13 November 2015

Paris 2015: Cimetière de Bougival #1: Émile Richebourg


ÉMILE RICHEBOURG
HOMME DE LETTRES
1833 – 1898'

Émile Richebourg is now virtually forgotten, although he was once a very popular writer. His novels were serialised in Le Petit Journal and Gambetta's La Petite République and both publications benefited greatly from his contributions. Richebourg – who was born into a modest family – earned a considerable amount of money from his novels, which seem to have been particularly welcomed by women. He told Émile Zola that he was the great literary novelist, whereas Richebourg was the great popular novelist. He lived with his wife in Bougival on the Route de La Celle St Cloud, in a house which he named 'La Charmeuse' after his novel Andréa la charmeuse.

He wrote a great number novels, including Les Amours de village, Les Millions de Monsieur Joramie, La Fille maudite, La Dame en noir, Jean Loup and Coeurs de femmes.

2 comments:

Renata_Ribeiro said...

This is great information, thank you!
I am finishing the first volume of his novel titled "A Toutinegra do Moinho" in Portuguese, which was very hard to find.
My grandmother used to always say that this was her favorite book ever and it took me a while after her death to be able to find both volumes in a bookstore online that sells rare books. I cannot find too much information about Émile Richebourg online and was curious to read more about his life and career. Please let me know if there is any further source, even if in French, where I could find out more about him and his body of work. The book is indeed marvelous, I have to agree with my nana... :)

Thank you very much,

Renata Ribeiro.

Dr Tony Shaw said...

And thank you for your comments, Renata! I don't know if you've tried Gallica, or how good your French is, but even if it's not up to reading any of his books, this link might help. Good luck anyway. Tony. https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&query=%28gallica%20all%20%22emile%20richebourg%22%29&lang=en&suggest=0#resultat-id-2