations''. London: Macmillan & Co., pp.&nbsp;57–70.
* [[Jean-François Raffaëlli|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.&nbsp;952–960.
* Sachs, Murray (1948). "The Role of Collaborators in the Career of Alphonse Daudet", ''PMLA'', Vol. 73, No. 1, pp.&nbsp;116–122.
* Sachs, Murray (1964). "Alphonse Daudet and Paul Arène: Some Umpublished Letters", ''Romanic Review'', Vol. 55, pp.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;137–50.
* [[Charles Whibley|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.&nbsp;16–21.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=727| name=Alphonse Daudet}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Alphonse Daudet}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1020}}
* [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=%22Daudet,%20Alphonse,%201840-1897.%22&type=author&inst= Works by Alphonse Daudet], at [[Hathi Trust]]

{{Alphonse Daudet}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Daudet, Alphonse}}
[[Category:Alphonse Daudet| ]]
[[Category:1840 births]]
[[Category:1897 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Nîmes]]
[[Category:French memoirists]]
[[Category:19th-century French letter writers]]
[[Category:Deaths from syphilis]]
[[Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery]]
[[Category:19th-century French novelists]]
[[Category:French male novelists]]
[[Category:French male short story writers]]
[[Category:19th-century French short story writers]]
[[Category:Daudet family]]
[[Category:19th-century French educators]]
[[Category:19th-century French poets]]
[[Category:French male poets]]
[[Category:19th-century French dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:French male dramatists and playwrights]]