Henry Becque, born in 1837, wrote for a theatre that was then trying to break free of the conventions of romantic melodrama. His play The Vultures, premiered in 1882, shows without indulgence the greed that swoops down on a bourgeois family as soon as the father is dead. The play heralds naturalism and would weigh on several generations of authors. He left a short body of work, and a lastingly influential one.
The story
Born in 1837, Henry Becque lived on office work before he wrote for the theatre, at a time when the French stage was trying to break out of the conventions of romantic melodrama.
It took him five years to get “Les Corbeaux” staged: the play was created at the Comédie-Française on 14 September 1882. It shows, without a shred of indulgence, the scramble that falls on a middle-class family the moment the father is dead, and it opened the way to naturalist theatre. “La Parisienne” followed in 1885.
He died in 1899 without ever coming out of hardship: the City of Paris granted him his plot free of charge, three months later. He lies in Division 53, the division of men of letters — Duranty and Assolant were already there, and Pierre Charras would join them in 2014.
On site, do not miss
A grave linked to one of the major turning points of French theatre.
Visitors' questions
What is Henry Becque's “Les Corbeaux”?
A play first staged in 1882, which shows, without a shred of indulgence, greed descending on a bourgeois family after the father's death. It is regarded as a landmark of French naturalist theatre.
The writers and poetsWhat is naturalist theatre?
A dramatic movement of the late nineteenth century that sought to depict social reality without idealising it, breaking with Romantic melodrama. Henry Becque is one of its forerunners.
Marcel ProustWhere is Henry Becque's grave?
In Division 53 of Père-Lachaise, a sector that gathers several writers and playwrights of the nineteenth century, among them Louis Edmond Duranty.
The grave of Louis Edmond DurantyDo other nineteenth-century playwrights rest at Père-Lachaise?
Yes, the cemetery holds several dramatists of the period, witnesses to the way French drama moved from Romanticism to naturalism.
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