Eugène de Lamerlière explained

Eugène de Lamerlière, full name Hugues-Marie Humbert Bocon de La Merlière, (5 January 1797 in Saint-Marcellin, Isère – c. 1841 in Blida, Algeria) was a French writer and playwright.

Biography

Born into a family of the nobility of the Dauphiné of which he was the last representative, he studied law at Grenoble, then joined the army in 1812. From 1814 to 1817 he was part of the military house of Louis XVIII[1]

In 1819, he moved to Paris and became a friend of Charles Nodier who introduced him into the literary circles. He made his debut in literature in 1821 with a sentimental novel, Souvenirs de madame Jenny L..

The success he obtained with some of his plays performed in Paris allowed him to establish a dramatic performance center in Lyon (1824). He presented there some fifty plays (drama, comedy and vaudeville), very few of which have been published.

In 1832, he founded the literary journal Le Papillon which he sold a few months later to . In 1836, he bought the newspaper Le Commerce of which he was editor until 1840.

In 1841, he settled in Algeria at Blida. No trace of him is found after that date [2]

Works

Some of his plays were given in Lyon and Paris (Théâtre des Variétés), most of them now completely forgotten.

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Which in consideration to his young age is considered suspicious by biographers. The source of this saying comes from an article published in L'Entr'acte Lyonnais 28 April 1838.
  2. Vial et Mariéton, p.67 (see bibliography)