Alphonse Daudet - French writer and playwright
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Louis Marie Alphonse Daudet is a French novelist, playwright, the author of vivid stories from the life of Provence, and the Creator of the iconic image of the romantic and braggart Tartarin of Tarascon.
Alphonse Daudet was born on May 13, 1840, in the Provencal city of Nimes. He received school education in Lyon. In his youth, he tried to work as a school teacher but soon left this occupation. At the age of seventeen moved to Paris with his older brother to make a living as a journalist. The autobiographical novel "Little What’s-His-Name" tells about this period of his life. However, the writer's fame came earlier with the publication of the prose collection "Letters from My Windmil".
The most famous play of Alphonse Daudet is a dramatic adaptation of his own story "The Girl from Arles"; the music of which was written by J. Bizet who contributed to the considerable success of this play. But the main thing in Daudet's works is prose. There are two main directions: one is distinguished by humor, irony, and brightness of imagination. This direction includes the Provencal "Letters from My Windmill" and "Tartarena of Tarascon". These are the most original and famous works. Another direction of A. Daudet's works is characterized by the naturalistic accuracy of observations and extreme realism. This group mostly includes large realistic novels without showing much imagination, where he writes off characters from real persons, and the actions often take place in Paris
