Louis Pergaud

Last updated • 5 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Louis Pergaud
Louis Pergaud.jpg
Louis Pergaud
Born(1882-01-22)22 January 1882
Belmont, Doubs, France
Died8 April 1915(1915-04-08) (aged 33)
Marchéville-en-Woëvre, France

Louis Pergaud (French pronunciation: [lwipɛʁɡo] ; 22 January 1882 – 8 April 1915) was a French novelist, war poet, and soldier, whose principal works were known as "Animal Stories" due to his featuring animals of the Franche-Comté in lead roles. His most notable work was the novel La Guerre des boutons (1912) (English: The War of the Buttons). It has been reprinted more than 30 times, and is included on the French high-school curriculum. [1]

Contents

A schoolteacher by profession, Pergaud came into conflict with Roman Catholic authorities over the implementation of the Third French Republic's separation of Church and State enacted in 1905. In 1907 Pergaud chose to move to Paris to pursue his literary career. Pergaud's prose works are often considered to reflect the influences of Realist, Decadent and Symbolist movements. He was killed at age 33 in April 1915, by French fire while in a field hospital behind German lines; he was serving with the French Army near Marchéville-en-Woëvre during the First World War.

The War of the Buttons has been adapted five times as a film, four times in French productions and once in an Irish one. It was adapted most recently in France in two films released the same week in September 2011. Both were set during the twentieth century.

Early life

Pergaud was born on 22 January 1882, in Belmont, Doubs. Son of a republican schoolmaster, Louis was encouraged to excel in his studies. His academic successes earned him scholarships permitting him to continue school with the intention of following in his father's footsteps. In 1901 he completed his studies at the École Normale in Besançon.

Marriage and family

After a year of teaching and a year of military service, in 1903, Pergaud married his first wife. They lived in Durnes, where he was teaching again. After moving to Landresse for a time, Pergaud separated from his wife in 1907 and moved to Paris.

They later divorced and he married a second time.

Career

Louis Pergaud accepted his first teaching position in Durnes. After a year, he was called to complete a year of military service with the 35th infantry regiment stationed in Belfort. According to Ian Higgins, "National service in 1902-03 did nothing to cure him of his anti-militarism." [2]

In the fall of 1903, Pergaud returned to his post in Durne.

In 1905 Pergaud transferred with his wife to Landresse. Initially, life in this small, isolated village was difficult.

According to Ian Higgins, "The predominantly Catholic villagers of Landresse were hostile to their local teacher, by definition a servant of the Republic, and who never went to Mass. Feeling cut off in an alien environment, tired of constantly battling against suspicion, ill-feeling, innuendo, and accusation, Pergaud resigned his post and went to Paris to work in an office." [3]

In 1907, Pergaud left Landresse and his wife, for Paris, where he joined Leon Deubel, a longtime friend and inspiration. In Paris, Pergaud suffered through extreme poverty, even as he worked as a clerk and then as a schoolteacher, in an effort to realize his dream of literary success.

Works

His earliest works were collections of poetry that were published at his own expense through a literary review called Le Beffroi. The first collection, entitled L'Aube, appeared in 1904. The second, L'Herbe d'Avril, was published in 1908. In 1910 Mercure de France published a collection of Pergaud's short stories under the title De Goupil à Margot. This work was awarded the prestigious Prix Goncourt, which led to some national recognition.

A second collection of short stories about animals, La Revanche du corbeau appeared in 1911. His novel, La Guerre des boutons, described below, was published in 1912. In 1913 Pergaud published the novel, Le Roman de Miraut, in which an animal had the leading role. He wrote numerous other short stories about the people and animals of his native Franche-Comté, which would be published posthumously.

In 1912 La Guerre des boutons was published, a tale of a play-war between the small boys of two neighbouring villages. Those "killed" would have their buttons removed as trophies before being sent home. The novel begins humorously, but becomes more sinister as the distinctions between play and real violence among the boys become blurred. It has been described as having a "touch of Lord of the Flies " in tone, although the book substantially pre-dates that novel by William Golding. Pergaud's works remain popular in France; La Guerre des boutons has been reprinted more than thirty times. It is included in the French high school curriculum for literature. [1]

World War I

Pergaud had tried to register as a pacifist, but he was conscripted into the French Army at the outbreak of the First World War. He had been placed in the active reserve following his national service twelve years before. In this capacity he served in the Battle of Lorraine during the German invasion of France, and subsequently on the Western Front.

On 7 April 1915, Pergaud's regiment attacked the Imperial German Army's trenches near Fresnes-en-Woëvre, during which Pergaud was shot and wounded. He fell into barbed wire, where he became trapped. Some hours later, German soldiers rescued him and other wounded, taking the French soldiers to a temporary field hospital behind German lines. On the morning of 8 April, Pergaud and other POWs were killed by friendly fire from a French artillery barrage that destroyed the hospital.

Adaptations of his works

La Guerre des boutons has been developed as a film five times:

Legacy and honors

A Paris society, Les Amis de Louis Pergaud, is devoted to study of him and his works.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Drieu La Rochelle</span> French writer (1893–1945)

Pierre Eugène Drieu La Rochelle was a French writer of novels, short stories, and political essays. He was born, lived and died in Paris. Drieu La Rochelle became a proponent of French fascism in the 1930s, and was a well-known collaborationist during the German occupation. He is best known for his books Le Feu Follet and Gilles.

Gallimard Jeunesse is a French publisher of children's books. It is a subsidiary of Éditions Gallimard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Ferdinand Ramuz</span> Swiss writer

Charles Ferdinand Ramuz was a French-speaking Swiss writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippe Soupault</span> French writer (1897–1990)

Philippe Soupault was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He was active in Dadaism and later was instrumental in founding the Surrealist movement with André Breton. Soupault initiated the periodical Littérature together with writers Breton and Louis Aragon in Paris in 1919, which, for many, marks the beginnings of Surrealism. The first book of automatic writing, Les Champs magnétiques (1920), was co-authored by Soupault and Breton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yves Robert</span> French director (1920-2002)

Yves Robert was a French actor, screenwriter, director, and producer.

<i>War of the Buttons</i> (1994 film) 1994 Irish film

War of the Buttons is a 1994 comedy-drama adventure film directed by John Roberts. It was written by Colin Welland and based on the French novel La Guerre des boutons, by Louis Pergaud. The story, about two rival boys' gangs in Ireland, the Ballys and the Carricks, is set in County Cork, where it was filmed on location.

The War of the Buttons or La Guerre des boutons may refer to:

<i>War of the Buttons</i> (1962 film) 1962 French film

La Guerre des boutons or War of the Buttons is a 1962 French film directed by Yves Robert. War of the Buttons is about two rival kid gangs whose playful combats escalate into violence. The title derives from the buttons that are cut off from the rival team's clothes as combat trophies. The film is based on La Guerre des boutons, a novel by Louis Pergaud (1882–1915), who was killed in action in World War I and whose works portray a fervent anti-militarism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Landresse</span> Commune in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France

Landresse is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France.

François Boyer was a French screenwriter. He achieved considerable success with his first attempt at screenwriting, Forbidden Games (1952). Initially, he found no studio interested in his work, so he redesigned the screenplay as a novel and published it in 1947 under the title The Secret Game. Although the novel achieved little or no success in its native country, it became a huge commercial success in America. All of a sudden, Boyer's novel was a hot property, so director René Clément, in conjunction with two writers Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost, helped turn it into a screenplay. While Boyer receives story credit for the film, little is known of how much of his own screenplay made it to the screen. The film was a huge international success, and won an Honorary Oscar for the best foreign language film of its year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean de La Hire</span> French author

Jean de La Hire was a prolific French author of numerous popular adventure, science fiction and romance novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Savignac</span>

Raymond Savignac, often just abbreviated to "Savignac", was a French graphic artist famous for his commercial posters. His work is distinguished by a humorous simplicity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christophe Barratier</span> French film producer, director, screenwriter and lyricist

Christophe Barratier is a French film producer, director and screenwriter, and lyricist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jules Roy</span> French writer

Jules Roy was a French writer. "Prolific and polemical" Roy, born an Algerian pied noir and sent to a Roman Catholic seminary, used his experiences in the French colony and during his service in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War as inspiration for a number of his works. He began writing in 1946, while still serving in the military, and continued to publish fiction and historical works after his resignation in 1953 in protest of the First Indochina War. He was an outspoken critic of French colonialism and the Algerian War of Independence and later civil war, as well as a strongly religious man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yann Samuell</span> French film director and screenwriter (born 1975)

Yann Samuell is a French film director and screenwriter.

Louis Calaferte was an Italian-born French naturalized novelist. He was born in Turin, Italy, but emigrated to France with his parents when he was very young, settling in a Lyon suburb where he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence. In 1947, he set out for Paris to pursue his dream of becoming an actor, where he found a love for writing instead. Over the span of his career, he published a variety of works, including “a fantastic profusion of novels, short stories, essays, plays, poems and erotica of a particularly distinguished vulgarity that created genuine excitement in the most blase connoisseur”. This writing style resulted in a variety of literary prizes, including the Prix de l’Academie Française for Ebauche d’un autoportrait in 1983; for a collection of poems, Londoniennes in 1985; and for a collection of short stories, Promenades dans un parc in 1987. Calaferte died in Dijon, France on 2 May 1994.

<i>War of the Buttons</i> (2011 Christophe Barratier film) 2011 French film

War of the Buttons is a 2011 French film directed by Christophe Barratier.

<i>War of the Buttons</i> (novel) 1912 book by Louis Pergaud

La Guerre des boutons (Fr.) or The War of the Buttons, a novel of my twelfth year is a French novel written by Louis Pergaud, from the French region of Franche-Comté, and published in 1912. It describes the "war" between two gangs from rival villages, Longeverne and Velrans, in the countryside of Franche-Comté. The author got his inspiration from the village of Landresse, where he taught for two years. The title comes from the goal of the war, to get as many buttons as possible from the opposing side by cutting them off shirts and trousers. For the most part, the story is told from the point of view of the children from Longeverne.

Charles Derennes was a French novelist, essayist and poet, the winner of the Prix Femina in 1924.

<i>War of the Buttons</i> (2011 Yann Samuell film) 2011 French film

War of the Buttons is a 2011 French adventure film directed by Yann Samuell. It is one of two films based on the eponymous novel by Louis Pergaud released in 2011.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Tobias Grey, "Waging War(s) of the Buttons in France", Wall Street Journal, 15 September 2011, accessed 2 November 2012
  2. Tim Cross (1988), The Lost Voices of World War I, page 283.
  3. Tim Cross (1988), The Lost Voices of World War I, page 283.

(in French)