Francisque Sarcey (8 October 1827 – 16 May 1899) was a French

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and dramatic

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

Career

He was born in

Dourdan Dourdan () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France. It is the capital of the historical region of Hurepoix. It is located in the metropolitan area of Paris. Geography Dourdan is located on the river Orge in the western Es ...

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...

'', ''L'Illustration'', ''Le Gaulois'', ''Le XIX^e Siècle'' and other periodicals; but his main interest was dramatic criticism, of which he had his first experience in ''L'Opinion nationale'' in 1859. In 1867 he began to contribute to ''

Le Temps ''Le Temps'' (literally "The Time") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. It is the sole nationwide French-language non-specialised daily newspaper of Switzerland. Since 2021, it has b ...

'' the "''feuilleton''" with which his name was associated till his death. His position as dictator of dramatic criticism was unique. He had the secret of taking the public into his confidence, and his pronouncements upon new plays were accepted as final. He was a masterly judge of

acting Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a broad r ...

and of stage effect; his views as to the drama itself were narrow and indifferent to artistic progress. For example, in 1896, he reviewed the premiere of Alfred Jarry's play ''

Ubu Roi ''Ubu Roi'' (; "Ubu the King" or "King Ubu") is a play by French writer Alfred Jarry, then 23 years old. It was first performed in Paris in 1896, by Aurélien Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre at the Nouveau-Théâtre (today, the Théâtre de P ...

''—a precursor of the Theatre of the Absurd—and called it "a filthy fraud which deserves nothing but the silence of contempt." Such opinions made him a subject of ridicule among the rebellious young artists and writers of Montmartre. Between 1886 and 1893, the writer and humorist

Alphonse Allais Alphonse Allais (20 October 1854 – 28 October 1905) was a French writer, journalist and humorist. Life Allais was born in Honfleur, Calvados (department), Calvados. He died in Paris. Work He is the author of many collections of whimsical writ ...

published a notorious series of newspaper columns under Sarcey's name with titles such as "How I Became an Idiot." Sarcey published several miscellaneous works, of which the most interesting ar
''Le Siège de Paris''
an account compiled from his diary (1871), ''Comédiens et comédiennes'' (1878-1884), ''Souvenirs de jeunesse'' (1884) an
''Souvenirs d'âge mûr''
(1892; Eng. trans., 1893)
''Quarante ans de théâtre''
(1900) is a selection (in 8 volumes) from his dramatic ''Feuilletons'' edited by Adolphe Brisson. He died in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Vegetarianism

Sarcey gave up eating meat in 1893 and described himself as a "moderate vegetarian" (what would now be described as

pescatarian Pescetarianism (; sometimes spelled pescatarianism) is the practice of incorporating seafood into an otherwise vegetarian diet. Pescetarians may or may not consume other animal products such as eggs and dairy products. Approximately 3% of adul ...

). He abstained from meat but ate, butter, cheese, eggs, milk and fish.''The Critic: An Illustrated Monthly Review of Literature and the Arts''
1893.Pike, Nicholas. (1894)
''How to Live and Retain Health and Vigor in Old Age''
''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'' 37 (964): 15408. He argued that the diet gave him great resistance to fatigue and improved his health.

Publications in English translation

*''How I Became an Idiot by Francisque Sarcey (Alphonse Allais)'' Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books: Absurdist Texts & Documents - Interim Edition No. 00, 2013) *''I Am Sarcey by Alphonse Allais'' Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books: 2017)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarcey, Francisque 1827 births 1899 deaths Burials at Montmartre Cemetery École Normale Supérieure alumni 19th-century French journalists French male journalists Members of the Ligue de la patrie française 19th-century French male writers People from Dourdan