Behind the creative duo, which had been surprising readers with its detectives for over forty years, two French writers are hiding : Pierre Boileau and Pierre Robert Hero. What was their tandem? Were both writers on equal rights? What are their main works? Which of their works has been translated into Russian? What films based on the detectives of Bualo-Narsezhak are released on the screens? What books are digitized and uploaded to free virtual libraries? Read about all this in this article.
Biography of Pierre Louis Boileau
The future writer was born in Paris on April 28, 1909. He received a good education and first engaged in commerce. He worked for several years in a factory manufacturing felt products. Then he "tried the pen." His literary debut took place in 1932. Reading for All magazine has published a series of short stories tied together by one main character - detective Andre Brunel. The talent of the young writer was favorably appreciated by critics.
In 1934, Boileau displays the detective Brunel already on the pages of the novel "Trembling Pierre." In the same year he wrote the story "Walk at Midnight." Unfortunately, the translation into Russian of this work did not take place. In 1938, the fourth work of Pierre Boileau, Vacation Bacchus, was published in the 252nd edition of Le Masque. For this work, the author won a prize in the French adventure novels competition.
Personal life
Having received a cash prize, the novice author bought an apartment in Paris and dared to make a marriage proposal to the young secretary, who worked in the editorial office of the magazine where Boileau was published. The writer's personal life is not as stormy as the plots of his novels. He happily lived with his wife until his death. And he was not going to change the apartment either, but he only left it in 1982, when doctors prescribed a marine climate for him.
. When the prize was spent, Boileau worked as an administrator in a cabaret owned by his cousin.
In the very first days of World War II he was drafted into the army. The company in which Pierre Boileau served was surrounded in 1940, and the writer ended up in a prisoner of war camp. Two years later, he became seriously ill, and at the request of the Red Cross he was released. In Paris, Boileau recovered and, in turn, began supporting other victims of the war as part of the National Aid charity.
After the war, the writer returned to literary activity. By the end of the forties, he became the most famous author, creating in the genre of a police novel.
Biography of Pierre Robert Herault
Unlike the Parisian Boileau, the second participant in the creative tandem was born in the province, in the small town of Rochefort-sur-Mer, on the banks of the Charente, not far from its confluence with the Bay of Biscay. The writer saw the light of July 3, 1908. He began to create detective stories later than his colleagues in tandem. At first, Ero was interested in philosophy. He graduated from college and until the end of the forties worked as a professor in the department of the university. But he also wrote adventure novels, parodies of American detective stories. At the same time, he took on himself the creative pseudonym of Tom Narsezhak.
Among the philosophical works, Ero also published a work entitled "Aesthetics of the detective genre." This book, published in 1947, contained criticism of the literary works of Pierre Boileau, who had already become famous. He read The Aesthetics of the Detective Genre and addressed the author a reply letter. For a long time, two members of the creative tandem communicated remotely.
Meeting and the emergence of cooperation
Ten years after Boileau, Pierre Robert Hero was awarded a prize in the same competition for his novel Death in Departure. But if the first co-author won the nomination “The Best Detective of 1938”, then Tom Narsezhak was especially noted. He was named the author, "masterfully mastering the technique of writing adventure works." Pierre Boileau also specially came to the award ceremony. So the two writers finally met.
Two writers were united by a lot: a love of romance with Arsene Lupine (the main character of Maurice Leblanc), dissatisfaction with the modern state of the genre of the French detective story. And the writers decided to create a creative tender, calling it a surname and a pseudonym - Boileau-Narsezhak. The very first fruit of such a joint work - the Phantom Hunt novel, released in 1951 - became a bestseller. The authors did not stop there and continued cooperation.
Boileau-Narsezhak: books
Forty-one years, before the death of Pierre Boileau on January 16, 1989, this tandem existed . During this time, the authors wrote 37 novels and novels. They also "resurrected" the robber-gentleman Arsen Lupine and dedicated five interesting books to him. Co-authorship created three collections of short stories and six novels for young people. Particularly worth mentioning is “Usurpation of Persons”. This collection contains postmodern shepherds by A. Christie, Conan Doyle, E. Quinn, D. Sayers, G. Chesterton, R. Stout, L. Charteris and other masters of the genre.
The translation into Russian of most of the works of the creative duet was first made in 2000, when the complete works of Boileau-Narsezhak were published. In 11 volumes, already known novels and short stories were published: “The One That Did Not Die”, “Among the Dead”, “She-wolves”, “Widows”, “Evil Eye”, “Faces in Darkness”, “In the Enchanted Forest” and much more another. In addition, such books as Brother Judas, The Untouchables, and The Enclosed Space saw the light in Russian. The last work is also known as "In a close circle." This is a novel about two talented sisters who hate each other. They take revenge on the sophisticated, for many years, with the help of gifts that can drive you crazy.
Other works of the creative tandem
The duo Boileau-Narsezhak did not write only police novels. A thorough and detailed study of the history of the detective genre came from the pen of the co-authors. The first critical literary essay was published in 1964 under the title “Police Romance”. In 1975, the co-authors updated and supplemented this work with “A machine created to please readers.” These essay books not only trace the history and development trends of the genre of police romance. The co-authors raise the problem that in the second half of the twentieth century, in the era of postmodernism, the psychological detective becomes more relevant than ever.
Towards the end of the lives of both writers, in 1986, they published an autobiographical book, The Tandem, or Thirty-Five Years of Anxious Tension. In this work, they open the veil of secrecy over the entrance to their "creative kitchen."
Toma Narcezhak survived his tandem partner for nine years. Their last joint work is the novel "The Sun in the Hand", released in 1989. After the death of Boileau, he published several more of his works. Pierre Robert Hero died in Nice on June 7, 1998, not having lived a month before his ninetieth birthday.
Boileau-Narsezhak: film adaptations
The twisted plot of detective novels, the development of events that constantly keeps the reader in a nervous tension, an unexpected denouement - all this is just perfect for translating the book into a script format. The growing popularity of the tandem of Boileau-Narsezhak interested filmmakers. And numerous adaptations in a century when they do not read, but look, added fame to the co-authors. But we must pay tribute to the genius of writers. They made their way to the literary Olympus on their own.
“The One That Has Not Been” is the first joint work of the authors, which migrated from paper pages to a wide screen. True, the director Henri-Georges Clouseau changed the title. The detective film "Devils" was released in early 1955 and won them. Louis Delluc and Edgar Allan.
Two years later, Boileau-Narsezhak agreed to the film adaptation of the novel "From the World of the Dead." The director of the film “Vertigo” was such a master of “horrors” as Alfred Hitchcock.
Characteristic of creativity of Bualo-Narsezhak
Now the double surname of the authors already serves as a brand of a high-quality detective novel. The tandem became a classic of twentieth-century French literature. What is the secret of the popularity of this duo? The confined space, in which the action is often unfolded in the novels of Boileau-Narsezhak, narrows the circle of suspects. The reader always thinks that he is close to unraveling the mystery, which in fact turns out to be a network of skillfully set traps. In an autobiographical book, writers revealed the basics of their creative process. Boileau gave the idea, "twisted the intrigue", and Narsezhak worked out the smallest details and polished the style.