Occupation Playwright, journalist | Books Le Baromètre | |
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Full Name Pierre-Charles-Joseph-Auguste Lefranc Born 2 February 1814 Bussières (Saône-et-Loire) Died 15 December 1878, Suresnes, France Similar Marc Michel, Eugène Marin Labiche, Georges Feydeau | ||
Pierre-Charles-Joseph-Auguste Lefranc (2 February 1814 – 15 December 1878) was a 19th-century French playwright and journalist.
Biography
After secondary studies in Mâcon, he moved to Paris in order to attend law school. There he met Eugène Labiche and Marc-Michel. He obtained his license and registered with the Bar but did not practice law for long, becoming more interested in writing. He worked with small newspapers and founded l'Audience and La Chaire catholique. But his passion was theater.
Through his cousin Eugène Scribe, who then dominated the French playwriting scene, he received helpful advice and support from theatre directors. His first play, a comédie en vaudevilles in one act titled Une femme tombée du ciel, premiered in 1836 at the Théâtre du Panthéon. In 1838, Labiche, Lefranc and Marc-Michel founded the "Paul Dandré Dramatic Society", a collective literary pseudonym for the production of comedies and dramas. A contract formally linked the three theatrical newcomers, who agreed to write only for their new partnership. While the experience lasted only two years, it ended amicably. Labiche, in a letter to Nadar, however, blamed the dissolution on Lefranc's "laziness and inaccuracy".
Over the next two decades, Lefranc wrote fifty more comedies, mostly with Labiche (the last, L'Avocat d'un Grec, in 1859).. Except for Embrassons-nous, Folleville! (1850), which was refashioned into an opéra-comique with music by Avelino Valenti and successfully performed at the second Salle Favart in 1879, none of his plays is considered significant, and many were not even published. He then changed careers, becoming a banker by taking over the Caisse du Crédit public A. Lefranc and Cie.
From 8 July 1867 until mid 1868 Lefranc was a co-director of the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, along with Julien-Joseph-Henry Dupontavisse. During their tenure the theatre temporarily presented comédies en vaudevilles.
He died on 15 December 1878 in his country house in Suresnes.