François Coppée

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François Coppée

François Édouard Joachim Coppée (born January 26, 1842 in Paris , † May 23, 1908 in Paris) was a French poet , playwright and novelist .

biography

Coppée was the son of the administrator Émile Coppée. He completed his school days at the Lycée Saint-Louis and then found a job in the War Ministry in the Second Empire . Later he was appointed to the Palais du Luxembourg as a librarian at his own request . From there he moved, like his colleague Louis Ratisbonne , to the Senate Library in the same position .

In 1864 Coppée made a successful debut as a man of letters with a few poems. Five years later he had a successful world premiere of his play “Der Passer” at the Théâtre l'Odéon . He came to the Parnassians through Catulle Mendès . When his “Les humbles” appeared after the Franco-Prussian War , Coppée received the honorary title Poète des humbles (the humble poet) from literary criticism as well as from his colleagues .

In 1878 Coppée was appointed archivist of the Comédie-Française . As the successor to Victor de Laprade , he was appointed member of the Forty Immortals (Fauteuil 10, the Académie française ) in 1884 . After his death in 1909 Jean Aicard was his successor. Around this time he resigned from all offices and duties and from then on devoted himself only to his literary work.

Politically interested, Coppée became involved in the Dreyfus affair against the accused and in 1898 founded the League for the French Fatherland together with Ludovic Trarieux , Caroline Rémy de Guebhard and others .

reception

Coppée glorified Napoleon's politics in his early poems ; in his later poetry he then thematized more the life of simple workers and citizens in and around Paris. The form of his poetry is occasionally rhyming, but always finds its way back to the form ( Alexandriner ). Émile Zola praised him for his naturalism , the symbolists , such as Maurice Maeterlinck , rejected him because of the form and themes.

The writers Paul Bourget , Pierre Louÿs and Albert Samain were promoted by him.

Honors

Works

Plays
  • Les jacobites . Drame Drame en 5 acts . Lemerre, Paris 1885.
  • La corrective. Ballet fantastique en deux actes . Heugel, Paris 1880 (together with Louis Mérante and Charles-Maria Widor ).
  • Le luthier de Cremone. Comédie en un acte en vers . Lemerre, Paris 1871.
  • Mme de Maintenon . Drame en 5 acts avec prologue . Lemerre, Paris 1881.
  • Le pater . Lemerre, Paris 1889.
  • Pour la couronne. Drame en 5 acts . Lemerre, Paris 1895.
  • The rendezvous ("Le rendez-vous"). Hirzel, Leipzig 1874.
  • The treasure. Play in one act (“Le trésor”). Rees, Leipzig 1880.
  • Severo Torelli. Drame en 5 acts . Lemerre, Paris 1894.
  • Théâtre . Hébert, Paris 1892 (content: "Le passant", "Deux douleurs", "Fais ce que doit", "L'abandonnée", "Les bijoux de la déliverance" and "La guerre de cent ans").
  • The hiker. Comedy in one act (“Le passant”). Duncker Verlag, Weimar 1921 ( From foreign gardens ; 100).
Novels, fairy tales and short stories
  • Une idylle pendant le siège . Edition du Sandre, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-914958-13-7 (reprint of the Paris 1874 edition).
  • Stories in prose (“Contes en prose”). Schottländer , Breslau 1890.
  • Vingt contes nouveaux . Lemerre, Paris 1883.
  • Le banc. Idyll parisiènne . Lemerre, Paris 1887.
  • Contes rapides . Lemerre, Paris 1888.
  • Henriette . Calmann-Lévy, Paris 1910 (reprint of the Paris 1889 edition).
  • Toute une jeunesse . Calmann-Lévy, Paris 1924 (reprint of the Paris 1890 edition).
  • The real rich ("Les vrais riches"). Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1894.
  • Rivales . Lemerre, Paris 1893.
  • Longues and brèves . Lemerre, Paris 1893.
  • Contes et récits. En prose . Lemerre, Paris 1885.
  • Le coupable . Calmann-Lévy, Paris 1910 (reprint of the Paris 1896 edition).
  • Saving suffering ("La bonne souffrance. Contes pour les jours de fête"). Publishing house Kirchheim, Mainz 1899.
  • Bleurette. Conte en vers . Lemerre, Paris 1890.
Poetry

His poem “La grève des forgerons” was the basis for Victor Léon's libretto for the opera “Der Strike der Schmiede” by Max Josef Beer .

  • Arrière season . 1887.
  • Le cahier rouge . 1874.
  • Les intimités . 1868.
  • Les paroles sincères . 1890.
  • Poèmes modern . 1869.
  • Promenades and interiors . 1872.
  • Le reliquiaire . 1866.
Work editions
  • Œuvres complètes . Paris 1885/1908 (12 vols.)
  • Poèsies complètes . Paris 1923/25 (3 vol.)

Film adaptations

  • In 1936, the director Raymond Bernard Coppée made a film of the work "Le coupable" under the same title. This film premiered in Germany in 1946 under the title “I am the guilty one”.

literature

  • Winfried Engler : Lexicon of French Literature (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 388). Kröner, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-520-38801-4 , p. 250.
  • Léon LeMeur: La vie et l'œuvre de Coppée . Édition Spes, Paris 1932.
  • Adolphe M. de Lescure: Coppée. L'homme, la vie, l'œuvre . Lemerre, Paris 1889.

Web links

Commons : François Coppée  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: François Coppée  - Sources and full texts (French)
personal data
SURNAME Coppée, François
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coppée, François Édouard Joachim (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French poet
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1908
Place of death Paris