Daninos invented Major Thompson, a fanciful English gentleman whose outsider's mocking gaze on French habits made one of the great bestsellers of the 1950s. The humour springs from a gap: that of a foreigner who describes in all seriousness what we no longer see. He died in 2005, having fixed for a long time to come the way people laugh at the French and the English.
The story
Born in 1913, Pierre Daninos was a journalist when the war made him a liaison officer with the British army: that is where he picked up the habit of looking at the French through English eyes.
In 1954 came “Les Carnets du major Thompson”, the notebooks of Major Thompson: an English gentleman describes French manners in all seriousness, and the country laughed at seeing itself from outside. The success was enormous; the major would come back in four more volumes.
He died in 2005 and lies in Division 44, under a family stone that says nothing more than “Pierre DANINOS 1913-2005.”
On site, do not miss
A grave linked to one of the great successes of French literary humour.
Visitors' questions
Who is the Major Thompson created by Pierre Daninos?
A fictional English gentleman whose ironic eye on French manners and habits made “Les Carnets du major Thompson” the bestseller of the 1950s.
The writers and poetsWhy did Major Thompson appeal so much to French readers?
Because he held up an amused mirror to their own foibles, seen through the outsider's — and mock-innocent — gaze of a British observer, a comic device that still works today.
Marcel ProustWhere is Pierre Daninos's grave?
In Division 44 of Père-Lachaise, beside Eugène Dabit, author of “L'Hôtel du Nord”, in a sector that brings together several twentieth-century writers.
The grave of Eugène DabitDo other literary humorists rest at Père-Lachaise?
Yes, the cemetery holds several figures of French humour and satire, a measure of the place the genre holds in the country's twentieth-century literature.
Alain DecauxAudio guide to Père Lachaise: the best unusual guided tour!
Discover the secrets of the most astonishing tombs
the audio guidefrom€6.99