Courteline's name was Georges Moinaux, and he learnt his trade in journalism before finding his subject in the barracks. Les Gaîtés de l'escadron takes barracks life apart piece by piece, without a moral: stupidity there becomes a mechanism, observed with exactness. Messieurs les ronds-de-cuir put an expression into the language. He died on his birthday, at seventy-one.
The story
Georges Moinaux was born at Tours on 25 June 1858, the son of a court reporter for Le Charivari. He took the name Courteline and learned his trade in journalism and the little reviews.
His military service in the cavalry gave him “Les Gaîtés de l'escadron” (1886), a series of scenes in which army discipline is taken apart without one word of moralising: stupidity is a mechanism there, described exactly.
“Boubouroche”, in 1893, brought him the theatre and fame. Then came “Un client sérieux”, “L'Article 330” and “La Paix chez soi” — short plays, staged to this day, where the courtroom and the office take the place of the barracks.
“Messieurs les ronds-de-cuir”, published in 1893, is his most lasting book: the civil service is a world there where nobody works, where you advance by seniority, where the file outlives the case. The phrase passed into the language.
Elected to the Académie Goncourt in 1926, he died in Paris on 25 June 1929 — his own birthday — and lies in Division 89, the Division of Oscar Wilde and of Alphonse Bertillon's grave.
On site, do not miss
Two dates to read side by side: 25 June 1858, 25 June 1929 — the same day, seventy-one years apart.
Visitors' questions
Where is Georges Courteline's grave?
In Division 89, in the upper, eastern part of the cemetery — the division of Oscar Wilde's tomb and Alphonse Bertillon's stele, a good fifteen minutes from the main entrance.
Oscar WildeWhat is “Messieurs les ronds-de-cuir”?
A novel published in 1893 about the French civil service, where promotion comes by seniority and the file outlives the case. The book gave the language the expression “rond-de-cuir” — a pen-pusher — from the leather cushion clerks sat on.
Georges AuclairWhat are his most performed plays?
“Boubouroche”, first staged in 1893, “Un client sérieux”, “L'Article 330” and “La Paix chez soi”: short plays with a relentless mechanism, still in the repertoire. His “Gaîtés de l'escadron” had opened the vein in 1886.
Edmond AboutIs it true that he died on his birthday?
Yes: born in Tours on 25 June 1858, he died in Paris on 25 June 1929, seventy-one years to the day. He had been elected to the Académie Goncourt three years earlier, in 1926, after an entire career devoted to bureaucratic absurdity.
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