Eugène de Mirecourt

Charles Jean-Baptiste Jacquot (19 November 1812 – 13 February 1880),[1] who wrote under the pen name Eugène de Mirecourt, was a French writer and journalist. The main critic of Alexandre Dumas, he contributed novels, short stories and biographies to the French literary life of the second half of the 19th century.

Eugène de Mirecourt
Born	Charles Jean-Baptiste Jacquot 19 November 1812 Mirecourt, Vosges, First French Republic
Died	13 February 1880 (aged 67) Tahiti
Occupation	Novelist Biographer Journalist Satirist
Signature

Life

Born in Mirecourt, Vosges, Jacquot was the son of Nicolas Jacquot and Marie-Joséphine Petit-Jean. He studied for the priesthood at a seminary, but left it to pursue literature. After having worked for some time as a pension master in Chartres,[2] he began working as a journalist, using the pen name Eugène de Mirecourt.[3][4]

After some short stories, he published, together with Leupol, a three-volume work, "la Lorraine" (Nancy, 1839–1840), which gave his name a certain notoriety. It was then that he began to publicize the many collaborations that Alexandre Dumas had used in the series of novels published under that name. In his pamphlet Fabrique de Romans: Maison Alexandre Dumas & Cie, fabrique de romans (1845), Mirecourt denounced the fact that Dumas' work was written by others and thus contributed to the spread of a figurative meaning of the word nègre (ghostwriter in French).[5] Because he used abusive, devaluing and deliberately racist language about Dumas' appearance, smell, morals and "black" nature, the latter filed a complaint. Mirecourt was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine.[6][7]

Mirecourt then published several novels, and wrote a drama with Fournier, Mme de Tencin.[8] His brochure against Alexandre Dumas had inspired him to review celebrities of the time: in 1854, he began the Gallery of Contemporaries, which raised opposition from the press.[9] Among the hundred contemporaries portrayed[10] were Hector Berlioz[11] and George Sand.[12]

After the Gallerie finished in 1857, Mirecourt founded the weekly Les Contemporains. In this serial, each issue contained a biographical article penned in his typically biting style.[9] It resulted in fierce disputes and many trials in which the courts judged him severely. His term Contemporains was used by other journalists.[9]

At the end of his life, he entered the Dominicans of Ploërmel, became a priest, and was sent to teach in Tahiti, where he died at the age of 67.[1]

Works

Works by Mirecourt are held by the French National Library. These include the following:[13]

• Les Contemporains, 100 issues published by Gustave Havard from 1854 to 1858, each containing a satirical biography of celebrities from politics, literature and the arts.[9]
  • Meyerbeer, 1854, Éd. J.-P. Roret & Cie, Paris (in Les Contemporains)
  • Rothschild, 1855
  • Madame Anaïs Ségalas, Paris, G. Havard, 1856
• Confessions de Marion Delorme, 1856[1]
• Mémoires de Ninon de Lenclos, 1857[1]
• La Bourse et les signes du siècle, Paris: E. Dentu and Humbert, 1863, 399 p
• Avant, pendant et après la Terreur, Paris, Dentu, 1866 (reviewed by Zola on 12 April 1866)
• Balzac, Librairie des contemporains, Paris, 1869

See also

• Julienne Bloch

References

1. "Finding Monte Cristo: Alexandre Dumas and the French Atlantic World". Great Books Online. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
2. Necrology published in the Journal de Chartres of 21 March 1880, page 2.
3. Severson, Marilyn S. (2004). Masterpieces of French Literature. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-313-31484-1.
4. Renders, Hans; De Haan, Binne (2014). Theoretical Discussions of Biography: Approaches from History, Microhistory, and Life Writing. BRILL. p. 27. ISBN 978-90-04-27470-9.
5. Maurois, Andre (2018). Alexandre Dumas - A Great Life in Brief. Read Books. pp. 99–100. ISBN 978-1-44-748803-3.
6. Martone, Eric (2018). Finding Monte Cristo: Alexandre Dumas and the French Atlantic World. McFarland. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-47-663339-8.
7. Cf. Sylvain Ledda, Alexandre Dumas, Folio – Éditions Gallimard, 2014, Eugène de Mirecourt; Eugène de Mirecourt, Fabrique de romans. Maison A. Dumas et compagnie, Chez les Marchands de nouveauté, 1845, Eugène de Mirecourt.
8. Marc Jean Louis Marc-Fournier (M.), Eugène de Mirecourt (pseud. van Charles Jean Baptiste Jacquot): Madame de Tencin: drame en quatre actes, précédé de Le chevalier destouches, prologue Michel Lévy Frères, 1846
9. Renders, Hans; De Haan, Binne, eds. (2014). Theoretical Discussions of Biography: Approaches from History, Microhistory, and Life Writing. BRILL. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-9-00-427470-9.
10. Les contemporains / par Eugène de Mirecourt. hathitrust.org
11. Berlioz French National Library
12. George Sand French National Library
13. "Works by Eugéne Mirecourt" (in French). French National Library. Retrieved 9 January 2019.

Sources

• Ferdinand Hoefer: Nouvelle Biographie générale, t. 35, Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1861, p. 660-661.
• Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe : français, historique, géographique, mythologique, bibliographique… T. 17 Suppl. 2, by M. Pierre Larousse (p. 1597)

External links

• Biographie de Eugène de Mirecourt (Eugène Jacquot). Edition 2 / par Th. Deschamps et M. Serpantié (in French) Gallica 1855
• Literature by and about Eugène de Mirecourt in the German National Library catalogue
• Bibliography
• Samson on Gallica