Erckmann-Chatrian

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Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian

Erckmann-Chatrian is the common artist name of the French authors Emile Erckmann (* May 21, 1822 in Phalsbourg ; † March 14, 1899 in Lunéville ) and Alexandre Chatrian (* December 18, 1826 in Soldatenthal / Grand Soldat, today a district of Abreschviller ; † September 3, 1890 in Villemomble ).

Life

Both came from Phalsbourg ( Département Moselle ; dt. Pfalzburg ) or its immediate surroundings, i.e. from the border region between Alsace and Lorraine . The law student Erckmann and the accountant Chatrian met in 1847 at their former school, the Collège von Phalsbourg, discovered their common literary and political interests and went on long hikes in the Northern Vosges . Erckmann, who witnessed the February Revolution in Paris in 1848 partly as an eyewitness and as secretary of a republican student club, began to write short stories and plays, some of which appeared in Alsatian newspapers with little success, and in the same year he briefly became editor of a republican newspaper in Strasbourg . During this time he and Chatrian became friends with the painters Théophile Schuler and Gustave Doré , who also came from Alsace and who later also illustrated their works.

The two authors worked together in such a way that Emile Erckmann wrote practically all of the texts independently and Alexandre Chatrian made suggestions for improvement after reading them, but hardly ever took up pen himself. However, the works appeared under the author's name Erckmann-Chatrian. In 1850 Chatrian settled in Paris and from 1852 worked as an employee of the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est railway company . His contribution was mainly on the commercial side, because he took care of the publication of the manuscripts in the capital's newspapers, collected the due fees and distributed them. With increasing success, Erckmann finally gave up his studies in 1856 to only write. In 1859, L'Illustre Docteur Mathéus was published as the first independent work in a book publisher. In 1860 the short story collections Contes de la montagne and Contes fantastiques followed , and in 1861 Maître Daniel Rock was the first major novel . In 1864 the novel Histoire d'un conscrit de 1813 was published , of which more than 100,000 copies were sold in a few months and which saw several new editions until 1885. In the years that followed, other works by Erckmann-Chatrian saw high editions.

After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in August 1870, Erckmann fled from the advancing German troops from Phalsbourg to Paris, where he unsuccessfully tried to find support for a popular uprising and a guerrilla war in the Vosges. After the end of the war, Erckmann finally settled in St. Dié , Département Vosges , for a few years . From that year the common author's name appeared on separately written works: while Erckmann continued to write the prose works, Chatrian took over the theater works. In 1882 Erckmann returned to Phalsbourg with the permission of the authorities of the Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine , where he was, however, under police supervision.

From 1885 on, the two became increasingly divided over copyright and fee matters. In the course of the dispute, Erckmann was insulted as a traitor to the fatherland for his return to Phalsbourg in Le Figaro . The disputes ultimately led to civil proceedings, which, however, were ultimately no longer decided because of Chatrian's death. After the withdrawal of his residence permit by the German authorities, Erckmann settled in Lunéville , Département Meurthe-et-Moselle , until his death .

Literary work

The histoires et contes fantastiques

Erckmann-Chatrian achieved first successes between 1856 and the beginning of the 1860s with fantastic stories that appeared in various Parisian newspapers (including La Revue des Deux Mondes , Le Constitutionel , Le Figaro ), such as B. Le bourgmestre en bouteille (1856), Requiem du corbeau (1856), L'Oeil invisible (1857), Le Cabaliste Hans Weinland (1860) and the fantastic short novel Hugues-le-Loup (1860). This novel describes a wolf metamorphosis in the immediate past and at the same time traces the history of lycanthropy into the Middle Ages. On the basis of statements by Chatrian, who sought to promote the sale of the early stories with appropriate statements, Erckmann-Chatrian were long regarded as the French epigones of ETA Hoffmann , who enjoyed a high literary reputation in France in the first half of the 19th century . More recent French literary studies , however, doubt this and rather suspect influences from Edgar Allan Poe , who became known in France after 1850 through the translations of Charles Baudelaire . Erckmann-Chatrian's fantastic stories often let something latent in reality appear briefly and thus expose the ideal world of everyday life. The uncanny that appears as quickly as it disappears is often the animal in humans.

After the success of Hugues-le-Loup , Erckmann-Chatrian's works were also published in book form, especially by Pierre-Jules Hetzel's publishing house , which also published the works of Honoré de Balzac , the writings of Victor Hugo and, since 1856, the works with great success edited by Jules Verne . Hetzel offered all of Erckmann-Chatrian's works in affordable popular editions, which contributed to their great success.

The romans populaires

In addition to the fantastic stories, Erckmann-Chatrian had a second line of works, which they called romans populaires . To do this, they drew on contemporary almanacs , folk tales and folk tales . The events of these romantic novels and short stories , which often appear to be documented, are dated between 1800 and 1846. The events take place in Mainz , Heidelberg , Tübingen , Pirmasens or Nuremberg , among others , but also in romantic forest areas such as the Hunsrück or the Black Forest . Among the romans populaires , L'ami Fritz from 1864 deserves particular mention - a newer edition of this novel (set in the southern Palatinate ) is still available in many bookshops in Alsace.

The two authors made no secret of their benevolence towards Germany, which Emile Erckmann in particular knew well and valued highly. However, this attitude changed after the Franco-Prussian War. In the Contes vosgiens (1877) the Germans appear (especially the Prussians here) as spies, rude villains and cruel monsters. Chauvinistic failures can also be found in other works of the subsequent period .

The romans nationaux

The romans nationaux include u. a. L'invasion ou Le fou Yégof (1862), Madame Thérèse (1863), Histoire d'un conscrit de 1813 (1864), Waterloo (1865), Le Blocus, episode de la fin de l'Empire (1866) and Histoire d 'un paysan (1869/70). With these works, the authors documented a century of French history from 1775 to 1875. Both of them knew numerous veterans of the coalition wars from their families and their circle of friends . The two authors drew the material for their historical stories and novels from the memories and stories of these farmers and craftsmen. Against the contemporary French feuilleton novel , in which history was only used as a source of exciting anecdotes and interesting personalities, and against the claims of the Second Empire under Napoleon III. Erckmann-Chatrian wanted to highlight the enduring significance of the events at the beginning of the 19th century, having ended the age of revolutions. Her recurring themes were democracy , human rights , freedom of belief , equality of status , the eradication of poverty and popular education . In deliberately kept simple language, they turned against all forms of oppression and injustice. For the authors, the revolution of 1789, as a joint action by the people ( peuple ) and the bourgeoisie, was the lasting great model for political action. Some works also deal with the later social upheavals of the 19th century ( Histoire d'un homme du peuple , 1865 and Maître Gaspard Fix, histoire d'un conservateur , 1875), without recognizing the breakup of the alliance between people and bourgeoisie or even to thematize. When describing the revolutionary events of 1848 in the Histoire d'un homme du peuple , only the bourgeois-democratic February revolution was portrayed, but not the June uprising of the Parisian workers.

Erckmann-Chatrian saw the people themselves as the acting subject of history, which is why they let simple people (farmers, craftsmen) tell the course of historical events from their point of view in most novels.

reception

Erckmann-Chatrian monument in Phalsbourg

With their great contemporary success, Erckmann-Chatrian did a lot to ensure that political content regained importance in French literature of the 1860s. This success was at times so great that the Interior Ministry of Napoleon III. felt induced to resort to repressive measures . L'histoire d'un homme du peuple was already criticized by the censor on the grounds that it spoke of nothing other than freedom . When the daily La Presse began to publish L'histoire d'un paysan in October 1867 , there were open disputes with the censorship authorities, so that publication was finally canceled. When the Franco-German War broke out , Erckmann-Chatrian faced a total publication ban. Between 1860 and 1880 Erckmann-Chatrian were next to Émile Zola the most widely read authors in France.

The books of the author duo are being reprinted and read in their home country to this day, because they described events from the times of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars (1789–1815) with rare accuracy in the form of eyewitness novels. Nevertheless, their literary value in France is not undisputed: for some readers they are too "German", others are bothered by their optimistic attitude, which sometimes seems naive or even kitschy. This contrasts with the realism of their stories, which often outweighs romanticism . For a long time the works of the author duo were underestimated as regionalist Alsatian literature and also as pure youth literature .

In Phalsbourg in 1922 a monument by the sculptor Emmanuel Hannaux was inaugurated by Maurice Barrès to commemorate Erckmann-Chatrian for Erckmann's hundredth birthday. The city has also honored its prominent citizens with its own hall in the historical museum as well as with the naming of a school and a street. The Erckmann Chatrian Festival , founded in Phalsbourg in 1980 to commemorate her, is now being continued as the more general Festival Théatre . Since 1925 the Prix ​​Erckmann-Chatrian has been awarded annually as a regional literary prize (the "Lorraine Goncourt ") for a work of prose that was written by a Lorraine or that deals with Lorraine.

Erckmann-Chatrian's works were translated into English at an early stage (from 1859) and were successful in both Great Britain and the USA . Between 1865 and 1915, at least 50 English-language editions of the couple's works were published. Her fantastic stories (which HP Lovecraft praised in Supernatural Horror in Literature for their atmosphere and the horror they produced), the romans nationaux for their republicanism and realism, as well as their plays, besides L'ami Fritz , especially Le juif polonais , were valued . which in an English adaptation and with the actor Henry Irving in the leading role saw 150 performances in London in 1871 .

Erckmann-Chatrians romans nationaux were also very popular and successful in Tsarist Russia in the 1870s and were highly valued by the literary critic , social critic and philosopher Dmitri Ivanovich Pissarew .

Although Ludwig Pfau published several volumes of Selected Works in German as early as 1882 , Erckmann-Chatrian are only little known in Germany. Current secondary literature on the authors is mostly only available in French or also in English. For German readers, however, her works are still interesting not least because of the precise and lively descriptions of German landscapes, cities and people of the 19th century (e.g. her description of Leipzig in the Conscrit de 1813 ). Many of her fantastic stories can also be found in more recent German anthologies of fantastic literature. In the former GDR, "Ein Soldat von 1813" and "Waterloo" were published as bb paperbacks.

L'ami Fritz served as a template for the opera L'amico Fritz by Pietro Mascagni (1891) and was filmed twice in France for the big screen (1920 and 1933) and for television (1967 and 2001). Le juif polonais was thebasis forthe libretto for the opera of the same name by Camille Erlanger, which premiered in Paris in 1900,and for the Volksoper The Polish Jew by Czech composer Karel Weis, which premieredin German in 1901 in Prague . Hugues-le-Loup was made into a film for French television in 1975 and a comic book version was released in 1999.

Works (selection)

Original French editions (available online from Gallica ; last checked on August 13, 2011)

As a comic:

  • Antoine Séguin / Loac: Hugues-le-Loup . Editions sur La Place, 1999, ISBN 2-913162-03-7 (comic book in Alsatian dialect)

In German translation:

  • The owl ear and other fantastic stories . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1984, ISBN 3-518-37489-3 .
  • Long live the emperor. Story of a recruit from the Napoleonic Wars . Diogenes, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-257-21199-6 .
  • Madame Therese. Novel . Manesse, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-7175-1119-X .
  • The Invisible Eye or The Inn of the Three Hanged Men . Translated from French and annotated by Ulrich Klappstein. Hanover: jmb-Verlag 2012; ISBN 978-3-940970-47-3 .

Bilingual editions:

  • The pharmacist's telescope / La lunette de Hans Schnaps. Narration . Bilingual edition: German / French. Calambac Verlag, Saarbrücken 2018, ISBN 978-3-943117-99-8 .
  • The three souls / Les trois âmes (followed by The Mayor in a Bottle / Le bourgmestre en bouteille). Narratives . Bilingual edition: German / French. Calambac Verlag, Saarbrücken 2018, ISBN 978-3-943117-00-4 .

Evidence of the complete works of Erckmann-Chatrian can be found in:

  • National Union Catalog (Pre-1956 Imprints, Vol. 161, pp. 222 ff.) Mansell, Chicago 1971.
  • Schmuck / Gorzny / Popst / Schöller: Complete directory of German-language literature (GV; 1700–1910, Volume 34, p. 36 ff.) KB Saur-Verlag, Munich-New York-London-Paris 1981.

literature

  • Georges Benoit-Guyod: La vie et l'œuvre d'Erckmann-Chatrian , in Jean-Jacques Pauvert (ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian, Contes et romans nationaux et populaires. Volume XIV. Pauvert & Hachette, Paris 1962 (new edition by Éditions Serpenoise 1987, ISBN 2-87697-001-5 )
  • Topic number Erckmann-Chatrian . Europe, revue litteraire mensuelle. Issue 449/450 (January / February 1975). ISSN  0014-2751 (in French)
  • Stephen J. Foster: Des salons victoriens aux cabanes d'emigrants. Il ya 100 ans Erckmann-Chatrian . Peter Lang, New York 1986, ISBN 0-8204-0281-8 . (American University Studies II: Romance Languages ​​and Literature, Vol. 38)
  • Helga Abret: The animal in humans. Comments on the fantastic stories of Erckmann-Chatrian. In: Franz Rottensteiner (Ed.): The dark side of reality. Essays on the fantastic. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1987, ISBN

3-518-37944-5, pp. 176-195.

  • Helga Abret: Erckmann-Chatrian - "the most loyal students of ETA Hoffmann?" In: Quarber Mercury . 34 (1997), vol. 85, pp. 123-131.
  • Ellen Constans; François Marotin (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian. Entre imagination, fantaisie et réalisme. You conte au conte de l'histoire . Editions du musée de Phalsbourg, Phalsbourg 1999, ISBN 2-9513911-0-2 . (Documentation of an international colloquium in Phalsbourg, October 22–24, 1996; in French)
  • Eric Lysøe (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian au carrefour du fantastique . Presses Universitaire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg 2004, ISBN 2-86820-259-4 . (Documentation of an international colloquium at the Center de Recherche sur l'Europe Littéraire of the Université de Haute-Alsace , Mulhouse on November 15-16, 2002; in French)
  • Noëlle Benhamou (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian . Le Rocambole. Bulletin des Amis du Roman Populaire, issue 47 (summer 2009). ISSN  0765-0507 (in French)

A very detailed and continuously updated international bibliography can be found on Noëlle Benhamou's website (see links below).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georges Benoit-Guyod: La vie et l'œuvre d'Erckmann-Chatrian. In: Jean-Jacques Pauvert (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian, Contes et romans nationaux et populaires. Volume XIV. Pauvert & Hachette, Paris 1962, pp. 33-68.
  2. ↑ Georges Benoit-Guyod: La vie et l'œuvre d'Erckmann-Chatrian. In: Jean-Jacques Pauvert (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian, Contes et romans nationaux et populaires. Volume XIV. Pauvert & Hachette, Paris 1962, pp. 69-104.
  3. ↑ Georges Benoit-Guyod: La vie et l'œuvre d'Erckmann-Chatrian. In: Jean-Jacques Pauvert (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian, Contes et romans nationaux et populaires. Volume XIV. Pauvert & Hachette, Paris 1962, pp. 147-191.
  4. ↑ Georges Benoit-Guyod: La vie et l'œuvre d'Erckmann-Chatrian. In: Jean-Jacques Pauvert (ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian, Contes et romans nationaux et populaires, Volume XIV. Pauvert & Hachette, Paris 1962, pp. 211–260.
  5. ↑ Helga Abret: The animal in man. Comments on the fantastic stories of Erckmann-Chatrian. In: Franz Rottensteiner (Ed.): The dark side of reality. Essays on the fantastic . Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1987, p. 177 .; Helga Abret: Erckmann et Chatrian, disciples fidèles d'Hoffmann? In: Ellen Constans; François Marotin (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian. Entre imagination, fantaisie et réalisme. You conte au conte de l'histoire . Editions du musée de Phalsbourg, Phalsbourg 1999, pp. 219-230; Ferdinand Stoll: Les Contes des bords du Rhin: carrefour du fantastique. In: Eric Lysøe (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian au carrefour du fantastique . Presses Universitaire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg 2004, pp. 211-213.
  6. ↑ Helga Abret: The animal in man. Comments on the fantastic stories of Erckmann-Chatrian. In: Franz Rottensteiner (Ed.): The dark side of reality. Essays on the fantastic . Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1987, ISBN 3-518-37944-5 , p. 179.
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Leiner : The image of Germany in French literature. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1989, ISBN 3-534-08793-3 , p. 325.
  8. ^ Karlheinrich Biermann: From the end of the great revolution to the commune: Romanticism and realism. In: Jürgen Grimm : French literary history . JB Metzler, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-476-00766-9 , pp. 271-272.
  9. ^ Nelda Michel in the epilogue to Erckmann-Chatrian: Madame Thérèse . Manesse, Zurich 1969, pp. 349-350; Karlheinrich Biermann: From the end of the great revolution to the commune: Romanticism and realism. In: Jürgen Grimm : French literary history . JB Metzler, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-476-00766-9 , p. 272.
  10. ^ Noëlle Benhamou: Lisez Erckmann-Chatrian! In: Noëlle Benhamou (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian . Le Rocambole. Bulletin des Amis du Roman Populaire, No. 47, pp. 11-12.
  11. ^ Website of the Prix Erckmann-Chatrian, see links below.
  12. ^ Website of the city of Phalsbourg (last checked on August 7, 2011)
  13. ↑ Helga Abret: The animal in man. In: Franz Rottensteiner (Ed.): The dark side of reality. Essays on the fantastic . Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1987, ISBN 3-518-37944-5 , p. 193.
  14. ↑ Stephen J. Foster: Avant-propos. In: Stephen J. Foster: Des salons victoriens aux cabanes d 'émigrants . Peter Lang, New York 1986, ISBN 0-8204-0281-8 , pp. VII-XXI; Henry Irving. In: Encyclopedia Britannica. 11th edition. Volume XIV. University Press, Cambridge 1910, pp. 855–856, online at TheatreHistory.com: Henry Irving (last checked August 21, 2011)
  15. ↑ Isabelle Nuk: Erckmann-Chatrian face à la critique russe: Histoire d'un paysan vue par Pisarev. In: Noëlle Benhamou (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian . Le Rocambole. Bulletin des Amis du Roman Populaire, No. 47, pp. 47–73.
  16. ↑ Erckmann-Chatrian are often not even mentioned in more detailed German publications on the history of French literature, e. B. Josef Theisen: History of French literature . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1974 or Klaus Engelhardt, Volker Roloff: Data from French literature. Vol. 2., From 1800 to the present . dtv, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-423-03193-X .
  17. ↑ especially in the Fantastic Library of Suhrkamp Verlag , z. B. The invisible eye or the shelter of the hanged. In: Kalju Kirde (ed.): The invisible eye. A collection of phantoms and other eerie apparitions. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1979, ISBN 3-518-36977-6 (Fantastic Library, Vol. 22); Kalju Kirde (ed.): The owl's ear and other fantastic stories. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1984, ISBN 3-518-37489-3 (Fantastic Library, Vol. 120); Master Tempus. In: Phaïcon 2. Almanac of Fantastic Literature . Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1985, ISBN 3-458-31854-2 ; The black lichen. In: Helga Abret, Louis Vax (ed.): The king with the gold mask and other fantastic stories from France. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1985, ISBN 3-518-37624-1 (Fantastic Library, Vol. 145)
  18. ↑ Noëlle Benhamou: Adaptations des oeuvres d 'Erckmann-Chatrin offers a detailed listing of the arrangements of works by Erckmann-Chatrian for other media between 1869 and 2009 . In: Noëlle Benhamou (Ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian . Le Rocambole. Bulletin des Amis du Roman Populaire, No. 47, pp. 145–158.