Jules Vallès invented in the opposition press a spoken, direct language, washed clean of the century's rhetoric. In 1871 he founded the newspaper the Commune read, sat among its elected members and kept its chronicle day after day. Sentenced to death in his absence, he knew nine years of poverty in London. His trilogy speaks of a beaten child, a young man without work, a lost revolution.
The story
Jules Vallès was born at Le Puy-en-Velay on 11 June 1832. A journalist, he learned his trade in the opposition press of the Second Empire and invented a spoken, direct way of writing, free of his century's rhetoric.
In 1871 he founded “Le Cri du peuple”, the newspaper of the Commune, and sat among the elected men of the insurrection. He was one of its leaders, and he wrote its day-by-day chronicle.
After Bloody Week he was sentenced to death in his absence and went into exile in London, where he lived nine years of poverty and freelance work. The amnesty of 1880 brought him back to France.
He then wrote his autobiographical trilogy, “Jacques Vingtras”: “L'Enfant” in 1879, “Le Bachelier” in 1881, “L'Insurgé” published after his death in 1886. Three books on a beaten childhood, a jobless youth and a lost revolution.
He died in Paris on 14 February 1885. His bust, in Division 66, was set up two years later, and the stone carries a sentence that sums up his life: “what they call my talent is made of nothing but my conviction”.
The grave
A bronze bust signed Émile Carlier, dated 1887 and cast by the Griffoul et Lorge foundry, put up two years after the journalist's death. The inscription of the name is brief — “Jules Vallès, 1832-1885” — but a second inscription bears a sentence of his, signed with his initials: “What they call my talent is made of nothing but my conviction. J. V.” It is the only epitaph in the cemetery that answers literary criticism in this way, and in advance.
On site, do not miss
The engraved sentence and its two initials — “J. V.” — beneath the bronze bust.
Visitors' questions
Where is Jules Vallès's grave?
In Division 66, avenue des Peupliers, third row — the same path as Georges Seurat's vault, in the upper part of the cemetery. A bronze bust by Émile Carlier, dated 1887, stands on top.
Georges SeuratWhat was “Le Cri du peuple”?
The newspaper he founded in 1871, which became the voice of the Paris Commune. Vallès chronicled the insurrection in it day by day, while sitting among its elected members and counting as one of its leaders.
Jean-Baptiste ClémentWhat line is carved on his grave?
One of his own, signed with his initials: “Ce qu'ils appellent mon talent n'est fait que de ma conviction. J. V.” — What they call my talent is made of nothing but my conviction. It is the only epitaph in the cemetery that answers the literary critics in this way — and in advance.
Eugène PottierWhat is the “Jacques Vingtras” trilogy?
His three autobiographical novels: “L'Enfant” in 1879, “Le Bachelier” in 1881 and “L'Insurgé”, published after his death in 1886 — a beaten childhood, a jobless youth, a lost revolution.
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