François Billetdoux (7 September 1927 – 26 November 1991) was a French dramatic author and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

Biography

His works describe the world with a fierce humor of a somewhat

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

style, which sometimes turns into

black humor Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

. Billetdoux was born in and died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He was President of the

Société des gens de lettres The Société des gens de lettres de France (SGDLF; ; ) is a writers' association founded in 1838 by the notable French authors George Sand, Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, and Alexandre Dumas. It is a private association recognised in France as ...

in 1972. His daughter,

Raphaële Billetdoux Raphaële Billetdoux (born 28 February 1951 in Paris) is a French novelist. Biography She is the daughter of François Billetdoux, and was a companion of the political journalist Paul Guilbert (died July 2002). She was an assistant editor on fea ...

is also a writer. In 1989 he was awarded the Grand Prix du Théâtre de l’Académie Française.

Plays

*'' À la nuit la nuit'' (1955) **''Night in the night'', Jelm Mountain Publishers, 1980, * ''Le comportement des époux Bredburry'' (1955) * Tchin-Tchin (1959) translated into English by Willis Hall 1960 retitled Chin-Chin * ''Va donc chez Thorpe'' (1961) * ''Comment va le monde, Môssieu ? Il tourne, Môssieu'' (1964) * ''Il faut passer par les nuages'' (1966) * ''Silence, l'arbre remue encore'' (1967) * ''Femmes Parallèles'' (1970) * ''Rintru pa trou tar, hin'' (1971) * ''Les Veuves'' (1972) * ''La Nostalgie, camarade'' (1974) * ''Ai-je dit que je suis bossu'' (1980) * ''Réveille-toi, Philadelphie'' (1988)

Novels

* ''L'Animal'' (1955) * ''Royal garden blues'' (1957) * ''Brouillon d'un bourgeois'' (1961) (translated into English by Ralph Manheim as "A Man and His Master," published by Secker & Warburg in 1963)

References

20th-century French non-fiction writers 20th-century French male writers 1927 births 1991 deaths Lycée Condorcet alumni University of Paris alumni Institut des hautes études cinématographiques alumni {{France-playwright-stub