author
Emile Bergerat
1845–1923
A lively man of letters in 19th-century France, he wrote poetry, plays, essays, and newspaper pieces with wit and theatrical flair. Closely tied to Paris literary life, he is remembered both for his own work and for the colorful public voice he brought to journalism.
1 Audiobook
Contes de Caliban
by Emile Bergerat
About the author
Émile Bergerat was a French poet, playwright, essayist, and journalist, born in Paris on April 29, 1845, and died in Neuilly-sur-Seine on October 13, 1923. Reference sources consistently describe him as a versatile literary figure, and he wrote under several pen names, including Caliban, Ariel, and l'Homme masqué.
He began publishing young and became known for work across several forms, from verse and theater to criticism and chronicles for the press. His career placed him firmly in the literary world of his time, and French national library records also note that he was the son-in-law of Théophile Gautier and a member of the Académie Goncourt.
Today, Bergerat is mostly encountered through historical editions and literary reference works, but his reputation in his own era rested on his energy as a chronicler as much as on his poetry and plays. For listeners coming to him now, he offers a glimpse of the busy, witty, newspaper-and-theater culture of fin-de-siècle France.