ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN

'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.
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. Life-long friends who first met in the spring of 1847, they finally quarreled in the mid-1880s, after which no more stories appeared from their pen. In 1890 Chatrian died, and Erckmann wrote a few pieces under his own name.
Tales of supernatural horror by the duo that are famous in English include "The Wild Huntsman" (tr. 1871), "The Man-Wolf" (tr. 1876) and "The Crab Spider." These stories received praise from the renowned English ghost story writer, M. R. James.
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 best-selling authors but had trouble with political censorship throughout their careers. By and large 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 (or Pfalzburg), which also contains a military museum exhibiting editions of their works.

Contents

Works

First works

From 1859

After the Franco-Prussian War

English translations

Bibliography

External links

Works

First works

Many of these were not published until the 1860s.

★ ''Malédiction''; ''Vin rouge et vin blanc'' (1849)

★ ''L’Alsace en 1814'', play (1850)

★ ''Science et génie'', fantasy story (1850)

★ ''Schinderhannes ou les Brigands des Vosges'' (1852)

★ ''Le Bourgmestre en bouteille'' (by Erckmann, 1856)

★ ''L’Illustre Docteur Mathéus'' (1856)

★ ''Contes fantastiques: Le Requiem du corbeau, Rembrandt et L’Œil invisible'' (1857)

★ ''Gretchen et La Pie'' (1858)

From 1859

★ ''Les Lunettes de Hans Schnaps'' (1859)

★ ''Le Rêve du cousin Elof'' (1859)

★ ''La Montre du doyen'' (1859)

★ ''Hans Storkus'' (1859)

★ ''Les Trois âmes'' (1859)

★ ''Hugues-le-loup'' (1859)

★ ''Contes de la montagne; Contes fantastiques'' (1860)

★ ''Maître Daniel Rock'' (1861)

★ ''Le Fou Yégof'' (1861)

★ ''L’Invasion ou le Fou Yégof'' (1862)

★ ''Les Contes du bord du Rhin'' (1862)

★ ''Confidences d’un joueur de clarinette'' (1862)

★ ''Madame Thérèse'' (1863)

★ ''La Taverne du jambon de Mayence'' (1863)

★ ''Confidences d’un joueur de clarinette'' (1863)

★ ''Les Amoureux de Catherine'' (1863)

★ ''Histoire d’un conscrit de 1813'' (1864)

★ ''L’Ami Fritz'' (1864)

★ ''Waterloo'' (sequel to ''Conscrit de 1913'', 1865)

★ ''Histoire d’un homme du peuple'' (1865)

★ ''La Maison forestière'' (1866)

★ ''La Guerre'' (1866)

★ ''Le Blocus'' (1866)

★ ''Contes et romans populaires'' (1867)

★ ''Le Juif polonais'', play (1867)

★ ''Histoire d’un paysan'' (1867)

After the Franco-Prussian War

★ ''Histoire du plébiscite racontée par un des 7 500 000 oui'', essay (1871)

★ ''Lettre d’un électeur à son député'', pamphlet against reactionaries (1871)

★ ''Les Deux Frères'' (1871)

★ ''Histoire d’un sous-maître'' (1871)

★ ''Une campagne en Kabylie'' (1873)

★ ''Les Années de collège de Maître Nablot'' (1874)

★ ''Le Brigadier Frédéric, histoire d’un Français chassé par les Allemands'' (1874)

★ ''Maître Gaspard Fix, histoire d’un conservateur'' (1875)

★ ''L’Education d’un féodal'' (1875)

★ ''L’Intérêt des paysans, lettre d’un cultivateur aux paysans de France'', essay (1876)

★ ''Contes et romans alsaciens'' (1876)

★ ''Souvenirs d’un ancien chef de chantier à l’isthme de Suez'' (1876)

★ ''Les Amoureux de Catherine'' and ''L’Ami Fritz'', plays (adapted by Chatrian, 1877)

★ ''Contes vosgiens'' (1877)

★ ''Alsace ou les fiancés d’Alsace'', play (adapted by Chatrian from ''Histoire du plébiscite'', 1880)

★ ''Le Grand-père Lebigre'' (1880)

★ ''Les Vieux de la vieille'' (1880)

★ ''Quelques mots sur l’esprit humain, résumé de la philosophie d’Erckmann'', essay (1880)

★ ''Le Banni'' (sequel to ''Le Brigadier Frédéric'', 1881)

★ ''La Taverne des Trabans'', play (adapted from ''La Taverne du jambon de Mayence'', 1881)

★ ''Les Rantzau'', play (adapted from ''Deux Frères'', 1882)

★ ''Madame Thérèse'', play (adapted by Chatrian, 1882)

★ ''Le Banni'' (1882)

★ ''Le Fou Chopine'', play (adapted from ''Gretchen'', 1883)

★ ''Époques mémorables de l’Histoire de France: avant ’89'' (1884)

★ ''Myrtille'', play (1885)

★ ''L’Art et les grands idéalistes'', essay (1885)

★ ''Pour les enfants'', essay (published 1888)

English translations

★ ''The Man-Wolf and Other Tales'' (1876, rpt 1976)

★ ''Strange Stories'' (1880)

★ ''Best Tales of Terror'' (1980) edited by Hugh Lamb

Bibliography

★ Benoît-Guyod, G. ''La Vie et l'Œuvre d'Erckmann-Chatrian. Témoignages et documents.'' Tome 14, Jean-Jacques Pauvert, Paris, 1963.

★ Hinzelin, Émile. ''Erckmann-Chatrian. Étude biographique et littéraire.'' J. Ferenczi et fils, Paris, 1922.

★ Schoumacker, L. ''Erckmann-Chatrian. Étude biographique et critique d'après des documents inédits.'' Les Belles-Lettres, Paris, 1933.

External links

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