Francis Carco

Francis Carco, ca.1930

Francis Carco (actually François Carcopino-Tusoli, born July 3, 1886 in Nouméa , New Caledonia , † May 26, 1958 in Paris ) was a French writer and art critic.
His most important novels are Jésus La Caille (1914), Les innocents (1916) and L'homme traqué (1922); they all play in the Parisian artist and red light district. The legendary paintwork that Parisian districts such as Pigalle , Montparnasse , and the Latin Quarter got, goes back in no small part to Carco's portrayals.

life and work

The son of a French prison officer from Corsica grew up in New Caledonia with the clang of chains in the penal colony there. From 1897 the family lived in France again. After increasing conflicts with the irascible father, the headstrong boy immersed himself both in the criminal milieu of his small town and in the modern poetry of Rimbaud and others. In Paris since 1910, he was drawn to the shabby strongholds of prostitutes, crooks and bohemians . As a lyricist, he became “at the center of the Ecole fantaisiste which found its inspiration in the world of Montmartre ”. In the night bars there, he also earned money by singing.

He made friends with artists such as Colette , Katherine Mansfield , Guillaume Apollinaire , Max Jacob , Amedeo Modigliani . His novels soon made him one of the French-speaking authors with the highest circulation in the interwar period. In 1937 he became a member of the Académie Goncourt . After his exile in Switzerland during the war, he and his wife Eliane Negrin (married in 1936; she died in 1970) settled again in L'Isle-Adam .

From 1948 he lived again in Paris, where he died of the effects of Parkinson's in 1958 . He finds his final resting place on the Cimetière parisien de Bagneux .

reception

Carco Collage by Bibhai (2002)

Carco's “heroes” are capable of tender movements, but never escape their anger and dejection. On the occasion of the new edition of Jesus Schnepfe 2002, Ina Hartwig placed the author between Émile Zola and Jean Genet , whom he could not hold a candle to in terms of literary level. “Overall, Carco's prose is rather simple - a lot of literal speech, so argot (which always sounds a bit strange when translated into German, but the dilemma cannot be avoided), few reflexive passages. It was completely rightly stated that social criticism was far removed from him. That doesn't speak against Carco. But sometimes one misses a transcending of the mere events into other spheres. One of the most beguiling elements of this prose are certainly the weather tableaus and beautiful light situations that Carco repeatedly creates on the edges of day and night: 'The Boulevard de Clichy stretched its rows of trees into the October sky, which hung low with bursting clouds, shimmering puddles and late passers-by hurried by on the narrow sidewalk in the middle of the street. '"

In the article on Carco's novel Rue Pigalle (1928), Kindler's New Literature Lexicon expresses similar reservations in terms of style, but finds that “under the charm of the local color of Montmartre” there is certainly social criticism.

Honors

• 1922 Grand Prix du Roman of the Académie française for the novel L'hommetraqué .
• In 1937 the Académie Goncourt chose Carco as the successor to the late Gaston Chérau ( armchair 9 )

Works

Autobiographical

• De Montmartre au Quartier Latin . Édition Sauret, Monaco 1993, ISBN 2-85051-000-9 . (EA Paris 1927)
• Mémoires d'une autre vie. souvenirs d'enfance . Michel, Paris 1934.
• Montmartre à vingt ans . Michel, Paris 1938.
• Nostalgia de Paris . Gallimard, Paris 1951. (EA Paris 1941)
• Maman Petitdoigt . Éditions Crès, Paris 1922.
• Rendez-vous avec moi-même . Michel, Paris 1957.

Essays

• Instincts (Les contemporains; 11). Paris 1911.
• Promenades picturesque à Montmarte . Paris 1922.
• Suite espagnole . Paris 1931.
• La route du bagne . Ferenczi, Paris 1936.
• Petite suite sentimental . Ferenczi, Paris 1936.

Poetry

• La bohème et mon coeur . Paris 1912.
• Chansons aigres-douces . Michel, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-226-02538-3 . (EA Paris 1912)
• Au vent crispé du matin. Poems in prose . NEN, Paris 1913.
• Petits airs . Editions David, Paris 1920.
• La rose au balcon . Chabaneix, Paris 1936.
• Á l'amitié . Édition Paul, Paris 1937.
• Mortefontaine . Michel, Paris 1946.
• Poems in prose . Michel, Paris 1948.
• La Romance de Paris . Michel, Paris 1949.
• Poésis complètes . Gallimard, Paris 1955.

prose

• Jésus la Caille . 1914.
  • German: Jesus-la-Caille. Roman from Montmartre . Kiepenheuer Verlag, Potsdam 1922. (translated by Fred A. Angermayer)
  • German: Jesus Schnepfe . Verlag Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-88423-200-2 . (translated by Hans Thill )
• Les Innocents . Michel, Paris 1973. (EA Paris 1916).
• Les Malheurs de Fernande . L'Édition, Paris 1918.
• Au coin des rues . Ferenczi, Paris 1930. (EA Paris 1918)
  • German: On street corners. Narratives . Verlag Die Schmiede, Berlin 1925. (translated by Fred A, Angermayer)
• together with Pierre Mac Orlan : Les Mystères de la Morgue ou le Fiancées du IVº arrondissement. Roman gai . Renaissance du livre, Paris 1918.
• L'Equipe. Novel des fortifs . Michel, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-226-03704-7 . (EA Paris 1919)
• Bob et Bobette s'amusent. Novel . Le Passeur, Nantes 2003, ISBN 2-907913-95-6 . (EA Paris 1919)
• Scenes de la vie de Montmartre. Novel . Fayard, Paris 1919.
• L'homme traqué . Paris 1922.
  • German: The hunted . Verlag die Schmiede, Berlin 1924 (translated by Fred A. Angermayer)
• Rien qu'une femme . EJL, Paris 1995, ISBN 2-277-30071-3 . (EA Paris 1923)
• Vérotchka l'Etrangère ou le Gout du malheur . Fayard, Paris 1939. (EA Paris 1923, illustrated by René-Yves Creston)
• La Lumière noire , Michel, Paris 1934.
• Nuits de Paris. Novel . Le divan, Paris 1927.
• Rue Pigalle. Novel . Maîtres, Paris 1949. (EA Paris 1928)
• La Rue. Novel . Michel, Paris 1970. (EA Paris 1930)
• Palace Egypte. Novel . Michel, Paris 1933.
• L'Ombre. Novel . 1933.
  • German: The shadow . Auffenberg publishing house, Berlin 1937.
• Brumes. Novel . Michel, Paris 1974, ISBN 2-253-00784-6 . (EA Paris 1935)
• Ténèbres. Novel . Michel, Paris 1951. (EA Paris 1935, illustrated by Émilien Dufour)
• L'Homme de minuit. Novel . Michel, Paris 1951. (EA Paris 1938)
• Compagnons de la mauvaise chance . Milieu du monde, Paris 1954.

Fictional biographies

• Le Roman de François Villon . Le table ronde, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-7103-0749-9 . (EA Paris 1926)
• Utrillo . Grasset, Paris 1956.
  • German: Maurice Utrillo. Legend and reality . List Verlag, Munich 1961. (translated by NO Scarpi )
• Verlaine . Poète maudit . Michel, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-226-08639-0 . (EA Paris 1939)
• Gérard de Nerval . Michel, Paris 1953.
• Francisco de Goya . Michel, Paris 1953.

theatre

• Rue Pigalle. Drame en trois actes . Michel, Paris 1949.

literature

• Philippe Chabaneix: Carco. Une étude . Paris 1949 and 1960.
• Seymour S. Weiner: Francis Carco, the Career of a Literary Bohemian . New York 1952.
• André Négis: Mon ami Carco . Paris 1953.
• Michel Manoll (Ed.): Carco vous parle . Paris 1953.
• Jean-Jacques Bedu: Francis Carco au coeur de la bohème . Editions du Rocher 2001.
• Gilles Freyssinet: Le Paris de M'sieur Francis . Editions Arcadia 2005.
• André Nolat: Romances de la rue, notes sur quatre écrivains: Mac Orlan, Carco, Simonin, Boudard . éditions Baudelaire 2009.

References and comments

1. ↑ According to Kindler's New Literature Lexicon (Munich 1988), the last-mentioned novel describes "realistic, sober, with psychological urgency ... the fate of a person who becomes more and more paranoid and ultimately perishes in this complex."
2. ↑ Winfried Engler : Lexicon of French Literature (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 388). 2nd, improved and enlarged edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-520-38802-2 . See also Ecole fantaisiste in the French language Wikipedia
3. ↑ Snipe = queen
4. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau , January 4, 2003 and lace-up boots, absinthe and a lot of rain: "Jesus Schnepfe", the first novel by the milieu poet Francis Carco, draws in and down into the Belle Epoque at Montmartre in Paris. ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Review. on: lyrikwelt.de , accessed March 28, 2011. 
5. ↑ Munich 1988.
6. ↑ Contents: Bars, beuglants, caloulots. - Villes. Décor et sensations. - Instincts.
7. ^ Is considered a continuation of the novel Jésus-la-Caille .
8. ↑ First performance on May 9, 1911 at the Théâtre du grand-guignol.

Web links

• Literature by and about Francis Carco in the catalog of the German National Library