Jean-Louis Curtis

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Jean-Louis Curtis (born May 22, 1917 in Orthez , Département Pyrénées-Atlantiques as Louis Lafitte, † November 11, 1995 in Paris ) was a French writer, translator and resistance fighter. He received the Prix ​​Goncourt for depicting the occupation in his second novel, Labyrinths of the Night (1947) . Curtis wrote over 30 novels. For James Kirkup , he had a classic, economical and elegant style, deep wit and great thematic variety. Not afraid of the accusation of “conservatism”, he said nothing to the changing literary fashions. In all of this, he exhibited an ironic reserve that many French consider “typically British”, although in reality it is the proud legacy of authors such as Stendhal , Voltaire , Flaubert and Proust .

Life

The son of a furniture manufacturer finished his philosophy and English studies in 1939 in Paris at the Sorbonne . He signs up for the air force, fights in Morocco . Demobilized in September 1941, he becomes a high school teacher in Bayonne and enforces the teaching of English. From August 1944, the supporter of a liberal socialism fought against the fascist troops in the Pommiès association , took part in the occupation of southern Germany, and returned to his profession as a teacher, this time in Paris. In 1948 he was one of the founders of the legendary La Table Ronde, a restaurant on the Place de Pantheon, where more or less sophisticated writers and artists meet every month to dine exquisitely and to tear their mouths off absent colleagues. In 1955 Curtis quit school so that he could devote himself full-time to writing. In addition to novels, the lover of English literature has written highly acclaimed translations by Shakespeare and contemporary playwrights such as John Osborne , as well as reviews and columns for numerous papers, and increasingly also screenplays for cinema and television. Thematically, Curtis' disillusionment increases with advancing age. According to Winfried Engler, it deals with the failure of state policy, polemicized against the May revolt (of 1968), the hippie movement, and the sophisticated intelligentsia. In 1986 he was accepted into the prestigious Académie française . Curtis died in 1995 at the age of 78 after a heart attack.

Works (selection)

  • Les jeunes hommes , novel, 1946
  • Les forêts de la nuit , Roman, 1947, German labyrinths of the night , Heidelberg 1948
  • Les justes causes , Roman, 1954
  • L 'Echelle de soie , narrative, 1956, German The silk ladder , Berlin 1958
  • La parade , novel, 1960
  • Cygne sauvage , 1962
  • Adelaide , play based on a novella by Gobineau, German Munich 1962
  • La quarantaine , novel, 1966
  • Le thé sous les cyprès , short stories, 1969
  • Le roseau pensant , novel, 1971
  • L'horizon dérobé , novel, 1979
  • La moitié du chemin , novel, 1980
  • Le battement de mon coeur , novel, 1981
  • Le mauvais choix , (letter) novel, 1984
Film templates or scripts
  • Gibier de potence (The Witch of Montmartre), 1951
  • Meurtre en liberté (Murder at the Grand Hotel), 1966 - Screenplay based on a novel by James Hadley Chase
  • Chère Louise (The Affair), 1972

literature

  • Robert Kanters: Jean-Louis Curtis, romancier sans alibi. In: Ders .: Des écrivains et des hommes . Julliard, Paris 1952, pp. 255-267
  • Robert Kanters, Maurice Nadeau , Matthieu Galey, Dominique Aury , Marcel Jouhandeau , André Fraigneau, Jacques de Ricaumont , Jean-Claude Brisville, Eugène Ionesco , Georges Lubin , Alain Bosquet, Camille Claus, Jean-Paul de Dadelsen: Portrait de Jean-Louis Curtis . Ed. Jacques Brenner. Cahiers des Saisons, 29, printemps 1962, Juillard, pp. 392-494
  • Paulette Roy: Jean-Louis Curtis, novelist . Julliard, Paris 1971
  • Heike Otto: Investigations into the late work of Jean-Louis Curtis . Munster 1992

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Also: Great Literature Prize of the Académie française 1972 and Prix ​​Prince Pierre de Monaco 1981
  2. ↑ a b Independent 1995 , accessed May 4, 2011
  3. ↑ a b Academie ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 4, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.academie-francaise.fr
  4. ^ For example Jacques Laurent and Francois Mauriac
  5. ↑ 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 .
  6. ↑ Le roseau pensant , 1971
  7. ↑ NYTimes , accessed 4 May 2011
  8. ↑ James Kirkup: Biting portraits of alleged resistance fighters against the German occupiers in a small town, viewed through the eyes of a girl
  9. ↑ Complete list here

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Curtis, Jean-Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lafitte, Louis (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French author
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Orthez
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1995
Place of death Paris