author
Léon Frapié
1863–1949
Best known for the Prix Goncourt-winning novel La Maternelle, this French writer brought a clear-eyed, compassionate view to the lives of poor children and working people in Paris. His fiction is grounded in everyday reality, which gives it both warmth and staying power.
4 Audiobooks
La Maternelle
by Léon Frapié
La Manifestante
by Léon Frapié
La Maternelle
by Léon Frapié
Les Obsédés
by Léon Frapié
About the author
Born in Paris on January 27, 1863, Léon Frapié was a French novelist who began his career by writing for magazines and newspapers before turning to fiction. He is most closely associated with socially minded writing that paid careful attention to ordinary lives, especially children and families facing hardship.
His best-known book, La Maternelle, won the Prix Goncourt in 1904. The novel, centered on a school in a poor neighborhood, helped define his reputation as a writer interested in education, poverty, and the emotional world of childhood.
Frapié spent his life in Paris, where he also died on September 29, 1949. Today he is remembered for fiction that combines realism with sympathy, offering a vivid picture of everyday French life in the early twentieth century.