Henri François Becque

Background

Becque was born April 9, 1837, in Paris.

Education

After studying there at the Lycée Condorcet, he became a clerk with a railway company and later with a stock exchange firm.

Career

His dramatic career began with the comedy L'Enfant prodigue (1867); his second play, Michel Pauper, was performed in 1870. Becque's next and chief work was Les Corbeaux, the masterpiece of the naturalistic theater. Written in 1876-1877, it was finally produced at the Comédie Française in 1882, but without success. In contrast to almost all post-Elizabethan drama, the action begins immediately, without the usual preparatory scene. There are no artifices of style; the characters speak exactly as they would in real life, using slang and familiar or even incorrect expressions. The play depicts a widow, Madame Vigneron, and her daughters, abandoned, after the death of the head of the family, to the rapacity of unscrupulous lawyers, false friends, and pitiless creditors. Another play, La Parisienne (1885), is a pungent satire on an unfaithful wife. Becque's views of society were deeply pessimistic, and all his plays appear to be concerned chiefly with odious characters. He died in Paris on May 12, 1899.

Works

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• book

  • The Vultures, the Woman of Paris, the Merry-Go-Round; Three Plays

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • L'enfant prodigue: comédie en quatre actes

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Souvenirs d'un auteur dramatique (French Edition)

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Les Corbeaux (French Edition)

    (Les Corbeaux est un drame cynique, cruel, et remarquablem...)

  • Theatre complet 3 volumes en 1
  • Les polichinelles (French Edition)