Alphonse Daudet

Louis Marie Alphonse Daudet (Nimes, May 13, 1840-Paris, December 16, 1897) was a French writer, author of Tartarin of Tarascon (1872) and Letters from my mill (1866).

Biography

Born in Nimes on May 13, 1840, he completed his secondary studies in Lyon. He was secretary to the Duke of Morny, an influential figure of the Second Empire. The sudden death of the Duke of Morny (1865) was the trigger that had a decisive influence on Alphonse's life. From that moment Daudet devoted himself entirely to writing; He not only worked as a chronicler for the newspaper Le Figaro , but he also devoted himself to novels and narratives. Later, and after a trip to Provence, Alphonse began to write the first texts that would form part of the stories Letters from my mill ( Lettres de mon moulin , 1866), evocations from his native Provence.

He obtained authorization from the director of L'Événement to publish these stories in the form of a serial, during the summer of 1866, under the title Provincial Chronicles. Some of the stories in this collection are among the most popular tales of French literature, such as The Goat of M. Seguin (La chèvre de M. Seguin), The Three Minor Masses (Les trois messes basses) or The Elixir of Reverend Father Gaucher (L'élixir du révérend père Gaucher). In 1867 he married the writer Julia Daudet.

The first novel that Daudet wrote as such was a semi-autobiography, A Little Thing (Le petit chose, 1868). In it he evoked his past as a teacher at the Colegio d'Alès. In 1874 Daudet leaned towards novels of contemporary customs and wrote Fromont Jr. and Risler Sr. (Fromont jeune et Risler aîné, 1874), Women of Artists (Les femmes d'artistes, 1874), Jack, (1876), El nabob (Le nabob, 1877), The Kings in Exile (Les rois en exile, 1879), Numa Roumestan (1881), The Evangelist (L'Évangéliste, 1883), Sapho (1884), The Immortal (L& #39;immortal, 1883). As a playwright he wrote several plays: The Last Idol (La dernière idole, 1862), The Absents (Les absents, 1863), etc. He did not forget, however, his vocation as a storyteller, and in 1872 he wrote Tartarin of Tarascon , which was his mythical character. It was followed by Tartarin in the Alps (Tartarin sur les Alpes, 1885) and Port-Tarascon, 1890. Tales of Monday (Les contes du lundi, 1873), a collection of stories inspired by the Franco-Prussian war, testify to his inclination for this literary genre and for fantastic tales. He also wrote two memoirs, Memories of a Man of Letters (Souvenirs d'un homme de lettres) and Thirty Years of Paris (Trente ans de Paris).

He was a member of the Goncourt Academy (1874-1880) and died in Paris on December 16, 1897.

Autobiographical works

• 1887: Souvenirs d'un homme de lettres (Memories of a man of letters);
• 1888: Trente ans de Paris (Thirty years of Paris).

Other works

• Fulanito (Edit 1924 by Calpe Workshops, French translation by Josefina Gallego Dantín). Novel.
• Contes du Lundi. Première édition: 1873. Nouvelles Recueil.