Eugène Le Roy

Eugène Le Roy (; 29 November 1836, Hautefort – 6 May 1907, Montignac, Dordogne) was a French author.

Early life

Eugène Le Roy was born in 1836 in Hautefort, a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. His parents were servants to Ange Hyacinthe Maxence de Damas de Cormaillon, Baron de Damas, a former minister who owned the Château de Hautefort. The circumstances there forced them to leave Le Roy with a nurse at a peasant's house in the neighborhood. His childhood memories strongly influenced his future work, which featured many storylines with abandoned children. This was an undeniable social reality of the time that later became one of the clichés of the era's popular romances.

From 1841 to 1847, Le Roy studied at a rural school in Hautefort at a time when most children remained illiterate. He moved to Périgueux in 1848 for further studies at École des Frères. One prominent memory of his childhood was the planting of a tree of freedom (''Arbre de la liberté'') to celebrate advent in the Second Republic.

Career

In 1851, he refused to join a seminary and became a grocer in Paris. He joined the socialists, as described in his novel ''Le Moulin du Frau'', and assisted with the establishment of the Second Empire. In 1855, he enlisted in the 4th regiment of the French cavalry and participated in military campaigns in Algeria and Italy. He served for 5 years, but then resigned after being demoted in rank for insubordination.

In 1860, after passing the entry exam for the civil service, he became an assistant tax collector in Périgueux. During the Franco-German War of 1870, he joined the francs-tireurs, an irregular military force deployed by France during the early stages of war. Following the final French defeat in 1871, he rejoined the tax collection service in Montignac. He subsequently fell very ill and spent the best part of a year recovering from his illness.

In 1877, Le Roy applied for admission to the Masonic lodge ''Les Amis Persévérants et l'Étoile de Vesone Réunis'' in eastern Périgueux, but the Prefect of Dordogne was ordered by the Minister of the Interior, Oscar Bardi de Fourtou, to close some Masonic Lodges, including the one Le Roy had joined. Le Roy was reinstated as a tax collector during 1878 after Mac Mahon lost the elections of October 1877.

He retired to Montignac at the beginning of the 20th century. He was offered the Légion d'honneur in 1904, however, he declined it .

Writing

On 14 June 1877, Le Roy married his mistress Marie Peyronnet, with whom he already had a three-year-old son, in a civil ceremony, His non-conformity and his republicanism resulted in his dismissal, along with (and for the same reason) thousands of other government officials, by the government of Mac-Mahon. Soon after his dismissal, he began to write abundantly.

Beginning in 1878, Eugène Le Roy wrote many republican and anti-clerical articles for local newspapers, notably ''Le Réveil de la Dordogne''. As an advocate of the separation of Church and State, he wrote in the political and philosophical vein of radical Freemasonry during the latter half of the nineteenth century. His first novel ''Le Moulin du Frau'' was published in 1890 and was politically biased in favour of radicalism. He then published ''Traditions et Révolutions en Périgord pendant la seconde moitié du XIX^e siècle''.

From 1891 to 1901, Eugène Le Roy wrote a 1086 page manuscript entitled ''Études critiques sur le christianisme''. In 1899, he published the novel Jacquou le Croquant, which tells the story of a peasant revolt against the social injustices of his time, from the restoration era until the end of the nineteenth century. This was made into a television series in 1969.

Selected works

* ''Le Moulin de Frau'' (1891), paru en feuilleton dans ''L'Avenir de la Dordogne'' du 2 avril au 21 août 1891 puis chez Fasquelle en 1905
1910 ed.
* ''Jacquou le Croquant ''(1899), paru en feuilleton dans la ''Revue de Paris'' du 15 mars au 15 mai 1899 puis chez Calmann-Lévy

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