Paris 2015: Jules Vallès, 5th arrondissement, Paris

'Dans cet immeuble,

accueilli par Sévéeine,

mourut, le 14 février 1885,

l'écrivain Jules Vallès.'

 

This is on the boulevard Saint-Michel, right opposite the idyllic Luxembourg. The fascinating Séverine, née Caroline Remy (1855–1929) was well known for her left-wing, feminist views. I've made a few previous posts on Vallès (although unfortunately not on Séverine) and shall in the near future be adding links to them.

 

Paris 2015: Richard Wright, 6th arrondissement, Paris

'L'HOMME DE LETTRES NOIR AMÉRICAIN

RICHARD WRIGHT

HABITA CET IMMEUBLE DE 1948 À 1959'

 

Richard Wright 1908–1960 died the following year.

 

Paris 2015: Léo Malet, Cimetière Châtillon (92)

'LÉO MALET 1909 . 1996'

Léo Malet brought a new kind of detective fiction to the market, particularly with his creation Nestor Burma, the private 'detective de choc' who (like the early Malet) was an anarchist (and something of a sexist avant la lettre), and is best known in the series Les Nouveaux Mystères de Paris. The name is a reference to Eugene Sue's Mystères de Paris, and each novel takes place in a different arrondissement of Paris, although as there are only fifteen novels in the series, five arrondissements are missed out.

Malet's most well-known novel is probably Brouillard au pont de Tolbiac (1954), part of his Les Nouveaux Mystères de Paris series and set in the 13th arrondissement. Running a close second, though, must be the wonderfully titled Micmac moche au Boul' Mich' (1957).

In 1948 Malet was the first writer to win the Grand Prix for detective fiction, and in 1958 he received the Grand Prix for black humour.

(NB. For anyone seeking Léo Malet's grave, it's important not to heed the words one commentor has made on the Sur les pas des Écrivains site: contrary to what the person wrote about Malet's grave being in Division 15, it is in fact in Division 12, knowledge of which could have saved us a lot of time.)

Paris 2015: Victorien Sardou, Cimetière de Marly-le-roi (78)

'SÉPULTURE

VICTORIEN SARDOU'

 

 

'À SON PRÉSIDENT D'HONNEUR
VICTORIEN SARDOU
SOCIÉTÉ DES AUTEURS
ET
COMPOSITEURS
DRAMATIQUES'

 

Aside from André Baillon, the other author of note in Marly-le-roi cemetery is Victorien Sardou (1831–1908). Sardou's most famous play was Madame sans gêne (1893), one of a great number of his works. He was also noted for spiritualism.

Paris 2015: André Baillon, Cimetière de Marly-le-roi (78) #1

'1875 – 1932

 

AU ROMANCIER

ANDRÉ BAILLON

SES AMIS.'

 

 

An impressive tribute to the brilliant Belgian-born novelist André Baillon, who after a number of aborted attempts killed himself in 1932. Adolphe Wansart (1873–1954) also made a bust of Baillon.

My other post on André Baillon, which includes my impressions on his novel Le Perce-oreille du Luxembourg, gives much more information on the man:

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André Baillon: Le Perce-oreille du Luxembourg

Paris 2015: Léon Frapié, Cimetière du Montoir, Houilles (78)

 

'LÉON

FRAPIÉ

1863–1949'

 

For nearly forty years Léon Frapié wrote a number of realist novels, of which La Maternelle (1904) was the second to win the Goncourt, begun the year before. This is narrated by a woman and is said to be a largely biographical story of his first wife, the declassée teacher Léonie Mouillefert whom he married in 1888 and who inspired several of his working-class novels.

 

'MADAME LÉON FRAPIÉ

NÉE ALICE VERLAY

1881 – 1975'

 

Frapié's second wife, who as Alice Verlay-Frapié wrote several children's books.

There is a Square Léon Frapié in the 20th arrondissement.

Paris 2015: Georges Soulès (aka Raymond Abellio), Cimetière d'Auteuil #7

'GEORGES SOULÈS
dit RAYMOND ABELLIO. ÉCRIVAIN ET PHILOSOPHE
11.11.1907 – 26.08.1986'

 

Georges Soulès (aka Raymond Abellio) (1907-1986), was a gnostic philosopher who wrote four novels: Heureux les pacifiques (1947), Les yeux d'Ézéchiel sont ouverts (1950), La Fosse de Babel (1962) and Visages immobiles (1983), and a number of philosophical essays.

Paris 2015: Paul Dalloz, Cimetière d'Auteuil #6

Paul Dalloz (1829–87) was the director of several papers, including Le Monde illustré and Le Moniteur, and he regularly corresponded with Baudelaire.

Paris 2015: Pierre-Jean Georges Cabanis, Cimetière d'Auteuil #5

The body of the medical doctor and philosopher Pierre-Jean Georges Cabanis (1757–1808) is in the Panthéon, although his heart is in the cimetière d’Auteuil. His published works include: Observations sur les hôpitaux (1790); Journal de la maladie et de la mort d'Honoré-Gabriel-Victor-Riquetti de Mirabeau (1791); Du degré de la certitude de la médecine (1797); Rapport sur l'organisation des écoles de médecine (1799); Quelques considérations sur l'organisation sociale (1799); Rapports du physique et du moral de l'homme (1802); Coup d'œil sur les révolutions et la réforme de la médecine (1804); Observations sur les affections catarrhales (1807).

Paris 2015: Alain Griotteray, Cimetière d'Auteuil #4

'ALAIN GRIOTTERAY
15.10.1922 – 30.08.2008
GRAND OFFICIER DE LA LÉGION D'HONNEUR
CHEF DU RÉSEAU ORION
––––––––'

 

Alain Griotteray was a staunch right-wing journalist who co-founded Figaro magazine in 1978. The mere titles of a few of his numerous publications strongly indicate his political views: supporter of privatisation, criticiser of the soft right and of course the left, and great praise for De Gaulle: La Fraude électorale de la gauche (1983); Mieux privatiser (1994); La Droite molle : chronique d'une déroute méritée (1997); Les années Jospin : chroniques du temps perdu (2000); De Gaulle : encore et toujours (2006).

Paris 2015: Hippolyte de Villemessant, Cimetière d'Auteuil #3

Jean Hippolyte Auguste Delaunay de Villemessant (1810–79) was a journalist and a newspaper owner, notably of the right-wing Le Figaro, which I believe is the oldest paper still produced in France. On 17 April 1879, Le Figaro had a black border : Hippolyte de Villemessant had been buried the day before in this cemetery. Many people attended his funeral, and Alphonse Daudet and Gustave Flaubert recognised his death as a loss to the literary (and polical) world.

Paris 2015: Abel Gance, Cimetière d'Auteuil #2

It's interesting that one of the pioneers of movie history, Abel Gance (1889–1981), and the director of J'accuse (1919), La Roue (1923), Napoléon (1927) and Austerlitz (1960), is buried not conspicuously in Père-Lachaise or Montparnasse, but tucked away in the tiny Cimetière d'Auteuil.

Paris 2015: Régis Allier, Cimetière d'Auteuil #1

Régis Allier (1802–78) was born in Valence and moved to Paris, where he was concerned with both literature and social problems. He wrote poems, plays, short stories, etc. His most noted work seems to be Études sur le systeme penitentiaire et les societes de patronage (1842). Ary Scheffer painted his portrait in 1848.

Paris 2015: Esprit, Émile and Jacques-Émile Blanche, Cimetière de Passy #8

Several members of the Blanche family lie here. Esprit Blanche (1796–1852) was a psychiatrist based in Montmartre and later (from 1846) in Passy; his grandson was the writer Georges Ohnet. Esprit's son Émile Blanche (1820–93), also a psychiatrist, took over the clinic after his father's death, and included Nerval and Maupassant among his patients. Émile's son Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861–1942) was a painter, engraver and writer who was taught English by Stéphane Mallarmé at the Lycée Condorcet. Among his friends were Henri Bergson, André Gide, the Surrealists and the Dadaists. And among his famous works are portraits of Pierre Louÿs and Aubrey Beardsley.

Paris 2015: Arthème and Jean Fayard, Cimetière de Passy #7

Joseph Arthème Fayard (1866–1936) was the son of Joseph-François Arthème Fayard, the founder of Librairie Arthème Fayard, and took over the business in 1894. Under his father the firm specialised in more popular literature, although Arthème fils changed the orientation. A friend of Léon Daudet, he published the complete works of his brother Alphonse, and went on to publish  Maurice Barrès, Paul Bourget and Marcel Prévost.

His son Jean Fayard (1902–78) took over on his father's death in 1936. The same year he sold off the notorious Je suis partout, which his father had started publishing in 1930, and which in the war years became the principal organ of collaborationism and anti-semitic expression.

Jean Fayard also wrote a large number of works, notably the novel Mal d'amour, which won the Goncourt in 1931.

(In this shot, the huge, impressive chapel of the painter and writer Marie Bashkirtseff – featured in an earlier post on this blog – is clearly visible to the upper left of this tomb.)

Paris 2015: Maurice Paléologue, Cimetière de Passy #6

'PALÉOLOGUE
MAURICE
DE L'ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE
AMBASSADEUR DE FRANCE
'1908 – 1977
MDCCCLIX – MDCCCCXLIV'

 

As well as a diplomat, Paléologue was a writer of many works of non-fiction (mainly historical), and several of these books are available online.

Paris 2015: Lucie Faure, Cimetière de Passy #5

 

'LUCIE FAURE
ÉCRIVAIN FRANÇAIS
'1908 – 1977
––––'

 

Lucie Faure, born in Boissise-la-Bertrand (Seine-et-Marne), was a novelist and magazine director. In Algiers in 1944 she created La Nef (La Nouvelle équipe française) with Robert Aron, which was later published in Paris.

Faure's published novels and short stories, etc, include Journal d'un voyage en Chine, (1958), Les Passions indécises (1961), Les Filles du Calvaire (1963), Variations sur l'imposture (1965), L'Autre personne (1968), Le Malheur fou (1970), Les Bons enfants (1972), Mardi à l’aube (1974), Un crime si juste (1976) and Les Destins ambigus (1978).

Paris 2015: René Boylesve, Cimetière de Passy #4

'RENÉ BOYLESVE
ÉCRIVAIN FRANÇAIS
'1867 – 1926'

René Boylesve was a new name to me, although there is a great deal of information out there about the man and his works. But I'll trust the dreaded Wikipédia for potted information on him, which tells me that he was born in Descartes (Indre et Loire), where there is a bust of him in the park. There is no mention of Balzac there, although the (surely hyperbolic if not ludicrous) English Wikipedia entry calls him an heir to Balzac and a precursor of Proust. Whatever his importance, he wrote a great number of works, and of course the French site lists far more. Some of his works are available online through Gallica.

Paris 2015: Louis Castex, Cimetière de Passy #3

As well as being a pioneering aviator, Colonel Louis Castex also wrote a number of popular books about his exploits, among which are:

Mon tour du monde en avion. Carnet de notes tenu au jour le jour sur 50000 ks de vol [1944], with a Preface by Roland Dorgelès.

L'Age de l'air, 25 ans d'aviation commerciale dans le monde, 1920-1945 (1946), with a Préface de Henri Farman.

L'Amérique devant le conflit : impressions et souvenirs, 1941 (1947).

Les secrets de l'île de Pâques (1966).

Paris 2015: François Raynouard, Cimetière de Passy #2

'RAYNOUARD
FRANÇOIS JUST MARIE
DE L'INSTITUT DE FRANCE'

 

François Just Marie Raynouard (1761–1836), who was born in Aix-en-Provence, is most noted not so much for his early plays as for his translations of the troubadours, and is considered as an important precursor of the félibrige group.

Paris 2015: Michel Droit, Cimetière de Passy #1

'MICHEL DROIT
de l'Académie française
1923 – 2000'

 

Michel Droit was a novelist and journalist. His first novel, Plus rien au monde (1954) gained the prix Max-Barthou, and in 1964 he received the grand prix du roman de l'Académie française for Le Retour.

He is remembered for his television interviews of de Gaulle, and in 1979 for his extremely strong reaction against Serge Gainsbourg's song 'Aux armes et cætera', which was a great hit that angered many members of the military and other members of the right. Droit went as far, in the right-wing paper Le Figaro, as to say that he felt the urge to become an ecologist because of Gainsbourg's 'pollution' of the French national song La Marseillaise. Gainsbourg responded with an article in Le Matin-Dimanche titled 'On n’a pas le con d’être aussi Droit', which because of its pun I won't venture to translate, but he was certainly calling Droit, let's say, pretty silly.

Paris 2015: Théophile Gautier in Neuilly-sur-Seine (92)

'LE POÈTE
THÉOPHILE GAUTIER
NÉ À TARBES LE 31 AOÛT 1811
EST MORT DANS CETTE MAISON
LE 23 OCTOBRE 1872'

 

'Maison de Théophile Gautier

En 1857, quittant la rue de la Grange-Batelière à Paris, l'écrivain Théophile Gautier (Tarbes, 1811 – Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1872) s'installe au 32, rue de Longchamp, sur les conseils des directeurs du Moniteur universel, journal dont il est l'un des principaux collaborateurs.

Avec sa compagne, Ernesta Grisi, cantatrice d'origine italienne, ses deux filles, Judith et Éstelle, ses deux sœurs, ses chats, ses livres et ses objets d'art, il emménage dans cette petite maison de campagne à deux étages, pourvue d'un jardin en contrebas.

C'est ici qu'il a fait paraître notamment Le Roman de la Momie (1858), Le Captaine Fracasse (1863), des récits de voyages tel que Voyages en Russie (1866), sans oublier ses innombrables critiques dramatiques et artistiques. Sa maison accueille entre ses murs écrivains et artistes : on y côtoie Charles Baudelaire, Alexandre Dumas père et fils, Ernest Feydeau, Gustave Doré, Edmond et Jules de Goncourt, Gustave Flaubert ou Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.

Durant la Commune de Paris, en 1871, la Maison subit de lourds dégâts. Réfugié à Versailles, Théophile Gautier regagne Neuilly au printemps 1871 et enterprend de remettre l'édifice en état. Malade, il y décède le 23 octobre 1872 entouré des siens.

Entre 1873 et 1876, un décor commémoratif dédié à Gautier, est mis en place sur la façade : un buste de l'écrivain et une plaque de marbre signalent au passant l'identité de l'ancien locataire.'

My Translation:

'Théophile Gautier's house'

In 1857, on leaving rue de la Grange-Batelière in Paris, the writer Théophile Gautier (Tarbes, 1811 – Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1872) moved into 32 rue de Longchamp following the advice of the directors of Moniteur universel, a paper to which he was one of the main contributors.

With his companion Ernesta Grisi, a prima donna of Italian origin, his two daughters Judith and Éstelle, his two sisters, his cats, his books and his objets d'art, he moved into this two-storey house with a garden at the back.

Notably, it is here that he published Le Roman de la Momie (1858), Le Captaine Fracasse (1863), accounts of voyages such as Voyages en Russie (1866), not to mention his innumerable dramatic and artistic criticisms. Within these walls he welcomed writers and artists: one could rub shoulders with Charles Baudelaire, Alexandre Dumas père and fils, Ernest Feydeau, Gustave Doré, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, Gustave Flaubert or Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.

During the Paris Commune of 1871 the house was seriously damaged. Exiled to Versailles, Théophile Gautier returned to Neuilly in the sping of 1871 and undertook the restoration of the house. In poor health, he died here on 23 October 1872 surrounded by his family.

Between 1873 and 1876 a commemorative decoration dedicated to Gautier was placed on the facade: a bust of the writer and a marble plaque informing the passerby of the identity of the former resident.'

Another old plaque is affixed to the house:

'IL EST DÉFENDU

DE LAISSER PASSER

LES CHEVAUX ET BESTIAUX

SUR LE TROTTOIR'

'IT IS FORBIDDEN

FOR HORSES AND CATTLE

TO BE ALLOWED TO WALK

ON THE PAVEMENT'

Paris 2015: Rimbaud's 'Le Bateau ivre', 6th arrondissement

On a wall in rue Férou, near Église Saint-Sulpice:

'ARTHUR RIMBAUD

1854 – CHARLEVILLE

––––––––––––––––––––

1891 – MARSEILLE

LE BATEAU IVRE'

'LE BATEAU

IVRE

ARTHUR RIMBAUD'

This is simply a note about the remarkable wall giving in full the content of 'Le Bateau ivre', one of Rimbaud's most famous poems, which he addressed to friends in 1871, at the age of seventeen, near Place Saint Sulpice.

The friends (as mentioned in a previous post, which is where I copied this image from) were the 'Vilains Bonhommes', and this plaque is on the corner of rue Bonaparte and rue du Vieux Colombier. The poem as it appears on the wall:

My Arthur Rimbaud posts:
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Yanny Hureaux: Un Ardennais nommé Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud and the Vilains bonhommes, Paris 6e
Rimbaud's 'Le Bateau ivre' sculpture, Paris 6e
Arthur Rimbaud, Parc Balnéaire du Prado, Marseille
Arthur Rimbaud in Charleville-Mézières cemetery
Arthur Rimbaud in Roche
Arthur Rimbaud quotations, Charleville-Mézières
Arthur Rimbaud memorial, Charleville-Mézières
Arthur Rimbaud murals in Charleville-Mézières
Rimbaud and Verlaine in Camden Town
Arthur Rimbaud museums in Charleville-Mézières
Arthur Rimbaud in Attigny
Arthur Rimbaud and Hervé Tonglet in Charleville-Mézières