Erckmann-Chatrian

Erckmann-Chatrian (respectively, born May 20, 1822, Phalsbourg, France—died March 14, 1899, Lunéville; born Dec. 18, 1826, Soldatenthal, France—died Sept. 3, 1890, Paris) were two of the first French regionalist novelists in the 19th century.

The two men were close friends and decided to collaborate in writing novels that are essentially patriotic and popular in character. They chose as their heroes the people of their native province, Alsace, and based their plots on events in its history. Their first joint publication was a collection of short stories, Contes fantastiques (1847), and they established their reputation with the novels L’Illustre Docteur Mathéus (1859), Le Fou Yégof (1862; “Crazy Yégof”), Madame Thérèse (1863), and L’Ami Fritz (1864; “Friend Fritz”). They often portrayed military life, as in L’Histoire d’un Conscrit de 1813 (1864), about a man called to the colours (drafted) toward the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and in Waterloo (1865), in which they decry the horrors of war and advance their own pacifist views. Erckmann and Chatrian quarreled in 1889 and abandoned their partnership as a result.