Auguste de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam

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Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam

Jean Marie Mathias Philippe Auguste Count of Villiers de L'Isle-Adam [ ʒɑ̃ maʁi matjas filip ɔɡyst də vilje də lil adɑ̃ ] (born  November 7, 1838 in Saint-Brieuc ; † August 18, 1889 in Paris ) was a French writer . His nickname used by the family was Mathias; the first name Auguste does not appear on all of his books, most of which he published under Villiers de L'Isle-Adam .

Life

Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam came from an old Breton noble family who were already impoverished during their lifetime: His father was unsuccessfully looking for the treasures of sunken ships. The boy grew up with his mother and aunt, attended the Collège de Saint-Brieuc, the Lycée in Laval and graduated from school in Rennes after his parents moved . At the age of seventeen he was already completing a volume of poetry that appeared in 1859. By then the parents had already moved to Paris in order to ensure the literary success of the son who was considered highly gifted. After this success did not materialize, Villiers de L'Isle-Adam spent the rest of his life in Paris, apart from a few trips. He lived and worked there as a writer under meager conditions. He earned his living with journalistic work, occasional publications in magazines and sometimes grotesque jobs such as the living punching ball in a boxing school. In 1862 he made a fool of himself when, citing his ancient nobility, he claimed the vacant Greek royal title . The magazine Revue des Lettres et des Arts , which he founded in 1867, was soon closed again. In 1870, through the intercession of Alexandre Dumas, his play La révolte im Vaudeville was staged and triggered a theater scandal. His attempt to be elected to the district council in 1882 failed because of bizarre demands such as the one for the demolition of the Grand Opera and the Pantheon . It was only after 1883 that he was able to make a living from writing thanks to the modest success of his Cruel Tales , albeit always supported by friends such as Stéphane Mallarmé , Méry Laurent and Léon Dierx .

Villiers de L'Isle-Adam was also friends with Charles Baudelaire , Joris-Karl Huysmans and Richard Wagner . With his fantastic novels and short stories, Villiers de L'Isle-Adam is considered one of the founders of French symbolism . His novel L'Ève future is one of the first science fiction works and at the same time a satire on science.

Villiers de L'Isle-Adam died on the night of 18 August 19, 1889 in a Paris hospital of cancer .

Works

Poetry

  • Premières poésies 1856–1858 , poems, 1859

prose

  • Isis , Roman, 1862
  • Contes cruels , short stories, 1883 (German cruel stories , 1904)
Cruel stories. E. Eißelt, Berlin 1904. Dt. First edition
  • Catalina , Roman, 1885 (German Catalina , 1947)
  • L'Ève future , Roman, 1886 (German Edison's wife of the future , 1909)
  • Tribulat Bonhomet , Stories, 1887 (German Tribulat Bonhomet , 1990)

Dramas

  • Elën , play, 1865
  • Morgan , drama, 1866
  • La révolte , play, 1870 ( Eng. The Revolt )
  • Le Nouveau Monde , drama, 1880
  • Axël , play, 1890
  • L'Évasion , play, 1890 (posthumous) (German: The Flight )
  • Le Prétendant , (revision of 'Morgan', 1875, published posthumously 1965)

Editions

  • Collected works in seven volumes , edited by Hanns Heinz Ewers , Georg Müller, Munich 1909–1920
  1. Cruel stories
  2. Stories from the afterlife
  3. Triboulat Bonhomet
  4. Isis
  5. The second face and other short stories
  6. Axel
  7. The Eve of the future

literature

  • Stéphane Mallarmé: Villiers de L'Isle-Adam. Exeter, 1991
  • Jean-Poul Bourre: Villiers de L'Isle-Adam: Splendeur et misére. Paris 2002

Web links

Commons : Auguste de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

notes

  1. ↑ from de LA: Hope. The adventures of Tse-I-La. The use. Queen Isabeau. The diner at the last party. The story is gloomy, the narrator is even more gloomy. Vera . Another 7 ores are from Voltaire
personal data
SURNAME Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Auguste de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Jean Marie Mathias Philippe Auguste Graf von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French author
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Brieuc
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1889
Place of death Paris