Pierre de Marivaux
Pierre de Marivaux | |
---|---|
Born | Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux 4 February 1688 Paris, France |
Died | 12 February 1763 Paris, France | (aged 75)
Occupation | Playwright |
Nationality | French |
Period | Enlightenment |
Genre | Romantic comedy |
Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ kaʁlɛ də ʃɑ̃blɛ̃ də maʁivo]; 4 February 1688 – 12 February 1763), commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French playwright and novelist.
He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing numerous
Life
His father was a
Marivaux is said to have written his first play, the Père prudent et équitable, when he was only eighteen, but it was not published until 1712, when he was twenty-four. However, the young Marivaux concentrated more on writing novels than plays. In the three years from 1713 to 1715 he produced three novels – Effets surprenants de la sympathie; La Voiture embourbée, and a book which had three titles – Pharsamon, Les Folies romanesques, and Le Don Quichotte moderne. These books are very different from his later, more famous pieces: they are inspired by Spanish romances and the heroic novels of the preceding century, with a certain mixture of the marvelous.[1]
Then Marivaux's literary ardour entered a new phase. He parodied
Marivaux is reputed to have been a witty conversationalist, with a somewhat contradictory personality. He was extremely good-natured but fond of saying very severe things, unhesitating in his acceptance of favours (he drew a regular annuity from
Literary career
The early 1720s were very important for Marivaux; he wrote a comedy (now mostly lost) called L'Amour et la vérité, another comedy, Arlequin poli par l'amour, and an unsuccessful tragedy, Annibal (printed 1737). In about 1721, he married a Mlle Martin, but she died shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, he lost all of his inheritance money when he invested it in the Mississippi scheme. His pen now became almost his sole resource.[1]
Marivaux had a connection with two fashionable theatres: Annibal had played at the Comédie Française and Arlequin poli at the Comédie Italienne. He also endeavoured to start a weekly newspaper, the Spectateur Français, to which he was the sole contributor. But his irregular work ethic killed the paper after less than two years. Thus, for nearly twenty years, the theatre, especially the Comédie Italienne, was Marivaux's chief support. His plays were well received by the actors of the Comédie Française, but were rarely successful there.[1]
Marivaux wrote between 30 and 40 plays, the best of which are
In 1731 Marivaux published the first two parts of his great novel, Marianne. The eleven parts appeared at intervals over the next eleven years, but the novel was never finished. In 1735 another novel, Le Paysan parvenu, was begun, but this also was left unfinished. Marivaux was elected a member of the
Marivaudage
The so-called marivaudage is the main point of importance about Marivaux's literary work, though the best of the comedies have great merits, and Marianne is an extremely important step in the development of the French novel. That, and Le Paysan parvenu, have some connection to the work of Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding. In general, Marivaux's subject matter is the so-called "metaphysic of love-making." As Claude Prosper Jolyot Crébillon said, Marivaux's characters not only tell each other and the reader everything they have thought, but everything that they would like to persuade themselves that they have thought.[1]
This style derives mainly from Fontenelle and the Précieuses, though there are traces of it even in Jean de La Bruyère. It abuses metaphor somewhat, and delights to turn a metaphor in an unexpected and bizarre fashion. Sometimes a familiar phrase is used where dignified language would be expected; sometimes the reverse. Crébillon also described Marivaux's style as an introduction of words to each other which have never made acquaintance and which think that they will not get on together (this phrase is itself rather Marivaux-esque). This kind of writing, of course, recurs at several periods of literature, especially at the end of the 19th century. This fantastic embroidery of language has a certain charm, and suits the somewhat unreal gallantry and sensibility which it describes and exhibits. Marivaux possessed, moreover, both thought and observation, besides considerable command of pathos.[1]
Works
Plays
- 1712: Le Père prudent et équitable
- 1720: L'Amour et la Vérité
- 1720: Arlequin poli par l'amour (Harlequin's Lesson of Love)
- 1720: Annibal, his only tragedy
- 1722: La Surprise de l'amour (The Agreeable Surprise)
- La Double Inconstance(Infidelities)
- 1724: Le Prince travesti
- 1724: La Fausse Suivante ou Le Fourbe puni (The False Servant)
- 1724: Le Dénouement imprévu
- 1725: L'Île des esclaves (Slave Island)
- 1725: L'Héritier de village
- 1726: Mahomet second (unfinished prose tragedy)
- 1727: L'Île de la raison ou Les petits hommes
- 1727: La Seconde Surprise de l'amour
- 1728: Le Triomphe de Plutus (Money Makes the World Go Round)
- 1729: La Nouvelle Colonie lost and then rewritten in 1750 with the title of La Colonie
- Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard(The Game of Love and Chance)
- 1731: La Réunion des Amours
- Le Triomphe de l'amour(The Triumph of Love)
- 1732: Les Serments indiscrets (Careless Vows)
- 1732: L'École des mères
- 1733: L'Heureux Stratagème (Successful Strategies)
- La Méprise
- 1734: Le Petit-Maître corrigé
- 1734: Le Chemin de la fortune
- 1735: La Mère confidente
- 1736: Le Legs (The Legacy)
- 1737: Les Fausses Confidences (The False Confidences)
- 1738: La Joie imprévue
- 1739: Les Sincères (The Test)
- 1740: L'Épreuve
- 1741: La Commère
- 1744: La Dispute (A Matter of Dispute)
- 1746: Le Préjugé vaincu
- 1750: La Colonie
- 1750: La Femme fidèle
- 1757: Félicie
- 1757: Les Acteurs de bonne foi (The Constant Players)
- 1761: La Provinciale
Journals and essays
- 1717–1718: Lettres sur les habitants de Paris
- Lettres contenant une aventure
- Pensées sur differents sujets
- 1721–1724: Le Spectateur français
- 1726: L'Indigent philosophe
- 1734: Le Cabinet du philosophe
Novels
- 1713–1714: Les Effets surprenants de la sympathie
- 1714: La Voiture embourbée — an "improvised" novel (roman impromptu)
- 1714: Le Bilboquet
- 1714: Le Télémaque travesti
- 1716–1717: L'Homère travesti ou L'Iliade en vers burlesques
- 1737: Pharsamon ou Les Folies romanesques (Pharsamond, or the New Knight-Errand)
Unfinished novels
- begun in 1727: La Vie de Marianne (The Life of Marianne)
- begun in 1735: Le Paysan parvenu (The Upstart Peasant)
Adaptations
Triumph of Love, a 1997 musical stage adaptation of Marivaux's play The Triumph of Love had a brief Broadway run.
Film and television
- I nostri figli , directed by Ugo Falena (Italy, 1914, short film, based on the play The Game of Love and Chance)
- Monsieur Hector, directed by Maurice Cammage (France, 1940, based on the play The Game of Love and Chance)
- El juego del amor y del azar , directed by Leopoldo Torres Ríos (Argentina, 1944, based on the play The Game of Love and Chance)
- Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard , directed by Marcel Bluwal (France, 1967, TV film, based on the play The Game of Love and Chance)
- Double Inconstancy)
- Caribia – Ein Filmrausch in Stereophonie , directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt (West Germany, 1978, based on the play La Dispute)
- Les Fausses Confidences , directed by Daniel Moosmann (France, 1984, based on the play Les Fausses Confidences)
- La Fausse Suivante, directed by Patrice Chéreau (France, 1985, TV film, based on the play La Fausse Suivante)
- La Vie de Marianne , directed by Benoît Jacquot (France, 1995, TV film, based on the novel La Vie de Marianne)
- False Servant, directed by Benoît Jacquot (France, 2000, based on the play La Fausse Suivante)
Marivaux's play The Triumph of Love (1732) was filmed in English in 2001 as The Triumph of Love, starring Mira Sorvino, Ben Kingsley, and Fiona Shaw.[3] It is, so far, the only one of Marivaux's plays ever to be filmed in English. The film received modestly favourable reviews, but was not a box office success.
In the French film
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k public domain: Saintsbury, George (1911). "Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). pp. 726–727. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Leo Damrosch (2007). Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius. Mariner Books.
- IMDb