Pierre Michon

Pierre Michon
Pierre Michon
Born	28 March 1945 (age 79); Châtelus-le-Marcheix, Creuse, France
Nationality	French
Genre	Fiction
Notable awards	International Nonino Prize (2017); Franz Kafka Prize (2019);
Spouse	Yaël Pachet

Pierre Michon (born 28 March 1945 in Châtelus-le-Marcheix, Creuse) is a French writer. His first novel, Small Lives (1984), is widely regarded as a genuine masterpiece in contemporary French literature.^[1] He has won several prizes for Small Lives and for The Origin of the World (1996) as well as for his body of work. His novels and stories have been translated into German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Polish, Serbian, Czech, Norwegian, Estonian, Japanese and English. He won the 2017 International Nonino Prize in Italy.

With an oeuvre consisting of a stunning confessional novel—Vies minuscules (1984)—and a series of Plutarch-like "lives" devoted to famous artists and poets, Michon commands respect as a sensitive author and gifted stylist who seeks to comprehend how we can make sense out of the irrepressible impulses and unavoidable failures that fill our lives. Whether he is charting the misfortunes of the lowly, portraying his own difficult rise from rural poverty and a broken family to the completion of his first book, or plunging into the destinies of Watteau, Goya, Rimbaud, or Van Gogh, Michon poignantly captures the essence of the compelling courses our lives take.^[2]

Works

1984: Small Lives (Vies minuscules).
- Translated by Jody Gladding and Elizabeth Deshays for Archipelago Books, 2008.
1988: Life of Joseph Roulin (Vie de Joseph Roulin).
- Translated by Wyatt Mason for Mercury House and included in Masters and Servants, 1997.
1997: L'empereur d'Occident.
1990: Masters and Servants (Maîtres et serviteurs).
- Translated by Wyatt Mason for Mercury House, 1997.
1991: Rimbaud the Son (Rimbaud le fils).^[3]
- Translated by Jody Gladding and Elizabeth Deshays for Yale University Press, 2013.
1996: The Origin of the World (La Grande Beune).
- Translated by Wyatt Mason for Mercury House, 2002.
1996: The King of the Wood (Le roi du bois).
- Translated by Wyatt Mason for Mercury House and included in Masters and Servants, 1997.
1997: Trois auteurs.
1997: Winter Mythologies (Mythologies d'hiver).
- Translated by Ann Jefferson for Yale University Press, 2017.
2002: Abbots (Abbés).
- Translated by Ann Jefferson for Yale University Press, 2017.
2002: Corps du roi.
2007: Le roi vient quand il veut : propos sur la littérature.
2009: The Eleven (Les Onze).
- Translated by Jody Gladding and Elizabeth Deshays for Archipelago Books, 2013.

Awards

References

^ Le Monde concluded its review with "this beautiful, shuddering text, written with exact mastery, tends towards appeasement. The writing, touched by grace, gives substance to fading souls: that's justification, if any were needed. It consoles us for the indecency of life, which imposes the painful feeling of being too much, of having done nothing for it, and of having to apologise for it."
^ Taylor, John (31 December 2011). "Of Dignity and Destiny (Pierre Michon)". Paths to Contemporary French Literature. Vol. 1. Transaction Publishers. pp. 82–86. ISBN 978-1-4128-3054-6. (quote from p. 82)
^ Magedera, Ian H. (September 2014). "Pierre Michon's biographical fiction (about Rimbaud)". Outsider Biographies: Savage, de Sade, Wainewright, Ned Kelly, Billy the Kid, Rimbaud and Genet: Base Crime and High Art in Biography and Bio-Fiction, 1744-2000. Rodopi. pp. 239–250. ISBN 978-94-012-1143-7.

External links

Pierre Michon at publisher's site (in French)
Pierre Michon at remue.net (in French)
Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info) (in French)
Pierre Michon at Mercury House (English translations)

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[1] Le Monde concluded its review with "this beautiful, shuddering text, written with exact mastery, tends towards appeasement. The writing, touched by grace, gives substance to fading souls: that's justification, if any were needed. It consoles us for the indecency of life, which imposes the painful feeling of being too much, of having done nothing for it, and of having to apologise for it."

[2] Taylor, John (31 December 2011). "Of Dignity and Destiny (Pierre Michon)". Paths to Contemporary French Literature. Vol. 1. Transaction Publishers. pp. 82–86. ISBN 978-1-4128-3054-6. (quote from p. 82)

[3] Magedera, Ian H. (September 2014). "Pierre Michon's biographical fiction (about Rimbaud)". Outsider Biographies: Savage, de Sade, Wainewright, Ned Kelly, Billy the Kid, Rimbaud and Genet: Base Crime and High Art in Biography and Bio-Fiction, 1744-2000. Rodopi. pp. 239–250. ISBN 978-94-012-1143-7.

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[3]

v t e Laureates of the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française
1915–1925	1915 Paul Acker 1916 Louis de Blois [fr] 1917 Charles Géniaux [fr] 1918 Camille Mayran [fr] 1919 Pierre Benoit 1920 André Corthis 1921 Pierre Villetard [fr] 1922 Francis Carco 1923 Alphonse de Châteaubriant 1924 Émile Henriot 1925 François Duhourcau
1926–1950	1926 François Mauriac 1927 Joseph Kessel 1928 Jean Balde [fr] 1929 André Demaison [fr] 1930 Jacques de Lacretelle 1931 Henri Pourrat 1932 Jacques Chardonne 1933 Roger Chauviré 1934 Paule Régnier 1935 Albert Touchard 1936 Georges Bernanos 1937 Guy de Pourtalès 1938 Jean de La Varende 1939 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1940 Édouard Peisson [fr] 1941 Robert Bourget-Pailleron 1942 Jean Blanzat 1943 Joseph-Henri Louwyck [fr] 1944 Pierre Lagarde [fr] 1945 Marc Blancpain [fr] 1946 Jean Orieux [fr] 1947 Philippe Hériat 1948 Yves Gandon [fr] 1949 Yvonne Pagniez 1950 Joseph Jolinon
1951–1975	1951 Bernard Barbey [fr] 1952 Henri Castillou [fr] 1953 Jean Hougron 1954 Pierre Moinot / Paul Mousset [fr] 1955 Michel de Saint Pierre [fr] 1956 Paul Guth 1957 Jacques de Bourbon Busset 1958 Henri Queffélec 1959 Gabriel d'Aubarède 1960 Christian Murciaux [fr] 1961 Phạm Văn Ký [fr; vi] 1962 Michel Mohrt 1963 Robert Margerit 1964 Michel Droit 1965 Jean Husson [fr] 1966 François Nourissier 1967 Michel Tournier 1968 Albert Cohen 1969 Pierre Moustiers 1970 Bertrand Poirot-Delpech 1971 Jean d'Ormesson 1972 Patrick Modiano 1973 Michel Déon 1974 Kléber Haedens 1975
1976–2000	1976 Pierre Schoendoerffer 1977 Camille Bourniquel 1978 Pascal Jardin 1979 Henri Coulonges 1980 Louis Gardel 1981 Jean Raspail 1982 Vladimir Volkoff 1983 Liliane Guignabodet [fr] 1984 Jacques-Francis Rolland [fr] 1985 Patrick Besson 1986 Pierre-Jean Rémy 1987 Frédérique Hébrard 1988 François-Olivier Rousseau 1989 Geneviève Dormann 1990 Paule Constant 1991 François Sureau 1992 Franz-Olivier Giesbert 1993 Philippe Beaussant 1994 Frédéric Vitoux 1995 Alphonse Boudard 1996 Calixthe Beyala 1997 Patrick Rambaud 1998 Anne Wiazemsky 1999 François Taillandier / Amélie Nothomb 2000 Pascal Quignard
2001–present	2001 Éric Neuhoff 2002 Marie Ferranti 2003 Jean-Noël Pancrazi 2004 Bernard du Boucheron 2005 Henriette Jelinek [fr] 2006 Jonathan Littell 2007 Vassilis Alexakis 2008 Marc Bressant [fr] 2009 Pierre Michon 2010 Éric Faye [fr] 2011 Sorj Chalandon 2012 Joël Dicker 2013 Christophe Ono-dit-Biot [fr] 2014 Adrien Bosc [fr] 2015 Hédi Kaddour / Boualem Sansal 2016 Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre 2017 Daniel Rondeau 2018 Camille Pascal 2019 Laurent Binet 2020 Étienne de Montety 2021 François-Henri Désérable 2022 Giuliano da Empoli

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