- Eugène Brieux
Eugène Brieux (
January 19 ,1858 -December 6 ,1932 ), Frenchdramatist , was born inParis of poor parents.A one-act play, "Bernard Palissy", written in collaboration with M. Gaston Salandri, was produced in 1879, but he had to wait eleven years before he obtained another hearing, his "Ménage d'artistes" being produced by Antoine at the Théâtre Libre in 1890.
His plays are essentially didactic, being aimed at some weakness or iniquity of the social system. "Blanchette" (1892) pointed out the civic results of
education of girls of the working classes; "Monsieur de Réboval" (1892) was directed againstpharisaism ; "L'Engrenage" (1894) against corruption in politics; "Les Bienfaiteurs" (1896) against the frivolity of fashionable charity; and "L'Évasion" (1896) satirized an indiscriminate belief in the doctrine ofheredity ."Les trois filles de M. Dupont " (1897) is a powerful, somewhat brutal, study of the miseries imposed on poor middle-class girls by the French system of
dowry ; "Le Résultat des courses" (1898) shows the evil results of betting among the Parisian workmen; "La Robe rouge" (1900) was directed against the injustices of the law; "Les Remplaçantes" (1901) against the practice of putting children out to nurse."Les Avariés" (1901), forbidden by the censor, on account of its medical details, was read privately by the author at the Théâtre Antoine; and "Petite amie" (1902) describes the life of a Parisian shop-girl.
Later plays are "La Couvée" (1903, acted privately at Rouen in 1893), "Maternité" (1904), "La Déserteuse" (1904), in collaboration with M.
Jean Sigaux , and "Les Hannetons", a comedy in three acts (1906).Eugène Brieux died in 1932 and was interred in the
Cimetière du Grand Jas inCannes on theFrench Riviera .External links
*gutenberg author | id=Eugene_Brieux | name=Eugene Brieux
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