Daudet, Alphonse 1840-97
French writer

Born in N�mes, he was educated at the Lyons Lyc�e, and at 17 went to Paris where he obtained an appointment in the office of the Duke of Morny. From 1862 he published a number of theatrical pieces, notably L'Arl�sienne (1872, 'A Woman from Arles'), with incidental music by Bizet. His best-known work is his series of sketches and short stories of Proven�al life, originally written for the newspaper Le Figaro, especially Lettres de mon moulin (collected 1869, 'Letters from my Mill') and the charming extravaganza of Tartarin de Tarascon (1872), continued in Tartarin sur les Alpes (1885) and Port Tarascon (1890). Le Petit chose (1868, 'Young What's His Name') is full of pathos and of reminiscences of Daudet's own early struggles. Other works include his long naturalistic novels on the social conditions of the day, such as Fromont jeune et Risler a�n� (1874, 'Fromont Junior and Risler Senior') and Le Nabab (1877, 'The Nabob'), Sapho (1884), a tale of the infatuation of a young man for a courtesan, and L'Immortel (1888, 'The Immortal One'), in which Daudet's powers of ridicule are turned against the Acad�mie Fran�aise.

Bibliography: R H Sherard, Alphonse Daudet (1894)