MARGUERITTE

margueritte, paul (1860- ) and victor (1866- ), french novelists, both born in algeria, were the sons of general jean auguste marguerite (1823-1870), who after an honourable career in algeria was mortally wounded in the great cavalry charge at sedan, and died in belgium, on the 6th of september 1870. an account of his life was published by paul marguerite as _mon pere_ (1884; enlarged ed., 1897). the names of the two brothers are generally associated, on account of their collaboration. paul marguerite, who has given a picture of his home in algiers in _le jardin du passe_ (1895), was sent to the military school of la fleche for the sons of officers, and became in 1880 clerk to the minister of public instruction. he designed two pantomimes, _pierrot assassin de sa femme_ (theatre libre, 1882), and _colombine pardonnee_ (cercle funambulesque, 1888), in which the traditional pierrot, played by margueritte himself, became a nervous, tragic creature. he resigned his clerkship in 1889 to devote himself entirely to literature, producing in rapid succession a series of novels, among which were _tous quatre_ (1885), _la confession posthume_ (1886), _maison ouverte_ (1887), _pascal gefosse_ (1887), _jours d'epreuve_ (1889), _amants_ (1890), _la force des choses_ (1891), _sur le retour_ (1892), _la tourmente_ (1893), _ma grande_ (1892), _ame d'enfant_ (1894) and _l'eau qui dort_ (1896). paul margueritte had begun as a realistic novelist, but he was one of the five writers who signed a manifesto against zola's _la terre_, and he made his reputation by delicate, sober studies of the by-ways of sentiment. his brother victor entered his father's regiment, the 1st chasseurs d'afrique, in 1888, and served in the army until 1896, when he resigned his commission. he was already known by some volumes of poetry, and by a translation from calderon (_la double meprise_, played at the odeon, 1898) when he began to collaborate with his brother. from the time of this collaboration paul margueritte's work gained in colour and force. among the books written in common by the brothers, the most famous is the series known under the collective title, _une epoque_, dealing with the events of 1870-1871, and including the novels _le desastre_ (1898), _les troncons du glaive_ (1900), _les braves gens_ (1901), _la commune_ (1904). they also collaborated in an _histoire de la guerre de 1870-1877_ (1903). these books were founded on a mass of documentary and verbal information, amassed with great care and arranged with admirable art; the authors are historians rather than novelists. the disasters and humiliations of the campaigns are faithfully described, but are traced to defects of organization and leadership; while the courage and patriotism of the army itself is made the basis of an assured confidence in the destinies of france. _la commune_ is a bold indictment of the methods adopted by the victorious party. the novelists also attacked the laws governing marriage and divorce and the abuses entailed by the dowry demanded from the bride, in pamphlets and in the novels, _femmes nouvelles_ (1899), _les deux vies_ (1902), and _le prisme_ (1905). their literary partnership was dissolved in 1907. paul marguerite was one of the original members of the academie de goncourt. see _p. et v. margueritte_ (1905) by e. pilon, in the series of _celebrites d'aujourd'hui_, and a. france, _la vie litteraire_ (4th series, 1892).