Eugène Dabit

French novelist. Born in the working-class neighborhood of Paris to a carriage driver as his father and a housekeeper as his mother. He finished primary school at the age of 14, and worked in a variety of jobs, including as an apprentice to a hardware store and an electrician. In 1916, he volunteered to fight in World War I, and was demobilized in 1920. He then aspired to be a painter, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he tried to make a living as a writer, publishing his autobiographical work Petit Louis (1926), which chronicled his experiences during the war. He then published Hôtel du Nord (1929), a novel depicting the life of a common man with a variety of occupations who frequented the cheap hotel run by his parents. This novel won him the first Populist Prize, and he quickly became famous as a writer. Encouraged by Gide, Jean Guéhenno (1890-1978) and Roger Martin du Gard, he published many novels and short stories, including "Villa de Oasis" and "The Island" (both 1932), "A Parisian Quarter" (1933), "The Newly Dead Man" (1934) and "The Green Belt" (1935). All of these works had a naturalistic sense of despair and featured poor people as protagonists, but none of them were well received. In 1936, while visiting the former Soviet Union with Gide and others to attend Gorky's funeral, he died of scarlet fever in Sevastopol. "Hotel du Nord" was made into a film by Marcel Carné in 1938 and attracted many audiences.

[Miyoshi Inada]

"Kita Hotel" (translated by Toyoo Iwata) (Shincho Bunko)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

フランスの小説家。パリの下町で運送馬車の御者を父とし、家番を母として生まれる。14歳で初等教育を終え、金物商に徒弟奉公に入ったり、電気技師になったり転々とし、1916年第一次世界大戦に志願兵として出征、20年に復員。その後、画家を志したが成功せず、文筆で身をたてようとし、戦時中の体験をつづった自伝的作品『プチ・ルイ』（1926）を発表、ついで、両親が経営していた安ホテルに出入りする雑多な職業の浮き草のような庶民の姿を描いた小説『北ホテル』Hôtel du Nordを29年に発表し、第1回ポピュリスト賞を受賞、一躍文名をあげた。ジッドやジャン・ゲエノJean Guéhenno（1890―1978）やロジェ・マルタン・デュ・ガールに勇気づけられ、多くの小説や短編『オアジス荘』『島』（ともに1932）、『パリの場末町』（1933）、『死んだばかりの男』（1934）、『緑の地帯』（1935）などを発表した。いずれも自然主義的絶望感の漂う、貧しい人々を主人公とした作品であるが、どれもあまり評判にならなかった。36年ゴーリキーの葬儀に出席するためジッドらと旧ソ連を訪問中、しょうこう熱でセバストポリで客死した。なお『北ホテル』は38年マルセル・カルネが映画化し、多くの観客を集めた。

［稲田三吉］

『岩田豊雄訳『北ホテル』（新潮文庫）』

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