Gabriel Chevallier

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Gabriel Chevallier (3 May 18956 April 1969)[1] was a French novelist widely known as the author of the satire Clochemerle.

Born in Lyon in 1895, Gabriel Chevallier was educated in various schools before entering Lyon École des Beaux-Arts in 1911. He was called up at the start of World War I and wounded a year later, but returned to the front where he served as an infantryman until the war's end. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre and Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.[2] Following the war he undertook several jobs including art teacher, journalist and commercial traveller before starting to write in 1925.[3] His novel La Peur (Fear) published in 1930 drew upon his own experiences and formed a damning indictment of the war. He was married with one son and died in Cannes in 1969.

Clochemerle was written in 1934 and has been translated into twenty-six languages and sold several million copies. It was dramatised first in a 1947 film by Pierre Chenal and in 1972 by the BBC. He wrote two sequels: Clochemerle-les-Bains and Clochemerle Babylon.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Vintage Classics - Random House
  2. ^ Author notes from penguin edition of Clochemerle published in 1971
  3. ^ capitaine-nemo : La nuit est tombée