Marguerite Duras

Marguerite Duras (1914-1996)

French Novelist, Screenwriter and Playwright 

French writer Marguerite Duras wrote more than numerous novels, screenplays and plays. She is best-known for her prize-winning novel, The Lover, and her experimental works that place great emphasis on innovations regarding style. Her theme mainly explores the challenges of love in a world that affects it.

Early Life of Marguerite Duras

Duras was born Marguerite Donnadieu on April 4, 1914 in Giadinh, French Indochina, now Vietnam. Her father died when she was four, and her mother, a teacher, struggled to bring up three children.

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George Sand

George Sand (1804-1876)

French Novelist and Playwright

 

George Sand was the most celebrated female French novelist of the 19th century, also famous as an early feminist and for her many love affairs.

Early life of George Sand

French writer George Sand was born Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, in Paris on July 1, 1804. She grew in Nohant, in a family estate there. It was a small village in central France. She married when she was 18 but grew bored with her husband. At 27-years-old, she went to live in Paris with her two children.

Read more … George Sand Brief Biography

 

André Breton

André Breton (1896 – 1966)

French Poet and Novelist, Dadaist, Surrealist

André Breton was a French poet who helped found Surrealism, which became one of the most influential artistic movements of the 20th century. As one of the first organizers of the group, he fully articulated the theory of Surrealism and to put it into literary practice.

André Breton and Early Influences

André Breton was born on February 18, 1896, in Tinchebray, France.

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Works by André Breton

• Magnetic Fields, 1921
• Light of the Earth, 1923
• Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924
• Nadja, 1928
• The Community Vessels, 1932
• What is Surrealism?, 1934
• Mad Love, 1937
• Ode to Charles Fourier, 1947
• Poems, 1948
• Constellations, 1959
• Selected Poems, 1969 (Published after he died)
• Poems of André Breton (Published after he died)

Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

Beaumarchais (1732-1799)

French Playwright

Beaumarchais was one of the greatest comic French playwrights best-known as the author of The Barber of Seville (Le Barbier de Séville) and its sequel, The Marriage of Figaro (Le Mariage de Figaro).

The two plays were adapted into even more famous operas, with The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia) composed by Gioachino Rossini, and The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Both are typical light comedies popular in Europe in the 18th century classical music repertoire.

Read more… Beaumarchais Biography

Books by Beaumarchais

• Eugénie 1767
• The Two Friends, 1770
• Memoirs of Sir Beaumarchais, 1774-1778
• The Barber of Seville or The Useless Precaution, 1775 (Il barbiere di Siviglia)
• The Marriage of Figaro or A Mad Day, 1784 (Le Nozze di Figaro)
• Tarare, 1787
• The Guilty Mother, 1792

Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913-1960)

French Novelist, Journalist, Philosopher, Playwright

Camus was a major and influential French author of the 20th century who received the 1957 Nobel Prize for literature. He is famous for his books The Plague, The Fall and The Rebel.

Early Life of Albert Camus

Albert Camus was born into a poor working-class family in Algeria, North Africa, which at that time belonged to France and which was the setting for much of his work.

Read more — Albert Camus Biography

Works by Albert Camus

• The Inverse and the Place, 1937Caligula, 1938
• The Stranger, 1942
• The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942
• The Outsider, 1942
• Cross Purpose, 1944
• The Plague, 1947
• The State of Siege, 1948
• The Rebel, 1951
• The Fall, 1956
• Exile and the Kingdom, 1958

Jules Verne

Jules Verne (1828-1905)
French Writer, Pioneer of Science Fiction Writing

Jules Verne is best known for his imaginative adventure novels which set examples of science fiction. Famous writers he influenced include H.G. Wells (The Time Machine) and Edgar Rich Burroughs (Tarzan of the Apes).

Jules Gabriel Verne (Feb 8, 1828 – Mar 24, 1905) was born in the port of Nantes, western France, the son of a lawyer. He went to Paris to study law.

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Honore de Balzac

Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)

French Novelist, Playwright and Short Story Writer

Balzac was a great French novelist and playwright of the 19th century, and one of the creators of realism in literature. His works have had a huge influence on the development of the modern novel, and along with his colorful life that has become part of literary legend.

Honoré de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799, in the French city of Tours.

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Books by Honore de Balzac:

• The Chouans, 1829
• The Wild Ass’s Skin, 1831
• The Thirty-Year Old Woman, 1831-34
• The Girl with the Golden Eyes (La Fille aux yeux d’or), 1834-1835
• Droll Stories, 1832-1837
• Eugénie Grandet, 1833
• Father Goriot (Pere Goriot), 1835
• Lost Ilusions (Illusions perdues), 1837-1843
• Cousin Bette, 1846

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Novelist, Dramatist and Poet, Famous for ‘Les Miserables’

Victor Hugo was the most important of the French Romantic School of writers. He is most popular today as the author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) and Les Miserables (1862).

Victor Hugo (1802-1885), French novelist, dramatist and poet, was born on February 26 in Besancon, France, the third son of a soldier in the army of the great French leader Napoleon. He was raised and educated by his mother. At the age of 14, he showed talent as a poet.

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Books by Victor Hugo

• Odes and Ballads, 1826
• Les Orientales, 1829
• Hernani, 1831
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1831
• The Legend of the Centuries, 1859
• Les Miserables, 1862
• By Order of the King, 1869
• The Terrible Year, 1872
• Ninety-Three, 1874