Writers through the centuries - 19th Century authors part 5

episode 13

"Our lives are one masked ball."

Gaston Leroux

"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."

Marcel Proust

"In books we never find anything but ourselves. Strangely enough, that always gives us great pleasure, and we say the author is a genius."

Thomas Mann

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well."

Jack London

"Life is too short to read a bad book."

James Joyce

"Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self."

Franz Kafka

Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (1868-1927)

Author of the famous works: “The Phantom of the Opera” and “The Mystery of the Yellow room” has made his definite contribution to the literary world, especially as the second novel in this list, is regarded as one of the greatest “locked room mysteries”, a genre in which Allan Poe’s work: “The murders in the Rue Morgue” from 1841 is seen as pioneer work, The Mystery of the Yellow room comes to add value to this crime/detective genre.

Leroux born in 1868 Paris, was schooled in Normandy and graduated law in 1889, Paris. Although he inherited a vast amount of money, he was reckless wit his fortune and almost spent it all away. And a graduation from a law school, pushed him into a different career, becoming a journalist in 1890, working for newspapers like: “L’Echo de Paris” or “Le Matin”.

Because of his career as a journalist, he was able to investigate in more depth major events or institutions, like the coverage he had to do on the “Palais Garnier” formerly known as the Paris Opera, a once infamous building that once had in its basement prisoners from the Paris Commune.

This experience pushed him to abandon journalism and start off on his writing journey, in 1907. His mystery novel: “The mystery of the yellow room” was published in the Autumn of 1907, followed by the even more famous: “The Phantom of the Opera” published between 1909 and 1910.

Besides publishing “The Phantom of the Opera”, in the year 1909 he received the prestigious French order: “Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur”.

Still on the arts adventure, alongside Arthur Bernede they founded a film company, in 1919. This company aided him in turning his novels into movies.

“The perfume of the lady in black” published in 1908, “Secret of the night” (1914) “Rouletabille at Krupp’s” (1917), “The crime of Rouletabille” published in 1921. Last two are from the detective series featuring the fictional detective: Joseph Rouletabille. This detective work that also saw its features in movies made him an important author of detective work, similar to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in England.

Gaston Leroux after made his important contribution to the French and global literary world, passed away in 1927, he was just 58 of age.

Marcel Proust (1871-1922)

Although everyone remembers him as Marcel Proust, his full name was given at the time of his birth in July 1871, as: Valentin Louis Georges Eugene Marcel Proust, born in one of the richest parts of Paris, Auteuil.

His childhood was marked by severe turmoil’s and changes in France, a swap between the Paris commune and the French third republic, saw a very young Prost trying to absorb and comprehend the drastic changes surrounding him. The former ruling aristocracy, the highly educated and traditional aristocracy was now rapidly changed by a rising middle class that wanted to take control and fade away completely the former higher classes. This dilemma impacted Proust as it is a major theme, if not the major theme in his greatest work: “In Search of the Lost Time”.

Coming from a well-educated family, Proust’s father was an important medical pathologist and epidemiologist. He dedicated several years to study cholera not just in Europe, but across Asia as well. His mother was also coming from a wealthy family from Alsace. He was baptised, confirmed, and raised as a Catholic.

Since his childhood years, he had severe asthma attacks, and although he was enrolled at Lycee Condorcet in Paris, had several interruptions in his education years, because of this asthma attacks. During his school years he wrote for the school magazines: “La Revue” between 1890 and 1891.

Proust wanted to enlarge his cultural aspirations and started to attend the Parisian aristocracy saloons, especially with the help of Madeleine Lemaire, who introduced him to this intellectual elite world. His childhood friend was the child of the great French composer Georges Bizet and his wife: Marie-Genevieve Halevy-Bizet-Straus.

In 1896 a collection of poems was published as: “Les plaisirs et les jours”.

In the span of 1903 and 1905 Proust lost both his parents, but this brought with itself a huge inheritance that was left to him.

In 1909 Proust greatest work: “In search of lost time” reached 3,200 pages with over 2,000 characters. However, the first attempt to publishing got refused by publisher Gallimard. Eventually the book was published by Grasset publisher, but Proust paid the expenses of publishing it. And between 1922 and 1931 the book was translated and published in English.

Proust died in 1922, in Paris, France.

Thomas Mann (1875-1955)

Paul Thomas Mann was born in Germany, in the city of Lubeck on a well financially established, bourgeois family, in June 1875. His family was in the grain commerce and his father was a senator. When he was only 15 of age his father passed away, and the family moved to Munich, where Thomas Mann attended the University wanting to opt for a career in journalism.

Thomas started to write for a satirical magazine, named “Simplicissimus” with a first short story named: “Little Mr Friedemann” published in 1898.

In 1905 he married Katia Pringsheim, with whom he had six children.

His writing inspiration came from places he lived, as in 1912 he moved to Davos Switzerland, which influenced the novel: “The magic mountain”.

Thomas Mann received the Nobel prize in literature in the year 1929.

However, Thomas Mann moved a few more times, once to Zurich and received a Czechoslovak citizenship, but because of the German occupation during World War II, he moved once more to New Jersey, United States, and then once more to Los Angeles.

He published one of this famous novels, Doctor Faustus, inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s work, and published in 1947.

He died in 1955, at 80 years of age because of an iliac artery aneurysm that perforated resulting in a hematoma and was buried in Zurich Switzerland.

Jack London (1876-1916)

John Griffith London born and died in California, United states, in 1876. London came from a poor family, and his education was mainly self-education.

And his youth, ever since 1889 was determined by hard labour, working 12 and 18 hours a day, after which he was hired as a fish patrol member, which made his school attendance more difficult, but finally managed to attend Oakland high school. And although he struggled to reach his dream of becoming a Berkeley, University of California, because of his financial situation he had to quit after just one year.

He tried on his luck for a better life, when in 1897 he went on the gold rush, but wasn’t successful in his attempt to become rich. Finally, he realized that his only opportunity for a better life is to feed his brain and sell it (his brain), as such he saw pursuing a writing career as more than a hobby but as a mean to achieve financial independence and status.

His timing was turning for the better, as at the turn of the century, the innovation in magazine printing enhanced by a desire of the readers for fiction stories, which gave Jack London an earning of 2,500 $ (about equivalent of 78,000 $ in 2020) just in 1900 alone. And this kept going as he sold the rights to multiple of his stories: “Diable” in 1902, “The call of the wild” in 1903.

Along with his writing career London’s life changed on the personal life also, as he married Elizabeth Mae in 1900, with whom he had two children. But eventually divorced her, and remarried in 1905 to Charmian Kittredge, after which he purchased a big ranch in Sonoma County, California. On this land he also wanted to build a big stone mansion, which was destroyed by a fire, and the ranch turned out to be a disaster and a financial failure.

Because of his constant struggle in the financial world, he often had socialist views, and he even joined the Socialist Labor party in 1896. But besides his political views, he was a strong animal activist, hence his famous novels: “White Fang” published in 1906.

Jack London died in 1916, but there is strong debate surrounding the cause of death that some believe it could have been suicide.

James Joyce (1882-1941)

Born as a British citizen, in 1882 Dublin, James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was the eldest of ten surviving children, baptised in a Roman Catholic faith. His childhood was defined by two traumatic events that will leave him with two severe fears: a dog attack made him to fear dogs for the rest of his life, and then another fear regarding thunderstorms.

Ever since the age of nine he started to write poems. But after this the family began to go through financial struggles, mainly because his father excessive drinking, which affected his education as in 1892 James Joyce had to leave the Jesuit boarding school from Kildare as his family could no longer afford the school fees.

With the aid of a family friend, the Jesuit priest John Conmee, he got another change, when the priest helped James Joyce to attend Dublin Belvedere college without having to pay the fees of attending. This gave him the opportunity to continue his studies at university college, in 1898. Here he carried on learning English, French and Italian and besides this the studies of Thomas Aquinas work which influenced him positively, tremendously.

The turn of the century brought him a start in the writing career, by publishing a review in 1900 in one of the most important British magazines: “The fortnightly review”. His criticism went on to influence for the better the art world, when in 1901 he protested the Irish Literary Theatre that refused to play works from the famous Leo Tolstoy.

Further on, James Joyce got an interest in medicine and began his studies at the Catholic University medical school in Dublin, continued in Paris, but by 1903 he halted his plans to carry on the medical studies, yet he still staid in Paris. But returned in 1903 to attend to his dying mother.

Returned to Ireland, he met his muse and future wife, Nora Barnacle, in 1904. After the two became a couple, they went on to: London, Paris, Zurich and finally Trieste as there was no position for him in Zurich. His wife was now pregnant.

After moving to Trieste and getting a position as an English teacher, he started to feel more comfortable financially and as such he sent some of his poems back to Dublin to have them published. And although he reached the final parts of the “Dubliners” he could not get it in front of a publishing press. An agreement could not be that easily reached as some of the segments of the novel contained sections that could be seen an indecent or damaging by the English laws, and with this out, there was still the sense to keep Joyce’s touch into them.

During the next couple of years Joyce briefly went from Trieste to Rome, and Zurich, after which he returned to Trieste where he mainly lived till 1920. But in these years, there were a couple of years when he visited Dublin particularly to present his children to his family, living at home.

In the next period, Joyce agreed on the “Dubliners” final draft, and it was published in 1914, followed by: “A portrait of the artist as a young man” in 1916. In this time, he constantly moved from Trieste, to Zurich, and Paris. It is in Paris that he met and got acquainted with American publisher and bookseller, Sylvia Beach. She became an important contributor to Joyce’s financial status and supported him through his writing career.

With this added support, James Joyce finished “Ulysses” in 1921, and started to be published episodically in “The little Review”.

His health status continued to decline in Paris and he was with a severe left eyesight impairment. In January 1941 he went once more to Zurich to undergo surgery, because of his duodenal ulcer that perforated. But he went through a coma and passed away on 13 January 1941.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

Regarded as a Bohemian writer, born in Prague in the time it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. He was born in July 1883 to a German speaking middle class Jewish family. His father worked in sales and fashion and had employed a bit over a dozen people. Kafka’s parents were as opposite as they could be in terms of character. While his father is described as cold and authoritarian, his mother was shy, very quiet and more educated than her husband.

Between 1889 and 1893 he went to a German elementary school, continued by the gymnasium, and in 1901 he went to the Prague university, where he studied law. But in university he encountered and befriended multiple writers, and the group was an avid reader of the influential predecessors like: Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Nikolai Gogol, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, or Gustav Flaubert.

In 1907 he started in a menial role for a writer, working at an insurance company, but the regular hours got him so drying of his writing skills that he resigned, and eventually got a new role for receiving, analysing, and deciding the injury and compensation to be given for workers in the heavy industry. This was much to his father approval that believed a steady job is better, as it provides financial security, than writing and wished that at some point Franz will take over the family goods store.

The whole attitude of a steady job his father pushed him towards, was just the opposite of what Kafka desired and this type of roles were only making him sadder.

His first novel today known as “Amerika”, was originally written as “The man who disappeared” published in 1927 (German) and in 1938 (English) was started by Kafka in 1912, which mirrors in the main characters struggles, some of Kafka’s internal struggles.

Two years later, in 1914, Kafka started to write once more a different novel: “The Trial”, it was published after Kafka’s death in 1925, was influenced by Dostoevsky’s work: “Crime and punishment”, who Kafka greatly admired. The trial is once more regarding a struggle, this time of a man that is arrested, and trialled by a distant, cold authority without the humane fairness of a trial. In the same style, another novel emerged in 1922, but the first ideas might have come since 1914, the novel would be called “The castle” and was published in 1926, after the authors death.

Kafka often wrote and then later one displeased of his own work would destroy it and burn it, and as such not all his work survives till today.

When World War I he thought at first to join the war, but in 1917 he was not allowed to enrol as he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, but as there was no treatment at the time, Kafka would spent much of the next years in sanatoriums for his illness. But the condition only worsens over the years and passed away in June 1924.

Nihil sine Deo