author
Edouard Pailleron
1834–1899
Known for sharp, elegant comedy, this French poet and dramatist is best remembered for Le Monde où l'on s'ennuie, a hit that gently mocked fashionable literary society. His work helped make him one of the notable figures of 19th-century French theater.
1 Audiobook
The Art of Being Bored: A Comedy in Three Acts
by Edouard Pailleron
About the author
Born in Paris in 1834, Édouard Pailleron studied law but soon turned away from a legal career and devoted himself to writing. He became known as a poet and dramatist, building a reputation in Parisian literary circles through verse and stage works.
His greatest success was Le Monde où l'on s'ennuie (1881), a comedy of manners that won a wide audience with its witty portrait of high society and intellectual pretension. Pailleron also wrote other plays and poems, and his popularity during his lifetime led to his election to the Académie française in 1882.
He died in Paris in 1899. Today he is remembered mainly for the sparkle and social satire of his theater, which offers a lively glimpse of French cultural life in the late 19th century.