Erckmann-Chatrian

Erckmann-Chatrian, the compound name of two French romancists, Lorrainers both, whose stories of Alsatian peasant life are known the whole world over. Emile Erckmann, born 20th May 1822, at Phalsbourg, studied law in Paris from 1842 to 1858; whilst Alexandre Chatrian, born 2d December 1826, in the village of Soldatenthal, from glassblowing took to teaching in Phalsbourg, and afterwards got a railway clerkship. Their literary partnership dates from 1848; but for ten or eleven years they had little success beyond getting some of their stories printed in various newspapers and journals. It was not till 1859 that L'Illustre Directeur Mathéus (1859) gave a certain éclat to the collective name of Erckmann-Chatrian. Le Fou Yégof (1862) is one of a series of novels which give graphic pictures of the invasion of 1813-14, to which series also belong Histoire d'un Conscrit de 1813 (1864) and Waterloo (1865). Le Joueur de Clarinette (1863), a simple story of a village musician; Les Amoureux de Catherine, another tale of village life in the same volume; L'Ami Fritz (1864); Madame Thérèse, ou les Volontaires de '92 (1863); Le Blocus (1867; Eng. trans. Blockade of Phalsbourg, 1870); Histoire d'un Paysan (1868); and Contes Populaires, most of which have been translated into English, count amongst the best they have written. Three plays by them have also achieved success—Le Juif Polonais (1869; well known as The Bells), the dramatic version of L'Ami Fritz (1876), and Les Rantzau (1882). After the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine a strong anti-German feeling was manifested in their books—the best of these L'Histoire d'un Plébiscite (1872). They had quarrelled, when Chatrian died 4th Sept. 1890. Erckmann died at Lunéville, 14th March 1899. Edmond About thus described their partnership: 'The two friends see one another very rarely. When they do meet, they elaborate together the scheme of a work. Then Erckmann writes it, Chatrian corrects it, and sometimes puts it in the fire.'