Curel, François de 1854-1928

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Curel, François de 1854-1928

PERSONAL:

Born June 10, 1854, in Metz, France; died, 1928. Education: Attended École Centrale.

CAREER:

Playwright and novelist.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Elected to the Academie Française, 1919.

WRITINGS:

Arivée en France de quatre sauvages Charruas, Imprimerie d'Hippolyte Tilliard (Paris, France), 1833, published as Arivée en France de quatre sauvages Charruas, par le brick français Phaéton, de Saint Malo, Castro (Montevideo, France), 1959.

L'été des fruits secs (fiction), P. Ollendorff (Paris, France), 1885.

Le sauvetage du-duc, P. Ollendorff (Paris, France), 1889.

Les fossiles; pièce en quatre actes (four-act play), 1892.

L'Envers d'une sainte: pièce en trois actes (thee-act play), Tress & Stock (Paris, France), 1892, published as A False Saint, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1916, reprinted in French, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1931.

L'amour brode; Pièce en trois actes (three-act play), Stock (Paris, France), 1893.

La figuarante: comédie en trois actes (three-act play), Stock (Paris, France), 1896.

Le repas du lion; pièce en 5 actes (five-act play), Stock (Paris, France), 1898, reprinted, G. Crès (Paris, France), 1919.

La nouvelle idole; pièce en trois actes (three-act play), Stock (Paris, France), 1899.

Théâtre: La danse devant le miroir; La figurante; La fille sauvage, Larousse (Paris, France), 1900.

Terre inhumaine: drame en trois actes (three-act play; title means "The Inhumane World"), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1900.

(With Alice Van Kaathoven) The Beat of the Wing (Le coup d'aile), (three-act play), Richard G. Badger (Boston, MA), 1909.

Le solitaire de la lune, Bibliophiles fantaisistes (Paris, France), 1909.

L'Idée pathétique et vivante, Sansot, 1912.

Four Plays of the Free Theatre; The Fossils, by François de Curel; The Serenade, by Jean Jullien; Francoise's Luck, by Georges de Porto-Riche: The Dupe, by Georges Ancey, Stewart & Kidd (Cincinnati, OH), 1915.

Théâtre complet: texts remainés par l'auteur avec l'historique de chaque pièce, suivis des souvenirs de l'auteur, Albin Michel (Paris, France), 1918– 24, reprinted, 1941.

L'ame en folie: comédie dramatique en trois actes (three-act play), Illustrations (Paris, France), 1919.

Discours de reception à l'Academie française: prononcé l 8 mai 1919, G. Crès (Paris, France), 1919.

La danse devant le iroir; La fiurante, G. Crès (Paris, France), 1920.

L'invitée; La nouvelle idole, G. Crès (Paris, France), 1920.

L'ivresse du sage: comédie en trois actes (thee-act play), G. Crès (Paris, France),1921.

La comédie du génie, G. Crès (Paris, France), 1921.

(With Shuro Ozeki) Kaseki, Bunsendoshoten (Tokyo, Japan), 1922.

François de Curel, G. Crés (Paris, France), 1923.

Théâtre: choisi, G. Crés (Paris, France), 1923.

L'orphelinat de Gaëtan, Société des médecins bibliophiles (Paris, France), 1927.

La chasse, ma grande passion. Extrait de l'Historique de "L'âme en folie," Durel éditeurs (Paris, France), 1949.

Also author the novel Le Bois des amants; author's works have been published in several languages, including Japanese, Turkish, Spanish, and Chinese.

ADAPTATIONS:

Several works have been adapted for film, including The Savage Woman, 1918; Terre inhumaine, 1928, and in 1930 under the titles Ankara postasi and This Mad World; and Le Bois des amants, 1960.

SIDELIGHTS:

François de Curel was a French playwright and author who was born of an aristocratic family and pursued writing as an avocation. He began writing novels and other fiction but soon concentrated primarily on writing plays, with his first staged work being L'Envers d'une sainte: pièce en trois actes, or "A False Saint." Writing in the introduction to Four French Dramatists: A Bibliography of Criticism of the Works of Eugène Brieux, François de Curel, Emile Fabre, Paul Hervieu, Edmund F. SantaVicca referred to the play as "a psychological study of love, jealousy, and sacrifice." The author turned his attention to his own aristocratic origins in the satirical Les fossiles. Curel also satirized the growing idolization of science with his play La nouvelle idole, and he addresses the social issue of industrialization of rural societies in Le repas du lion. La fille sauvage concerns an African girl who is brought to France and educated, but falls back into many of her savage ways. The author also wrote plays about love and human relationships, such as La danse devant le miroir, about a love affair that ends in suicide, and L'ame en folie: comédie dramatique en trois actes, which satirized love and passion. SantaVicca noted of his plays: "Perhaps too philosophic to interest a typical audience, the plays demand a concentration of thought which is rendered more easily from the armchair than from beyond the footlights."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

SantaVicca, Edmund F., compiler, Four French Dramatists: A Bibliography of Criticism of the Works of Eugène Brieux, François de Curel, Emile Fabre, Paul Hervieu, Scarecrow Press (Metuchen, NJ), 1974,