Paul Foucher

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Paul Foucher

Paul-Henri Foucher (21 April 1810 – 24 January 1875) was a French playwright,

political journalist
, and novelist.

Biography

Early career

Foucher was born in Paris and began his career as an employee in the offices of the War Department.

Alexandre Dumas, père, "who had it for a long time in his possession."[3]

Career as a dramatist

Foucher soon obtained employment as a journalist and proceeded to write a new play, Yseul Raimbaud, which was first presented at the

Théâtre de l'Odéon on 17 November 1830.[5] It was attacked by the classiques (as the opponents of romanticism were then called), "but all agreed that there was talent and vigor in it. From that time the author's success was assured."[2]

He rapidly showed himself to be imaginative and prolific, producing in quick succession Saynètes (1832),

Edouard Deldevez's ballet-pantomime Paquita (a collaboration with Joseph Mazilier, who also did the choreography, first performed on 1 April 1846),[11] and Count Nicolas Gabrielli's pantomime-ballet L'Étoile de Messine (20 November 1861).[12] Most of Foucher's dramatic works were written in collaboration with well-known authors including Mazilier, D'Ennery, Arvers, Anicet-Bourgeois, Berthet, Goubaux, Desnoyers, Lavergne, Régnier, Borri, Jarry, Herbin, Bouchardy, Duport, Delaporte, Alboize, and Jaime.[1]

Career as a journalist and writer of nonfiction

In 1848 he began to engage in politics, becoming the Paris correspondent for L'Indépendance belge in Brussels.[1] His submissions were "very remarkable" and "full of life and spirit, and also full of information."[2] He also became a noted theatre and music critic, first for L'Opinion nationale, for which he later wrote a Monday column entitled "Revue dramatique et lyrique",[1] then for La France in 1865,[4] and finally for La Presse. "After Jules Janin he was the critic who was most respected and feared."[2] Many of his reviews were collected and published in 1867 in book form as Entre cour et jardin: études et souvenirs du théâtre (Between Court and Garden: Studies and Recollections of the Theatre).[13] In 1873 he published a collection of sketches of famous dramatists as Les Coulisses du passé (In the Wings of the Past)[14] and the book Les Sièges héroiques (Heroic Sieges), which tells the stories of celebrated sieges from the liberation of Orléans by Joan of Arc in 1429 to the bombardment of Strasbourg in 1870.[15]

Career as a novelist

Foucher published two serialized novels in La France and L'Opinion nationale.

Cordouan) in 1853,[16] and La Vie du plaisir (The Life of Pleasure) in 1860.[17]

Personal traits

Foucher had several distinctive personal traits. He was so

Ve'ly-Pasha. When it came time to leave, he searched his pockets for his coat-check number, but could not find it. The cloak-room attendant was unable to help him, so as the evening wore on Foucher requested the help of three Turkish guests in turn, each more decorated and high-ranking than the previous, but all without success. Finally the attendant said: ""You are a regular nightmare, you had better sit down and wait." Still without his coat at daybreak, Foucher finally decided to go home, where at last he discovered his coat and realized why he had lost his number. Many such stories were told about Foucher, "who took them all amiably and kindly."[2]

Foucher was named Chevalier of the

Quartier Latin forced him to retire to one of the mourning coaches. According to The New York Times, due to Foucher's "incessant labor", he "left his family in comfortable circumstances."[2]

Works

Plays

Operas and ballets-pantomimes

  • Le Vaisseau fantôme, music by Dietsch (1842)
  • Richard en Palestine, music by Adam (1844)
  • Paquita, music by Deldevez (1846)
  • L'Opéra au camp, music by Varney (1854)
  • L'Étoile de Messine, music by Gabrielli (1861)

Serialized novels

  • Le Guetteur du Cordouan (1854, 3 vol.)
  • La Vie de plaisir (1860)

Nonfiction works

  • Entre cour et jardin: études et souvenirs du théâtre (1867)
  • Les Coulisses du passé (1873)
  • Les Sièges héroïques (1873)

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Glaeser, p. 258.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "A French Litterateur: The Late Paul Foucher". The New York Times. 20 February 1875.
  3. ^ a b Barbou, p. 107.
  4. ^ a b c Pitou, p. 528.
  5. ^ Foucher, Paul (1830). Yseult Raimbaud, drame historique en quatre Actes et en vers. Paris: R. Riga. View at Google Books.
  6. ^ Foucher, Paul (1832). Saynètes. Paris: Madame Charles-Béchet. View at Google Books.
  7. ^ Foucher, Paul (1838). Don Sébastien de Portugal. Paris: J. N. Barba; Delloye; Bezou. View at Google Books.
  8. ^ Weinstock, p. 193.
  9. ^ Pitou, p. 1340.
  10. ^ Pitou, p. 1110.
  11. ^ Pitou, p. 1011.
  12. ^ Pitou, p. 432.
  13. ^ Foucher, Paul (1867). Entre cour et jardin: études et souvenirs du théâtre. Paris: Amyot. View at Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Foucher, Paul (1873). Les Coulisses du passé. Paris: E. Dentu. View at Internet Archive.
  15. OCLC 457300529
    .
  16. OCLC 5956677
    .
  17. ^ Foucher, Paul (1860). La Vie du plaisir. Paris: Michel Levy frères. View at Google Books.

Sources

External links
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