Georges Courteline

Born Georges Victor Marcel Moinaux in Tours in 1858, he became famous under the pen name Georges Courteline. He was the son of the humorist Jules Moinaux, and he built his own reputation as a playwright and novelist with a gift for concise, biting satire.

Courteline is especially remembered for comic works that mocked officialdom, middle-class manners, and the absurdities of daily life. Reference works describe his writing as a brilliant social portrait of the late 19th-century middle and lower-middle classes, and note that his experience in government service helped shape his recurring attacks on red tape and petty authority.

He died in Paris on June 25, 1929. Today he remains one of the most recognizable French comic dramatists of his era, admired for humor that is both lively and sharply observant.