Background
Jean Giraudoux was born on October 29, 1882, in Bellac, France; the son of Léger Giraudoux, an official with the Department of Highways, and Anne Lacoste Giraudoux.
Jean Giraudoux with Elisabeth Bergner in rehearsals for the play 'Amphytrion 38' at the Lessing-Theater in Berlin.
45 Rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
In 1903 Giraudoux was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.
3 Avenue du Président Franklin Roosevelt, 92330 Sceaux, France
Giraudoux studied at Lycée Lakanal.
Massachusetts Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Giraudoux studied at Harvard University.
Jean Giraudoux was born on October 29, 1882, in Bellac, France; the son of Léger Giraudoux, an official with the Department of Highways, and Anne Lacoste Giraudoux.
In 1893 Giraudoux received a scholarship at the Iycée of Châteauroux, where he studied for 7 years. In 1903 Giraudoux was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He also studied at Lycée Lakanal and Harvard University.
Giraudoux’s first book, Provinciales, is a series of stories about life in a small town. Many of his other early works are not traditional novels; they are more accurately described as vignettes and travel notes that are at least semi-autobiographical. In 1910, a year after Provinciales appeared, Giraudoux joined the French Foreign Service. He was a sergeant during World War I and was wounded in the Battle of the Marne in 1914. He wrote about his wartime experience in Lectures pour une ombre. Instead of emphasizing grizzly battle details, however, the book offers lyrical language.
In 1917, the foreign service assigned Giraudoux to a military-cultural mission that took him to Harvard University. He wrote about his adventures in America in Arnica America. The same year, Simon le pathétique was published. Though lacking a strong plot, it is considered his first true novel. Through protagonist Simon, who becomes aware of various parts of his personality (for example, Simon “the Tender” and Simon “the Unstable”), the book explores how people cope with their flaws.
Suzanne et le Pacifique “marks a clear turning point in the novelist’s development,” Will L. McLendon wrote in the Dictionary’ of Literary Biography. “Here for the first time, he embarks on the creation of a fantasy world of attitudes that will in some measure compensate for life’s disappointments and imperfections, which he was finding more and more intolerable as he advanced in his career and social contacts.” Protagonist Suzanne becomes stranded on a Pacific island following a shipwreck. Suzanne convinces herself she is not really isolated from others. She has, in fact, meticulous daydreams of rescue plans taking place in her homeland.
Giraudoux’s next novel, Siegfried et le Limousin, is notable not only because it won the Prix Balzac but also because it has a more traditional plot. The story features a French soldier who suffers from amnesia and gradually acclimates into German society. He tries to unite the German and French cultures but fails. He learns of his true identity and goes home. An adaptation of the novel became Giraudoux’s first work for the stage in 1928.
The playwright soon began a collaboration with Louis Jouvet, a popular and acclaimed actor and director who gave him constructive criticism and helped establish his theatrical career. Giraudoux’s whimsical comedy, Amphitryon 38, and Intermezzo, of the same style, both explore Giraudoux’s primary theme: humanity’s search for a pure and ideal life. Characters pursue such a life but, in the end, come to terms with reality. Giraudoux also became known for his irony and his wry dialog.
The theme resurfaces in La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu. Set in Troy just before the Trojan War, the play focuses on the pacifist Hector’s efforts to persuade Paris, Helen, and Ulysses to avoid battle. Besides classical literature, Giraudoux based some of his plays, such as Judith and Sodome et Gomorrhe, on biblical stories. Ondine, set in medieval Germany, features a water sprite who tries to understand the world of humans. Although many Giraudoux plays are set in the past, his concerns were contemporary. The discussions, for example, between Hector and Ulysses in La Guerre de Troie parallel pre-World War II summit meetings. One of Giraudoux’s most popular plays, La Folle de Chaillot, involves an eccentric woman who schemes to rid the world of evil profiteers.
Even after his success as a playwright, Giraudoux continued writing novels, most set in places he had visited. He served as a juror in awarding the Prix Blumenthal.
In politics Giraudoux was affiliated with the Radical Party, served in the cabinet of Édouard Herriot in 1932, and was appointed as Minister of Information by Édouard Daladier in 1939.
Jean Giraudoux was a member of the Urban League of Paris.
Jean Giraudoux married Suzanne Boland in 1918. They had a child - Jean-Pierre.