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Paul Raynal (25 July 1885 in [[Narbonne]], [[Aude]], France; † 18 August 1971 in [[Paris]], France) was a French playwright who had considerable success in the 1920s and 1930s.
Paul Raynal (25 July 1885 in [[Narbonne]], [[Aude]], France; † 18 August 1971 in [[Paris]], France) was a French playwright, actor and director who had considerable success in the 1920s and 1930s.

<br />


== Life ==
== Life ==
Raynal was educated by Dominicans. He went to Paris to study medicine, but then changed to study law before deciding to become a playwright. For four years, he fought in the [[World War I|First World War]], both in Champagne and in the [[Armée d'Orient (1915–19)|Army of the Orient]] (i.e., on the [[Macedonian front|Salonika Front]]).
Raynal was born in Narbonne, the son of a wine merchant<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://lamediathequepatrimoine.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/un-narbonnais-meconnu-paul-raynal/|title=UN NARBONNAIS MECONNU… PAUL RAYNAL|last=narbonnepages|date=2016-09-09|website=Blog Patrimonial de la Médiathèque du Grand Narbonne|language=fr-FR|access-date=2020-04-02}}</ref>, and was educated by Dominicans. He went to Paris to study medicine, but then changed to study law before deciding to become a playwright. For four years, he fought in the [[World War I|First World War]], both in Champagne and in the [[Armée d'Orient (1915–19)|Army of the Orient]] (i.e., on the [[Macedonian front|Salonika Front]]<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://data.bnf.fr/fr/12365808/paul_raynal/|title=Paul Raynal (1885-1971)|last=Bibliothèque nationale de France|first=|date=|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref>, where he contracted malaria<ref name=":1" />).


In 1940, during the [[World War II|Second World War]], [[Wehrmacht|German troops]] ransacked a house he was renting in the [[Oise]] department, destroying or removing a number of his manuscripts and papers, as well as books from his library.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://data.bnf.fr/fr/12365808/paul_raynal/|title=Paul Raynal (1885-1971)|last=Bibliothèque nationale de France|first=|date=|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref>
Raynal's first play, the comedy ''Le maitre de son coeur'' (written in 1909 in his parents' house in Narbonne<ref name=":1" />, though only performed in 1920), was an instant success.<ref name=":2" /> In the same year Raynal bought a house in Champagne, at Maison-Neuve near [[Bar-sur-Aube]]. Later (1927) he would move to [[Saint-Léger-en-Bray]] in the [[Oise]], where he wrote most his successful inter-war plays. In 1940, during the [[World War II|Second World War]], [[Wehrmacht|German troops]] ransacked a house he was renting in the Oise, destroying or removing a number of his manuscripts and papers, as well as books from his library.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

However, according to the US playwright, poet and lecturer Jane Dransfield (1875-1957), it was his second play, ''Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe'', that "raised its author ... into the front ranks of the dramatists of young France".<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=Dransfield|first=Jane|url=https://www.unzcloud.net/PDF/PERIODICAL/SaturdayRev-1929jun15/7-8//|title=The Mystery of Pain THE UNKOWN WARRIOR. By PAUL RAYNAL.|date=15 June 1929|work=The Saturday Review of Literature|access-date=|url-status=live}}</ref>


== ''Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe'' ==
== ''Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe'' ==
His 1924 anti-war play ''Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe'' (translated in English by Cecil Lewis in 1928 as ''The Unknown Warrior''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sokołowska-Paryż, Marzena.|first=|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/808999763|title=Reimagining the war memorial, reinterpreting the Great War : the formats of British commemorative fiction|date=2012|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year=|isbn=978-1-4438-3764-4|location=|pages=17|oclc=808999763}}</ref>) was the most performed war play of the inter-war years. The play was premiered on 30 January 1924 at the Paris National Theater [[Comédie-Française]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Rhodes, S. A. (Solomon Alhadef)|first=|title=The contemporary French theater; representative plays|publisher=|year=1942|isbn=|location=|pages=314}}</ref> It was later translated into several languages and revived at the [[Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe|Théâtre de l'Odéon]] in 1929.<ref name=":0" />
His 1924 anti-war play ''Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe'' (translated in English by the former [[Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5|SE5a]] pilot [[Cecil Arthur Lewis|Cecil Lewis]] in 1928 as ''The Unknown Warrior''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sokołowska-Paryż, Marzena.|first=|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/808999763|title=Reimagining the war memorial, reinterpreting the Great War : the formats of British commemorative fiction|date=2012|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year=|isbn=978-1-4438-3764-4|location=|pages=17|oclc=808999763}}</ref>) was the most performed war play of the inter-war years. Concerning a soldier returning home on leave during the [[Second Battle of Champagne|September 1915 Champagne Offensive]], the play was premiered on 30 January 1924 at the Paris National Theatre [[Comédie-Française]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Rhodes, S. A. (Solomon Alhadef)|first=|title=The contemporary French theater; representative plays|publisher=|year=1942|isbn=|location=|pages=314}}</ref> It was later translated into several languages and revived at the [[Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe|Théâtre de l'Odéon]] in 1929.<ref name=":0" />

The play appears to have caused a furore on its first night, because some in the audience felt that it disrespected the French ''poilu''. This view subsided once audiences understood the play<ref name=":3" />, though [[Henry de Montherlant]] was scathing about it.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Domenget|first=Jean-François|title=Montherlant critique|publisher=DROZ|year=2003|isbn=978-2600008600|location=|pages=368}}</ref> In Britain it was however only moderately successful (though [[George Bernard Shaw]] said that "it was almost worth having war to have so fine a play"), and it failed on Broadway.<ref name=":3" />

''Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe'' was the first of a trilogy of plays about the First World War, the others being ''La Francerie'' (1933, about the [[First Battle of the Marne|Battle of the Marne]]) and ''Le Matériel humain'' (published in 1946, though written in 1935, and set on the Salonika Front).<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Extraits du Dictionnaire universel des noms propre|publisher=Le Robert|year=2015|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref> The lack of success of ''Le Matériel humain'' when it was performed after the Second World War may well have led Raynal to retire from writing plays, though the German sacking of his house and a serious car accident, also in 1940, may also have played a part..<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1971/09/03/paul-raynal_2448618_1819218.html|title=PAUL RAYNAL|date=1971-09-03|work=Le Monde.fr|access-date=2020-04-02|language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":1" />

== Burial ==
Raynal is buried in the Cimetière de Cité in Narbonne.<ref name=":1" />


== Plays ==
== Plays ==
Line 17: Line 24:
* 1920: ''Le maitre de son coeur'', a comedy in three acts, produced at the Théâtre de l'Odéon on 25 June 1920.<ref name=":0" />
* 1920: ''Le maitre de son coeur'', a comedy in three acts, produced at the Théâtre de l'Odéon on 25 June 1920.<ref name=":0" />
* 1924: ''Le Tombeau sous l'Arc de Triomphe'', a tragedy in three acts.
* 1924: ''Le Tombeau sous l'Arc de Triomphe'', a tragedy in three acts.
* 1932: ''Au seuil de l'Instinct'', a tragedy in three acts, performed at the [[Théâtre de l'Œuvre]].
* 1932: ''Au soleil de l'Instinct'', a tragedy in three acts, performed at the [[Théâtre de l'Œuvre]].
* 1933: ''La Francerie'', a play in three acts.
* 1933: ''La Francerie'', a play in three acts, performed at the Comédie-Française.<ref name=":1" />
* 1936: ''Napoléon unique'', an epic comedy in three acts.
* 1936: ''Napoléon unique'', an epic comedy in three acts.
* 1939: ''A souffert sous Ponce Pilate'', a play in three acts, performed at [[Comédie-Française]] on 26 April 1939.<ref name=":0" />
* 1939: ''A souffert sous Ponce Pilate'', a play in three acts, performed at [[Comédie-Française]] on 26 April 1939.<ref name=":0" />
* 1946: ''Le Matériel humain'', a play in three acts and an epilogue.
* 1948: ''Le Matériel humain'', a play in three acts and an epilogue.


== References ==
== References ==

Revision as of 01:20, 2 April 2020

Paul Raynal (25 July 1885 in Narbonne, Aude, France; † 18 August 1971 in Paris, France) was a French playwright, actor and director who had considerable success in the 1920s and 1930s.

Life

Raynal was born in Narbonne, the son of a wine merchant[1], and was educated by Dominicans. He went to Paris to study medicine, but then changed to study law before deciding to become a playwright. For four years, he fought in the First World War, both in Champagne and in the Army of the Orient (i.e., on the Salonika Front[2], where he contracted malaria[1]).

Raynal's first play, the comedy Le maitre de son coeur (written in 1909 in his parents' house in Narbonne[1], though only performed in 1920), was an instant success.[2] In the same year Raynal bought a house in Champagne, at Maison-Neuve near Bar-sur-Aube. Later (1927) he would move to Saint-Léger-en-Bray in the Oise, where he wrote most his successful inter-war plays. In 1940, during the Second World War, German troops ransacked a house he was renting in the Oise, destroying or removing a number of his manuscripts and papers, as well as books from his library.[1][2]

However, according to the US playwright, poet and lecturer Jane Dransfield (1875-1957), it was his second play, Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe, that "raised its author ... into the front ranks of the dramatists of young France".[3]

Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe

His 1924 anti-war play Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe (translated in English by the former SE5a pilot Cecil Lewis in 1928 as The Unknown Warrior[4]) was the most performed war play of the inter-war years. Concerning a soldier returning home on leave during the September 1915 Champagne Offensive, the play was premiered on 30 January 1924 at the Paris National Theatre Comédie-Française.[5] It was later translated into several languages and revived at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in 1929.[5]

The play appears to have caused a furore on its first night, because some in the audience felt that it disrespected the French poilu. This view subsided once audiences understood the play[3], though Henry de Montherlant was scathing about it.[6] In Britain it was however only moderately successful (though George Bernard Shaw said that "it was almost worth having war to have so fine a play"), and it failed on Broadway.[3]

Le Tombeau sous l’Arc de Triomphe was the first of a trilogy of plays about the First World War, the others being La Francerie (1933, about the Battle of the Marne) and Le Matériel humain (published in 1946, though written in 1935, and set on the Salonika Front).[2][7] The lack of success of Le Matériel humain when it was performed after the Second World War may well have led Raynal to retire from writing plays, though the German sacking of his house and a serious car accident, also in 1940, may also have played a part..[8][1]

Burial

Raynal is buried in the Cimetière de Cité in Narbonne.[1]

Plays

  • 1920: Le maitre de son coeur, a comedy in three acts, produced at the Théâtre de l'Odéon on 25 June 1920.[5]
  • 1924: Le Tombeau sous l'Arc de Triomphe, a tragedy in three acts.
  • 1932: Au soleil de l'Instinct, a tragedy in three acts, performed at the Théâtre de l'Œuvre.
  • 1933: La Francerie, a play in three acts, performed at the Comédie-Française.[1]
  • 1936: Napoléon unique, an epic comedy in three acts.
  • 1939: A souffert sous Ponce Pilate, a play in three acts, performed at Comédie-Française on 26 April 1939.[5]
  • 1948: Le Matériel humain, a play in three acts and an epilogue.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g narbonnepages (2016-09-09). "UN NARBONNAIS MECONNU… PAUL RAYNAL". Blog Patrimonial de la Médiathèque du Grand Narbonne (in French). Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  2. ^ a b c d Bibliothèque nationale de France. "Paul Raynal (1885-1971)".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ a b c Dransfield, Jane (15 June 1929). "The Mystery of Pain THE UNKOWN WARRIOR. By PAUL RAYNAL". The Saturday Review of Literature.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ Sokołowska-Paryż, Marzena. (2012). Reimagining the war memorial, reinterpreting the Great War : the formats of British commemorative fiction. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-4438-3764-4. OCLC 808999763.
  5. ^ a b c d Rhodes, S. A. (Solomon Alhadef) (1942). The contemporary French theater; representative plays. p. 314.
  6. ^ Domenget, Jean-François (2003). Montherlant critique. DROZ. p. 368. ISBN 978-2600008600.
  7. ^ Extraits du Dictionnaire universel des noms propre. Le Robert. 2015.
  8. ^ "PAUL RAYNAL". Le Monde.fr (in French). 1971-09-03. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
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