BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Alphonse Daudet was born at Nimes on the 13th of May, 1840. He was theyounger son of a rich and enthusiastically Royalist silk-manufacturerof that town, the novelist, Ernest Daudet (born 1837), being his elderbrother. In their childhood, the father, Vincent Daudet, sufferedreverses, and had to settle with his family, in reduced circumstances,at Lyons. Alphonse, in 1856, obtained a post as usher in a school atAlais, in the Gard, where he was extremely unhappy. All these painfulearly experiences are told very pathetically in "Le Petit Chose." Onthe 1st of November, 1857, Alphonse fled from the horrors of his life atAlais, and joined his brother Ernest, who had just secured a post in theservice of the Duc de Morny in Paris. Alphonse determined to live byhis pen, and presently obtained introductions to the "Figaro." His earlyvolumes of verse, "Les Amoureuses" of 1858 and "La Double Conversion"of 1861, attracted some favourable notice. In this latter year hisdifficulties ceased, for he had the good fortune to become one of thesecretaries of the Duc de Morny, a post which he held for four years,until the popularity of his writings rendered him independent. To thegenerosity of his patron, moreover, he owed the opportunity of visitingItaly and the East. His first novel, "Le Chaperon Rouge," 1863, was notvery remarkable, and Daudet turned to the stage. His principal dramaticefforts of this period were "Le Dernier Idole," 1862, and "L'OEilletBlanc," 1865. Alphonse Daudet's earliest important work, however, was"Le Petit Chose," 1868, a very pathetic autobiography of the firsteighteen years of his life, over which he cast a thin veil of romance.After the death of the Duc de Morny, Daudet retired to Provence, leasinga ruined mill at Fortvielle, in the valley of the Rhone; from thisromantic solitude, among the pines and green oaks, he sent forth thoseexquisite studies of Provencal life, the "Lettres de mon Moulin." Afterthe war, Daudet reappeared in Paris, greatly strengthened and ripenedby his hermit-existence in the heart of Provence. He produced onemasterpiece after another. He had studied with laughter and joy themirthful side of southern exaggeration, and he created a figure in whichits peculiar qualities should be displayed, as it were, in excelsis.This study resulted, in 1872, in "The Prodigious Feats of Tartarin ofTarascon," one of the most purely delightful works of humour in theFrench language. Alphonse Daudet now, armed with his cahiers, his littlegreen-backed books of notes, set out to be a great historian ofFrench manners in the second half of the nineteenth century. His firstimportant novel, "Fromont Jeune et Risler Aine," 1874, enjoyed a notablesuccess; it was followed in 1876 by "Jack," in 1878 by "Le Nabob," in1879 by "Les Rois en Exil," in 1881 by "Numa Roumestan," in 1883 by"L'Evangeliste," and in 1884 by "Sapho." These are the seven greatromances of modern French life on which the reputation of AlphonseDaudet as a novelist is mainly built. They placed him, for the moment atall events, near the head of contemporary European literature. By thistime, however, a physical malady, which Charcot was the first to locatein the spinal cord, had begun to exhaust the novelist's powers. Thisdisease, which took the form of what was supposed to be neuralgia in1881, racked him with pain during the sixteen remaining years of hislife, and gradually destroyed his powers of locomotion. It sparedthe functions of the brain, but it cannot be denied that after 1884something of force and spontaneous charm was lacking in Daudet's books.He continued, however, the adventures of Tartarin, first with unabatedgusto in the Alps, then less happily as a colonist in the South Seas. Hewrote, in the form of a novel, a bitter satire on the French Academy,of which he was never a member; this was "L'Immortel" of 1888. He wroteromances, of little power, the best being "Rose et Ninette" of 1892, buthis imaginative work steadily declined in value. He published in 1887his reminiscences, "Trente Ans de Paris," and later on his "Souvenirsd'un Homme de Lettres." He suffered more and more from his complaint,from the insomnia it caused, and from the abuse of chloral. He wasable, however, to the last, to enjoy the summer at his country-house, atChamprosay, and even to travel in an invalid's chair; in 1896 he visitedfor the first time London and Oxford, and saw Mr. George Meredith. InParis he had long occupied rooms in the Rue de Bellechasse, where MadameAlphonse Daudet was accustomed to entertain a brilliant company. But in1897 it became impossible for him to mount five flights of stairs anylonger, and he moved to the first floor of No. 41 Rue de l'Universite.Here on the 16th of December, 1897, as he was chatting gaily at thedinner-table, he uttered a cry, fell back in his chair, and was dead.The personal appearance of Alphonse Daudet, in his prime, was verystriking; he had clearly cut features, large brilliant eyes, and anamazing exuberance of curled hair and forked beard.
EDMUND GOSSE, LL.D.