author
Eugène Labiche
1815–1888
A master of French comic theater, this 19th-century playwright turned middle-class manners, misunderstandings, and social ambition into sparkling farce. His plays are still loved for their brisk pace, sharp observation, and gift for making everyday absurdity feel timeless.
1 Audiobook
Le Voyage de Monsieur Perrichon: Comédie en quatre actes
by Eugène Labiche, Édouard Martin
About the author
Born in Paris on May 6, 1815, Eugène Labiche became one of the great comic dramatists of 19th-century France. Although he initially studied law, the stage pulled him in another direction, and he went on to build a remarkably successful career writing comedies, vaudevilles, and farces.
Labiche is especially remembered for the way he poked fun at bourgeois life. His plays often revolve around respectable people whose plans collapse into confusion, vanity, and comic disaster. Among his best-known works are The Italian Straw Hat and Le Voyage de Monsieur Perrichon, both celebrated for their energy, precise stagecraft, and lively sense of human folly.
His popularity was enormous in his lifetime, and in 1880 he was elected to the Académie française. He died in Paris on January 22, 1888, but his work has endured because the comedy still feels fresh: quick, clever, and keenly aware of how ridiculous people can be when trying to appear sensible.