Maurice Maeterlinck
Count Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck ( born August 29, 1862 in Ghent, † May 6, 1949 in Nice ) was a Belgian writer and playwright French. The pronunciation of the surname is [ ma.tɛʁ.lɛ ː k] in Belgium, [ mɛ.teʁ.lɛ ː k] in France.
Maeterlinck is true with his lyrical works and stage plays - including the drama Pelléas et Mélisande - as one of the most important representatives of symbolism. The focus of this work is often man in his helplessness in the face of death. 1911 Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Life
Maurice Maeterlinck was born as the son of a wealthy French-speaking parents. During his studies, he wrote poems and short stories that he later destroyed and of which only fragments survive. After the end of his law studies, he spent several months living in Paris, where he met some members of the new literary movement of symbolism, including Stéphane Mallarmé and Villiers de l' Isle- Adam. In 1890, he became famous with his play La princesse Maleine.
In 1892, the resulting tale drama Pelléas et Mélisande was repeatedly set to music, including an opera by Claude Debussy and ballet by Max Baumann.
From 1895 to 1918 he had a relationship with singer Georgette Leblanc. In 1919 he married Renée Dahon. In 1926 he published La Vie des Termites, a blatant plagiarism of the work of The Soul of the White Ant of South African biologist and poet Eugène Marais ( 1871-1936 ). In 1930 he acquired the castle in Nice, which he gave the name of his Orlamonde Quinze Chansons. This house was out until March 2008 as the Hotel Palais Maeterlinck. In 1932 he was knighted by the Belgian king Albert I and appointed Count. In 1939, he fled to the United States, where he lived until 1947. He died in 1949 in Nice.
Works ( selection)
Poetry
- Chaudes Serres (1889 )
- Douze chansons (1896, 1900 Quinze chansons again published)
Prose
- Le Trésor des humbles (1896, German Treasure of the poor, 1902)
- La Sagesse et la Destinée (1898, German Wisdom and Destiny, 1904)
- La vie des abeilles (1901, German Life of Bees, 1901)
- L' Intelligence des fleurs (1907, German Intelligence of Flowers )
- La mort (1913, German Vom Tode )
- L' hôte inconnu (1917, German The foreign guest )
- La vie des termites (1926, German Life of termites)
- La vie des fourmis (1930, German The Lives of Ants )
Stage Works
- La Princesse Maleine (1889 )
- Les Aveugles (1890)
- L' Intruse (1890)
- Pelléas et Mélisande (1892 )
- La Mort de Tintagiles (1894, German Death of Tintagiles )
- L' Intérieur (1895 )
- Monna Vanna (1902 )
- Ariane et Barbe -Bleue (1901, as a libretto 1907)
- L' Oiseau bleu (1908, German The Blue Bird )
- Le Bourg de Mestre style Monde (1918 )
Modern German editions
- The Blue Bird. Fairy play in six acts and 12 images. Sachon, Bad Wörishofen 1984. ISBN 3-923493-17-7
- The early pieces. 2 vols. Edition text and criticism, Munich 1983 ISBN 3-88377-127-9 ISBN 3-88377-128-7 and
- The Life of the Bee. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1953
- The life of termites. Cologne, Kiepenheuer & Petrovich 1955
- The life of termites and the life of ants. From the series Nobel Prize for Literature. Coron, Zurich 1966 ( and new edition 1980)
- Melisande's songs. Sachon, ISBN 3-923493-25-8 Mindelheim 1985
- Prose and critical writings. From 1886 to 1896. Sachon, Bad Wörishofen 1983. ISBN 3-923493-03-7
- The treasure of the poor. Reprint of the edition of 1898. Diederichs, Dusseldorf and Cologne 1964