Jean Giraudoux

Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (French: [ʒiʁodu]; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II.[1] His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy. Giraudoux's dominant theme is the relationship between man and woman—or in some cases, between man and some unattainable ideal.

Jean Giraudoux
Portrait of Giraudoux in 1927
Born(1882-10-29)29 October 1882
Bellac, Haute-Vienne, France
Died31 January 1944(1944-01-31) (aged 61)
Paris, France
OccupationDramatist
NationalityFrench
Notable worksThe Madwoman of Chaillot,
Ondine,
Duel of Angels,
The Trojan War Will Not Take Place
SpouseSuzanne Boland
ChildrenJean-Pierre Giraudoux 1919–2000

Biography

Giraudoux was born in Bellac, Haute-Vienne, where his father, Léger Giraudoux, worked for the Ministry of Transport. Giraudoux studied at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux and upon graduation traveled extensively in Europe. After his return to France in 1910, he accepted a position with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With the outbreak of World War I, he served with distinction and in 1915 became the first writer ever to be awarded the wartime Legion of Honour.[2]

He married in 1918 and in the subsequent inter-war period produced the majority of his writing. He first achieved literary success through his novels, notably Siegfried et le Limousin (1922) and Eglantine (1927). An ongoing collaboration with actor and theater director Louis Jouvet, beginning in 1928 with Jouvet's radical streamlining of Siegfried for the stage, stimulated his writing.[3] But it is his plays that gained him international renown. He became well known in the English speaking world largely because of the award-winning adaptations of his plays by Christopher Fry (Tiger at the Gates) and Maurice Valency (The Madwoman of Chaillot, Ondine, The Enchanted, The Apollo of Bellac).

Giraudoux served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding the Prix Blumenthal, a grant given between 1919 and 1954 to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians.[4] In politics he was affiliated with the Radical Party, served in the cabinet of Édouard Herriot in 1932, and was appointed as Minister of Information by Édouard Daladier in 1939.[5][6]

He is buried in the Cimetière de Passy in Paris.[7]

Works

English-language collections
  • Giraudoux, Jean (1958), Four Plays, Adapted by Maurice Valency. New York: Hill and Wang, Inc. OCLC 807008 [Volume 1: Ondine, Enchanted, Madwoman of Challot, Apollo of Bellac]
  • Giraudoux, Jean (1964), Three Plays, vol. 2, Translated by Phyllis La Farge and Peter H. Judd. New York: Hill and Wang. OCLC 751419 [Volume 2: Siegfried, Amphitryon 38, Electra]
  • Giraudoux, Jean (1963), Three Plays, Translated by Christopher Fry. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 21419365 [Volume I: Tiger at the Gates; Duel of Angels; Judith]
  • Giraudoux, Jean (1967), Plays, vol. 2, Translated by Roger Gellert. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 656767230 [Amphitryon; Intermezzo; Ondine]
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References
French literature
by category
French literary history
French writers
  • Chronological list
  • Writers by category
  • Essayists
  • Novelists
  • Playwrights
  • Poets
  • Short story writers
  • Children's writers
Portals
  • France
  • Literature
  1. Brockett, Oscar. History of the Theatre Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1968. p. 621.
  2. Fowlie, Wallace. Jean Giraudoux in Gassner, John and Edward Quinn ed. The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama. New York, Thomas Crowell. 1969. p. 359.
  3. "Encyclopædia Britannica Online: "Jean Giraudoux"". Britannica.com. 2013-11-06. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  4. "Florence Meyer Blumenthal". Jewish Women's Archive, Michele Siegel.
  5. Body, Jacques (1991). Jean Giraudoux: The Legend and the Secret. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 56.
  6. Ganz, Arthur (1972). "Human and Suprahuman: Ambiguity in the Tragic World of Jean Giraudoux". PMLA. 87 (2): 284–294. doi:10.2307/460883. JSTOR 460883.
  7. New York Times; February 1, 1944 Jean Giraudoux obituary.
  8. The Duchess of Langeais at the Internet Movie Database
  9. Les anges du péché at the Internet Movie Database
  10. GIRAUDOUX Jean & . (Author) (1919-01-01). "GIRAUDOUX Jean & – Adieu à la guerre.: GIRAUDOUX Jean &". Retrieved 2014-06-03.

Further reading
  • Cohen, Robert (1968), Giraudoux; Three Faces of Destiny, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, ISBN 0-226-11248-9.
  • Fletcher, John (1972), Forces in Modern French Drama, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., New York, ISBN 0-8044-2199-4.
  • Fowlie, Wallace (1967), Dionysus in Paris; A Guide to Contemporary French Theater, Meridian Books, Inc, New York, ISBN 0-452-00092-0.
  • Grossvogel, David I. (1958), 20th Century French Drama , Columbia University Press, New York.
  • Inskip, Donald, (1958), Jean Giraudoux, The Making of a Dramatist, Oxford University Press, New York.
  • Knowles, Dorothy (1968), French Drama of the Inter-War Years, 1918–39, Barnes & Noble, Inc., New York.
  • LeSage, Laurent (1959), Jean Giraudoux; His Life and Works, The Pennsylvania State University Press.
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