Erckmann-Chatrian

Woodburytype of Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian circa 1875

Erckmann-Chatrian was the name used by French authors Émile Erckmann (1822–1899) and Alexandre Chatrian (1826–1890), nearly all of whose works were jointly written.[1]

Both Erckmann and Chatrian were born in the département of Moselle, in the Lorraine region in the extreme north-east of France. They specialised in military fiction and ghost stories in a rustic mode, applying to the Vosges mountain range and the Alsace-Lorraine region techniques inspired by story-tellers from the Black Forest.[2] Lifelong friends who first met in the spring of 1847, they finally quarreled during the mid-1880s, after which they did not produce any more stories jointly. During 1890 Chatrian died, and Erckmann wrote a few pieces under his own name.[2]

Many of Erckmann-Chatrian's works were translated into English by Adrian Ross.[3]

Tales of supernatural horror by the duo that are famous in English include "The Wild Huntsman" (tr. 1871), "The Man-Wolf" (tr. 1876)[4] and "The Crab Spider." These stories received praise from the renowned English ghost story writer, M. R. James,[1] as well as H. P. Lovecraft.[2]

Erckmann-Chatrian wrote numerous historical novels, some of which attacked the Second Empire in anti-monarchist terms.[5] Partly as a result of their republicanism, they were praised by Victor Hugo and Émile Zola, and fiercely attacked in the pages of Le Figaro. Gaining popularity from 1859 for their nationalistic, anti-militaristic and anti-German sentiments, they were well-selling authors but had trouble with political censorship throughout their careers. Generally the novels were written by Erckmann, and the plays mostly by Chatrian.

A festival in their honour is held every summer in the town of Erckmann's birth, Phalsbourg (German Pfalzburg), which also contains a military museum exhibiting editions of their works.

Works

First works

Many of these were not published until the 1860s.

From 1859

After the Franco-Prussian War

English translations

References

  1. 1 2 Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of Gothic Literature. New York, Facts on File (2004). ISBN 0816055289 (p.104)
  2. 1 2 3 Hugh Lamb, "Erckmann-Chatrian", in Jack Sullivan, The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Viking, 1986. ISBN 0670809020 (pp. 144–5)
  3. ↑ Richard Dalby "Introduction", to Adrian Ross, The Hole of the Pit: And by One, by Two and by Three. The Oleander Press, 2013 ISBN 0900891866 (p. 10.)
  4. ↑ Chantal Bourgault du Coudray, The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within. I.B.Tauris, 2006 ISBN 1845111583, (pp. 45–6).
  5. ↑ "The duo of Émile Erckmann and Alexander Chatrian, who had criticized the Second Empire through novels set in the Revolution such as Madame Thérèse (1863)"...Christopher Hill, National History and the World of Nations: Capital, State, and the Rhetoric of History in Japan, France, and the United States. Duke University Press, 2008 ISBN 0822389150, (p. 238).

Bibliography

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