Memories

See also: Memory

The word Mémoires comes from Latin memoria . As a literary Kind, the word Mémoires is used only with the plural masculine. Some reports are of the chief-D' literary works: those of César, Commynes, Retz, Saint-Simon, Chateaubriand passed to the posterity. The memories fascinated and influenced many novelists, like Stendhal, Balzac, Dumas, Victor Hugo, Proust, Marguerite Yourcenar.

Several definitions were given by it. The memories are the relation, sometimes literary work, which makes a person starting from historical events or private in which it took part or of which it was the witness. The memories are also memories written by a person having been actor or pilot Public life of its time. One qualifies also memories a simple collection of memories, testimonys, of an individual. Broadly the memories hold at the same time of the history and the Autobiographie. Memories were written since the Antiquité. Then, the kind developed much at the end of the Renaissance, primarily in France: until the traditional age, the French Littérature is one of most prolific on the matter.

Characteristics of the kind

An autobiographical work

The memories are a literary kind with the crossing of the Autobiographie, Histoire and Diary. They consist of notes taken on the sharp one, of historical parts (extracted from newspapers, testimonys, Correspondance…), of Account S retrospective in Prose in which the author assumes his clean Récit and claims to restore the truth of the lived events.

The major difference between the autobiography and the memories lies in the nature of the told facts: in the first case, the account is centered on the private life of the author; in the second, on his time. In the memories, the author tells his own life but by centering his account on historical facts to which it assisted in the capacity as witness or taken share as an actor. The memories thus allow that which composes them to mix private life and public life but by giving more relief to the second. The author employs this skew to bear his own witness and lighting over one given historical period - and very often, to benefit from the occasion to point out his action.

A major historical source

Although they are not always of an irreproachable exactitude - the memorialist is not a model of impartiality - the memories have an undeniable value in historical knowledge. The production of the memories develops apart from the official Historiographie and against it. It is a direct testimony of high the Noblesse, the report of an personal experience, in the policy and the war. The memorialist is by nature closer than the Historien to the events than it describes. He charges the thousand details of a fact, the things seen or heard - circumstances disappeared and thus out of reach historian.

The memories should not be confused with the chronic . The chronicler is as the memorialist Contemporain events which he reports, but does not intervene in the public affairs. The chronicler consigns the historical facts in the order of their unfolding while the memorialist is much freer in the shape of his work.

The memorialist

The first memorialists of the Antiquité came from the world Politique or Militaire, well-read men middle of the time. To the Middle Ages, the memorialists belong to the nobility. The drafting of memories is a retrospective glance and the consequence of a retirement, undergone or voluntary. It is also very often a work of maturity. The memorialist opposes the historiographer profession, often basic extraction, whose feather is pledged with its Commanditaire. Progressively of the democratization of the culture, the base of the memorialists widened considerably and the kind was standardized. Today one confuses memories and memories. Number of them flower each year under this label (they are actually autobiographies) written (or dictated) by personalities of the world of the Chanson, Cinéma, Télévision.

First reports

The first reports date from the ancient Greece. In the Anabase, Xénophon (426 or 430 av. J. - C. - v. 355 av. J. - C.) tells the forwarding of Cyrus the Young person and the retirement of the Ten Thousand, countryside to which it took share. It is known that the king Pyrrhus I {{er}} (v. 318 - 272 av. J. - C.) wrote several memories on the art of the war which were lost. The memories were very widespread among Romans who called them comments. The most famous citizens consigned the memories of their public life or soldier. Sylla, Lucullus, César wrote Commentaires . 22 books of comments of Sylla, finished the day before its death, as those of Lucullus are lost.

The Commentaires on the War of Gaules of Jules César are a model of the genre. Literally memoranda , they are written as of the end of the campaign in 52 av. J. - C. in response to the attacks and the intrigues of its adversaries. It is a work of Propagande, although the Dictateur did not betray the truth. The clear and concise style was rented by the large Roman speakers Cicéron and Quintilien. The Comments on the Civil war , also of the hand of the future Imperator, bring back the events of the years 49 - 48 av. J. - C. at the time of the civil war which opposed Jules César and its partisans to Pompée.

Valère Maxime (Ier front century J. - C.), contemporary of Tibère, is the author memorable facts and words . This collection of anecdotes in nine books plunders works of historians of the time. Libanios (314 - 394) is a late Greek author and a large rhetorician. Its 1st Speech, written in 374, taken again, revised, increased throughout its life, interferes painting time with the account Autobiographique. Procope (v. 500 - 560) is the author of detailed accounts of the reign of the emperor Justinien (483 - 565), in particular of Discours on the Wars and of the secret Histoire . These memories with dubious paternity and the doubtful authenticity are a violent load against the Emperor and his wife Théodora.

Memorialists of the Middle Ages

The first reports in French language are accounts of the 4 {{E}} crusade (1202 - 1204). One owes them with Robert de Clari and Geoffroi de Villehardouin. Robert de Clari is a small holder péronnais. He took share with the crusade with his Pierre lord of Amiens. Its Conquest of Constantinople , written in Picardy dialect, reports the things seen or heard during forwarding. Geoffroi de Villehardouin, marshal of Champagne at the time when it takes the cross, is also the author of a Histoire of the conquest of Constantinople . Contrary to Clari, Villehardouin is of the nobility and occupies a leading role in the events which it describes, which gives to its work a great historical value.

Jean de Joinville (1224 - 1317) is the author of a Vie of Saint Louis , Hagiographie undertaken at the request of Jeanne I {{Re}} of Navarre. This work is completed in 1309. Joinville, which was the friend of Saint Louis, honors the memory with the king while drawing from his memories. Many episodes are personal accounts of the 7 {{E}} crusade to which took Joinville share. Olivier of Walk (1425 - 1501 or 1502) is a Burgundian officer. Its memories cover the major events of the French history of: interview of Montereau enters the future Charles VII and Jean Without Peur, the succession of Philippe the Good, the Traité of Arras, the end of the Guerre One hundred year old. It is also pilot ballotage of the Flandres between the kingdom of France and the dynasty of the Habsbourgs.

Philippe de Commynes (1445 - 1511) in prolog of its memories published in 1524 and 1528, justifies its intentions of memorialist: “To write what I knew and known of the facts of the king Louis Eleventh”. The independence of judgment, the impartiality of the observation made the fortune of this work. Commynes is less one memorialist making work of testimony that a historian and a judge of the men and facts of his time. Its step is not very distant from that of a Moraliste.

Memorialists of the Rebirth

Fleuranges (1491 - 1537), known as the “Adventureux Young person”, is of all the campaigns under François I {{er}}. It is distinguished with Marignan then division the captivity from the king, whom it makes profitable to write his Mémoires , published only in 1735. The birth of Protestantism is a spiritual revolution, and the prelude to the wars of religion. The memories of Martin Luther (1483 - 1546), the father of the Reform, appeared in 1835 thanks to the work of Michelet. Blaise de Monluc (1500 - 1577) is lord of Montluc, man of letters and governor of Guyenne. Having taken part in the Wars of Italy and the wars of religion, he writes at the end of his life his Commentaires, qualified by Henri IV of “Bible of the soldier”.

Pierre of Estoile (1546 - 1611), magistrate with the Parliament of Paris, begins the May 30th 1574, day of died of Charles IX, the drafting of its Registres newspapers . During 30 years, its untiring feather consigns the events of the reigns of Henri III and Henri IV, until his death. Brantôme, Agrippa of Aubigné is also stuck them at the end of their life to the play of the memories. Marguerite de Valois (the Margot Queen), witness of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and the revolution of the provinces against the king of Spain, leaves memories illuminants on the court of Valois. Guillaume de Saulx-Tavannes, lieutenant of the king Henri III in Burgundy, was distinguished during the Ligue. Its historical Mémoires covers the years 1560 with 1596 and is printed in Paris in 1625. The Memories of Sully, minister of Henri IV, are lessons of economy. They are written with the second nobody. These memories contain the Great Intention , a complete plan of reorganization of the European States directed by a General advice.

François de Bassompierre (1579 - 1646), Marshal of France under the reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIII, is characterized by its feats of arms and its taste for hunting. Its Memories full with anecdotes and spirit later revealed its vocation of memorialist with Saint-Simon. Barbey d' Aurevilly read them with delights. The marshal Louis de Pontis (1583 - 1670) was useful in the armies 56 years, under the reigns of Henri IV, Louis XIII and Louis XIV. He withdraws himself with Port-Royal-of-Fields to write his memories. One finds there a table very black of the Richelieu ministry.

In Italy, Benvenuto Cellini (1500 - 1571) Florentin sculptor of the Rebirth, is the author of memories on his life entitled Vie of Benvenuto Cellini by him even . These memories are used “to supplement” Quickly the of Vasari, where Cellini is not mentioned among the best painters, sculptors and architects Italian.

Memorialists of the Old Mode

Memorialists of the Great century

The Great century is one time ostentation for the memorialists. Around 1675, much of actors of the Sling, aged and put at the variation by Louis XIV, writes their memories. The publication of memories becomes a literary fashion: one does not count less than 260 titles. This fleurissement is explained by the French history: the Sling, the regency of Anne of Austria, the policy of Mazarin then the rise to power of the young person Louis XIV are events rich in intrigues, plots, stories secret, which make the salt of the memories of this time. As of their publication “pirates” in 1662, the Mémoires of Rochefoucauld (1613 - 1680) are unanimously applauded. These memories, whose composition precedes famous the Maximes , begin like an autobiography under the reign of Louis XIII and are completed at the end of the Fronde in 1653. They describe a history worthy of a Roman of adventures and a country at the edge of the civil war. The author tells his romantic exploits with the service of the queen Anne of Austria, his competition with Richelieu then Mazarin. The Sling is analyzed there with a clearness of moralist.

The Memories ambitious cardinal of Retz (1613 - 1679), perhaps undertaken at the request of Madam de Sévigné, appear after its death in 1717. These Mémoires , whose preliminary draft was simple a Autobiographie, makes alternate portraits, psychological examinations, account of events, political analyzes. Rather than to explain the springs of the history, the will of Retz was to try to include/understand why it failed so completely. The untruths are numerous but the work continues to enjoy a great reputation for its literary qualities and the feather assassinates of the author. Francoise de Motteville (1615 - 1689), first chambermaid of Anne of Austria, is the author of memories very factual. Francoise de Motteville, who was the daily witness of the life of the queen, held newspaper of what she saw and heard. It is this newspaper which was published under the title of Mémoires . Those have an important historical value: because of privileged position of the author, the facts, reported with frankness and bona fide, are many, authentic and first hand. This tyrannical concern all to say, all to light, is the merit and the lacking of its work: the author does not move back in front of the talkative detail, which makes from there the reading tiresome and arid.

Roger de Bussy-Rabutin (1618 - 1693), the turbulent cousin of Marie de Sévigné, author of a scandal with his Histoire in love with Gaules , which is worth to him in 1665 royal disgrace and embastillement, is released one year then exiled later during 16 years in its grounds of Burgundy. To comfort itself to have stopped its military career and its rise at the Court, Bussy-Rabutin writes its Mémoires there, which reflect well its adventurous character and its taste for the galantery. Tallemant of Réaux (1619 - 1692) is the author of the Historiettes , collection short biographies men and famous women of his time (writers, statesmen, courtesans), invaluable for the literary history of the {{S|XVII|E|}}. Initially published clandestinely, they will be revealed in integrality in 1834. Nicolas Fontaine (1625 - 1709) is the author of invaluable Mémoires to be used with the history as Port-Royal published in 1725.

The list of the memorialists of this time is without end: let us quote Marie de Nemours, Gourville, Boulainvilliers, Hortense and Marie Mancini, the Grande Miss, Montrésor, Fare, the princess Palatine, Saint-Réal, Choisy, the Dwarf of Tillemont, Madam de Lafayette, the Marquise of Caylus, the Mémoires of the Abbé of Choisy equipped as a woman .

The fashion is also with the Pseudo-memories, whose Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras was made a speciality. The Mémoires of Artagnan is its most known work. Antoine Hamilton is the author of the Mémoires of the life of the count de Grammont which recalls the course of his/her brother-in-law Philibert de Gramont, French aristocrat, at the Court of England under the reign of Charles II.

Torcy (1665 - 1746), Secretary of State to the Foreign affairs under Louis XIV, is the author of Mémoires which are lessons of policy. Saint-Simon the fact of recopying for its use, and Voltaire will make use of it for its Siècle of Louis XIV . The marquis de Dangeau (1638 - 1720) is the author of vast a Journal where it describes during 30 years the life at the court of Versailles at the end of the reign of Louis XIV. These poor memories are more known to have been used as starting point with those of the large memorialist Saint-Simon ( Additions with the Newspaper of Dangeau ).

Saint-Simon (1675 - 1755) attended the Court of the sun king Soleil without playing of major political role, much to its regret and in spite of several attempts missed to occupy of the stations. Tiny room to the observation, Saint-Simon records all and restores in a large “mirror historial” the last decades of the time of Louis XIV, the Régence and the history of its life. The first complete edition appears in 1829 - 1830. These Mémoires is the monumental work of a genius, virulent moralist and incomparable painter. The occasion is beautiful to take its revenge, and the author spreads his aggressiveness in a style impassioned until violence (many portrait-loads). Their influence extends on personalities as various as Chateaubriand, Proust, Stendhal, the Goncourt, Barbey d' Aurevilly, Jules Renard, Colette, Marguerite Yourcenar.

Memorialists of the end of the Old Mode

A great number of memories result from. So much are interesting testimonys and are of historical interest, none cannot claim with the literary row of masterpiece. It is the time of the living rooms and many these works are reflections of the literary life.

The Newspaper and memories of the marquis d' Argenson reflect the political history of the reign of Louis XV. The memorialist is made readily moralist. The count de Saint-Priest occupies of the stations under Louis XV and Louis XVI. Its varied Mémoires makes alternate military campaigns and life of court. The Memories on Louis XV and Madam de Pompadour Madam of Hausset describe corruptions with the head of the kingdom. The memories of Duclos or Alexandre de Tilly paint manners of the end of. Besenval, member of the private circle of the Queen, is an interesting witness of the life of the Court under Louis XVI, and of the anguish of the Ancien Mode. It leaves scandalous memories, just like the cardinal of Bernis. The baroness of Oberkirch writes Mémoires on the court of Louis XVI and the French company before 1789 . Lauzun leaves Mémoires on the court rich person in gallant stories.

The great writers of the time left often anecdotic memories. The Mémoires of youth of Marguerite de Staal-Delaunay relate to the years of Régence. Voltaire, following his estrangement with Frederic II of Prussia, writes memories full with resentment and admiration. Marmontel is the author of Mémoires of a father for the education as of his children published after his death. The Against-confessions. History of Madam de Montbrillant of Louise d' Épinay are an autobiographical novel with keys, written using Grimm and of Diderot, in answer to the Confessions of Rousseau. The Mémoires of Beaumarchais are rented by Voltaire.

Félicité of Genlis (1746 - 1830) brushes with nostalgia manners and the dreams of the aristocratic company of Old Mode the day before the Revolution. In its living room of the street of Bellechasse to Paris, it receives the writers of its time and the opponents to the absolute monarchy: one crosses in his memories Marie Of Deffand, Voltaire, Rousseau, Mrs. Of Barry, Talleyrand. Its work intermingles anecdotes and analyzes, and testifies to the “softness of living”: refined art of the festival and the entertainment, art of the conversation, ritual society men, animated literary life.

Mrs Campan (1752 - 1822), chambermaid of Marie-Antoinette which it serves until in 1792, is the author of memories which are a single testimony on the Ancien Mode, the Révolution, the daily life and the personality of the Queen. The memories of Henriette-Lucie Dillon, marchioness of the Tower of the Pine Gouvernet, wife of the count de Gouvernet (marquis of the Tower of the Pine in 1825) inform on the end of the Old mode, the Revolution, the life under the Consulat and the Empire. Pages report the adventure of the exile in America, where Henriette-Lucie briefly carries out a life of countryside and binds friendship with the Indians.

Memorialists of the Revolution and the Directory

The revolutionist Mrs Roland (1754 - 1793), victim of the purging of 93, composed his memories in the urgency. The Memories of Madam the duchess of Tourzel, controlling children of France of 1789 to 1795 report the escape of Game preserve and detention with the Tour of the Temple.

Rivarol (1753 - 1801), fine and corrosive spirit, has the taste of the polemic. It takes the defense of monarchy in its Mémoires counter-revolutionaries , collection of its articles of the political Journal and national .

The marchioness of Rochejaquelein (1772 - 1857) is the author of the most famous memories devoted to the Guerre of the Vendée. They will inspire Balzac for its Chouans and Barbey d' Aurevilly for its Chevalier Of the Keys .

The Mémoires of Paul Barras (1755 - 1829) cover the Revolution and the period of the Directoire. Louis-Mathieu Molé (1781 - 1855) wrote his Souvenirs of youth, 1793-1803 .

Memories of artists, agents of the king and adventurers

Among the notable memories of this time, it is necessary to quote the work of three adventurers: Giuseppe Gorani, Casanova ( History of my life ) and the prince de Ligne.

Elisabeth Vigée Brown the (1755 - 1842), celebrates it artist, official painter having fled the Revolution, is also the author of the Mémoires of a portraitist . Lorenzo da Ponte, Librettist of the Opera of Vienna, having collaborated with Mozart, wrote to them his.

Certain agents of the king, like Claude de Forbin and Scipion de Castries (both of the royal Navy), the marquis of Maisonfort ( Memories of a royalist agent ), Canler (chief of the service of safety) left memories which inform on their functions.

Memorialists of

Memories around Napoleon I {{er}}

The exile in Sainte-Hélène gives place to confidences of the deposed Emperor, collect by those which accompany it: Henri Gatien Bertrand, Gaspard Gourgaud, Charles-Tristan de Montholon, Pons of Herault and especially Emmanuel de Las Boxes. the Memorial of Grey waxbill is the fruit of talks quasi-daily newspapers of Mow Boxes with the Emperor. The work, which enjoys an immense notoriety, is more faithful to Napoleon than with historical truth.

The Napoleonean wars and the military life are documented by the colonel Marcellin de Marbot, the general Hugo ( Mémoires on the war of Spain ), Lavalette. The intimate life of Corsica is told in the memories of Bourrienne, close friend of Napoleon and in those of Louis Constant Wairy his manservant. The empress Joséphine is the subject of the Mémoires of Georgette Ducrest and of the Mémoires Miss Avrillion, his first chambermaid. The queen Hortense, daughter-in-law of Napoleon, took the feather for her clean Mémoires .

Literary memories and memories

Abroad certain authors of quality have care to write their life. In Italy we have the memories of Goldoni, Pellico ( My prisons ), of Leopardi, and the Vita of Alfieri. In Germany those of Goethe ( Poetry and truth ). In England, Thomas Moore writes the posthumous memories of Byron in margin of the newspaper and the correspondence of the large poet.

Born under Louis XV, died under Louis-Philippe, Talleyrand (1754 - 1838) incarnates cynicism and the ambition in the public affairs. He knows eight modes, six sovereigns and becomes six times Foreign Minister. Its course is bent treasons (against the clergy, Napoleon, Charles X) and of disavowals to cling to the capacity and to last. Its talent of perfect opportunist leads it to compose of the Mémoires , which show it concerned size of the State. Talleyrand does not write to tell its life or the events of its time, but for time present. It is the opposite of Chateaubriand (1768 - 1848), missed statesman, whose imposing Mémoires of in addition to-falls (its masterpiece) aimed initially at a posthumous publication. Work hesitates in several places between memory and fiction. Their drafting is spread out over more than 30 years. It puts in scene its life of writer traveller, exiled, professor, ambassador, minister. It is there royalist convinced and large admiror of Napoleon, to which it devotes a good part of its book.

The Accounts of an aunt, Mémoires of the countess of Boigne born from Osmond (1781 - 1866) reflect the evolutions of the fashionable life between the end of the Old Mode and the end of the Monarchie of July. During its long existence, she sees ravelling eleven different reigns and modes. Its Parisian living room of the hotel of Lannion, then of the street of Anjou, its dinners of Sunday evening in Châtenay, accommodated the large actors of the literary, political and diplomatic life of its time. Proust took as a starting point it for its duchess of Guermantes and its memories to describe the life of the living rooms. Their first publication goes back to 1907.

The princess Dorothée de Courlande (1793 - 1862), duchess of Dino, is famous for her high intelligence and her great beauty. She reports her high existence colors in the spheres of the European aristocracy in Mémoires which reveal it writer. Glories of the time do not fail to write their memories: Alexandre Dumas ( My Memories ), George Sand ( History of my life ). Victor Hugo leaves memories to the image of its person, Choses seen , a work décousue going from 1830 to 1885. Stendhal, ignored of alive sound, masks to hardly them his in Vie of Henry Brulard . It leaves moreover Souvenirs of egotism . The memories of the famous criminals Lacenaire and Vidocq are truths serials and meet success. The Mémoires of Vidcoq influence in particular the characters of Vautrin (in Balzac), of Dupin (Edgar Poe), and of Jean Valjean (Victor Hugo).

The collections of memories flower in this period: Marie d' Agoult, Tocqueville, Maxime Of the Camp, Ernest Renan, Barbey d' Aurevilly ( Memorandum ). Gustave Flaubert with Mémoires of insane a delivers a lyric and anticipated autobiography - he writes it at 18 years - and November, which takes part of the same inspiration.

The type-setters Hector Berlioz and Charles Gounod left memories, which mix the autobiography with the artistic considerations and musical esthetics. Horace of Viel-Manor house writes caustic memories on the Second Empire. The end of century and the Belle Time are abundantly commented on. Jules and Edmond de Goncourt left monumental a Journal, Mémoires of the literary life become famous for its gall. Louise Michel (1830 - 1905), writer and militant anarchistic, wrote the Commune, Histoire and memories and of the Mémoires . Judith Gautier wrote the Collar of the days , Robert de Montesquiou the unobtrusive Steps . The famous dancers Cléo de Mérode and Isadora Duncan wrote their memories.

Memories and memories of

Memories of statesmen and political leaders

The border becomes fuzzy between newspaper, memories, memories and accounts autobiographical. Certain works remain memories of tradition. Charles de Gaulle (1890 - 1970) is the author of Mémoires of war and Mémoires of hope , conscientious works, decorated of a great style. Its British counterpart Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), prize winner of the Nobel Prize of literature in 1953, is recognized memorialist and respected historian. Valery Giscard d'Estaing is the author of memories over his septennate ( capacity and the life ). Certain spiritual and political leaders, like Gandhi, Nehru, Thomas Edward Lawrence, Tenzin Gyatso (current the Dalaï LAMA) or Malcolm X, left committed autobiographies.

André Malraux (1901 - 1976) is the author of Antimémoires , first part of the Miroir of the limbs , published in 1967. Antimémoires are a kind in oneself. The author defines his work as memories into negative: " I call this book “Antimémoires”, because he answers a question that the Memories do not pose, and does not answer those which they pose. " Antimémoires mix fictitious, true accounts and false memories, daydreams and meditations. Malraux also publishes in 1971 the Oaks which one cuts down , work of memories and reflections, fruits of discussions with the de Gaulle general.

Accounts and notebooks of war

The First World War mobilizes a whole generation of writers. Autobiographical and sometimes fictionalized works of Henri Barbusse ( Fire ), Ernst Jünger ( Storms of steel ), Louis-Ferdinand Celine ( Breakage-pipe , Notebook of the cuirassier Destouches ), Roland Dorgelès ( wood Crosses), Blaise Cendrars ( the cut Hand ), Maurice Genevoix ( Those of 14 ) give a report on this experiment traumatisante.

Polemics are born in connection with these works which mix testimony and literature, most important of them being started by the publication in 1929 of the monumental test of Jean Norton Cru entitled Témoins : the books of Dorgelès and Barbusse in particular are highly criticized, causing virulent reactions on behalf of the interested parties.

Memories of the Second world war

The experiment of the concentration camps gave place to many testimonys. Primo Levi wrote If it is a man , account of its experiment with Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel reports his in the Night . Also let us quote the Great Voyage of Jorge Semprún, the blood of the hope of Samuel Pisar, the Requiem of Terezin of Joseph Bor, the Mankind of Robert Antelme, works of Charlotte Delbo and those of Imre Kertész.

Close relations of the memories, one finds the accounts of combatants of the Air force Pierre Clostermann ( the Large Circus ), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ( Fighter pilot , Lettre with an hostage ), those of the Army Sven Hassel ( the legion of damnés the ) and Joseph Kessel ( the Battalion of the Sky ) or US Air Force with Moritz Thomsen ( My two wars ). The French Résistance is documented in works of Louis Aragon ( the Museum Grévin , the French Diane ), Marc Bloch ( the Strange defeat ) and Joseph Kessel ( the Army of the shades ). Alain Robbe-Grillet ( the Mirror which returns ) and François Cavanna ( Russkoffs ) delivered testimonys in connection with the Service of Obligatory Work. At the time of its detention, the S commander of Auschwitz Rudolf Höß wrote memories published in 1958. Ernst Jünger delivered in its newspapers of war published in 1949 a personal table of the countryside of France of 1940 on the German side as well as its experiment of officer of occupation in Paris.

Autobiographical accounts

The mixture of the kinds is accentuated. The distinction between memories, memories, autobiography (and sometimes the fiction) becomes fuzzy. The writers undertake autobiographical accounts rather than memories: François Mauriac ( Memories interiors , New interior Reports ), Blaise Cendrars ( the Man struck down , the cut Hand , Bourlinguer , the Allotment of the sky ), Simone de Beauvoir ( Memories of an arranged young girl , the Force of the age ), Sartre ( the Words ), Bianca Lamblin ( Memories of a disturbed young girl ), Charles Bukowski ( Memories of a step large-thing ).

Many accounts concentrate over the years of training. The writers do not hesitate to give a romantic turning to the memories of their childhood: Marguerite Yourcenar (trilogy the Labyrinth of the world ), Marcel Pagnol (autobiographical novel of the Memories of childhood ), Albert Cohen ( O you, human brothers ), Julien Green ( Memories of the happy days ). Georges Perec in W or the memory of childhood makes alternate a chapter on two a fiction and an autobiographical account.

Memories of celebrities

By abuse language, the media qualify memories indifferently any autobiographical text or collection of memories. The memories of musicians or their close relations (friendly, producing, managers) are a tendency: Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Johnny Cash, Nick Mason, Bill Wyman, Andrew Loog Oldham, Ronnie Spector, Dee Dee Cleans, Sting, Bob Dylan and soon Ron Wood. Memories of Keith Richard are announced. Large scenario writers took the feather and written the history of their life (Josef von Sternberg, Charles Chaplin), imitated by many actors: Arletty, Marlène Dietrich, Jean Marsh, Jean-Claude Brialy. The world of television is represented: Michel Drucker, Thierry Ardisson, Patrick Sebastien. The sportsmen are not in remainder: Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini, Dominique Rocheteau.

Memories of anonymities

Regularly anonymous personalities undertake to write their memories because of their edifying life, of the singularity of their profession passed, their old membership of an criminal organization or a governmental organization whose wheels are badly known: memories of old agents of the CIA (Robert Baer…), memories of secret agents (Pierre-Henri Bunel, Pierre Martinet…), memories of yakuza, memories of geisha (Yuki Inoue, Mineko Iwasaki) etc

Works of fiction

The kind of the memories often influenced the dramatic processes of the romantic writing. Many novels are presented in the form of the memories (or an autobiography) fictitious characters. This party taken reinforces the reality of the illusion. Some examples:

N.B. For the memories fictitious real characters (like the Memories of Hadrian of Marguerite Yourcenar) to consult the article of the Pseudo-memories.

Random links:Pandemonium (video game) | Ibn Khaldoun | Climate of Green Bay (Wisconsin) | County of Funing (Jiangsu) | Christophe Wahl | Judith_A._Reisman