Jean-Louis Curtis
Jean -Louis Curtis ( May 22nd, 1917 in Orthez, Pyrenees- Atlantiques as Louis Lafitte, † November 11, 1995 in Paris) was a French writer, translator, and resistance fighter. For the presentation of the occupation in his second novel mazes of the Night ( 1947) he was awarded the Prix Goncourt. Curtis wrote more than 30 novels. For James Kirkup he had a classic, economical and elegant style, deep wit and great thematic diversity. The accusation of " conservatism " not fearing that he had given nothing to the changing literary fashions. For all that he had plowed an ironic restraint, "typically British" dünke so many Frenchmen, though in truth she was the proud heritage of authors such as Stendhal, Voltaire, Flaubert, Proust.
Life
The son of a furniture factory finished his philosophy and English studies in 1939 in Paris at the Sorbonne. He signs up for the Air Force, fighting in Morocco. Demobilized In September 1941, he is a high school teacher in Bayonne, sets the Subject: English by. As of August 1944, the supporters of liberal socialism ' in association Pommiès fighting against the fascist troops took part in the occupation of southern Germany, returns to his job as a teacher, this time in Paris. Here he is one of the founders in 1948 of the legendary La Table Ronde of a restaurant on the Place de Pantheon, where more or less made monthly writers and artists meet to exquisite dining and catching mouthing about absent colleagues. 1955 Curtis acknowledged the teaching profession in order to devote full time to writing. In addition to novels written lover of English literature 's acclaimed translations of Shakespeare and contemporary playwrights such as John Osborne, also reviews and columns for numerous leaves, increasingly, scripts for cinema and television. In terms of subject matter increases with advancing age Curtis' disillusionment. According to Winfried Engler he treated the failure of public policy, argues against the May revolt ( 1968 ), the hippie movement, the sophisticated intelligence. In 1986 he joins the illustrious Académie française. Curtis died in 1995 at 78 after a heart attack.
Works (selection)
- Les jeunes hommes, novel, 1946
- Les Forestry de la nuit, novel, 1947, German labyrinths of the night, Heidelberg 1948
- Les justes causes, Roman ( about the liberation of Paris ), 1954
- L' Echelle de soie, story, 1956, German The Silken Ladder, Berlin 1958
- La parade, novel, 1960
- Cygne sauvage, 1962
- Adelaide, acting on a novella by Gobineau, German Munich 1962
- La quarantaine, novel, 1966
- Le thé sous les cyprès, short stories, 1969
- Le roseau pensant, novel, 1971
- L'horizon Derobe, novel, 1979
- La moitié du chemin, novel, 1980
- Le battement de mon coeur, novel, 1981
- Le mauvais choix, ( letter ), novel, 1984
- Gibier de potence ( The Witch of Montmartre ), 1951
- Meurtre en liberté ( Murder at the Grand Hotel ), 1966 - screenplay from a novel by James Hadley Chase
- Chere Louise ( The Affair ), 1972