Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Left
Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly
Right
Marcel Proust
Writers in Normandy
Gustave Flaubert
Flaubert spent the greater
part of his 59 years in Normandy;
its places and people suffuse his
writing. Born in Rouen in 1821,
he abandoned a Paris law training
to live and write in Croisset until
his death. He published his finest
work,
Madame Bovary
, in 1857.
Pierre Corneille
The classical dramatist Pierre
Corneille (1606-84) was born in
Rouen. His plays
Le Cid
,
Horace
,
Cinna
and
Polyeucte
formed the
yardstick for French tragedy,
while
Le Menteur
is a comic
masterpiece. His writing often
reflects the tension between
regional and national loyalties.
Guy de Maupassant
Maupassant (1850-93) was
born at Château de Miromesnil
near Dieppe, and spent his child-
hood in Étretat. His mother had
been a playmate of Flaubert,
who guided Maupassant's debut
as a writer. His first masterpiece
was
Boule de suif
(1880).
André Gide
Born in 1869 of a Huguenot
father and Norman mother, Gide
spent the early and latter parts
of his life in Normandy. He saw
the realities of life here, first as
mayor of a commune, and later
as a juror in Rouen. He won the
Nobel prize four years before his
death in 1951.
Marcel Proust
Proust was born in Paris in
1871 and died there in 1922. His
A la recherche du temps perdu
is
permeated by memories of
Normandy - perhaps most notably
the Grand Hôtel at Cabourg
(see
p27)
, which he renamed Balbec.
Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly
Barbey (1808-89), novelist,
commentator, conversationalist
and, as an admirer of Byron and
Brummell, inveterate dandy, was
still able to scandalize at 66, when
he published
Les Diaboliques
.
Born in St-Saveur-le-Vicomte, he
was raised on a diet of Norman
tales told by a family servant.
Alain Chartier
Pasquier called Alain Chartier
(c.1390-c.1430) - probably best
known for
La Belle Dame sans
merci
- “the Seneca of France .
Born into a distinguished Bayeux
family, he wrote his earliest
poem,
Livre des quatre dames
,
after France's defeat at the Battle
of Agincourt in 1415.
Pierre Corneille
50
