Georges de Porto-Riche (20 May 1849, Bordeaux, Gironde – 5 September 1930, Paris) was a French dramatist and novelist.
Biography Georges was born into a Jewish-Italian assimilated family.
At the age of twenty, his pieces in verse began to be produced at the Parisian theatres; he also wrote some books of verse which met with a favorable reception, but these early works were not reprinted. In Germaine, the passionate and exacting heroine of Amoureuse, Mme Réjane found one of her best parts.
In 1898 he published Théâtre d'amour, which contained four of his most celebrated pieces: La Chance de Françoise, L'Infidèle, Amoureuse, and Le Passé. The title given to this collection indicates the difference between the plays of Porto-Riche, which focus on human emotion and psychological drama, and the political or sociological pieces of many of his contemporaries. Even in Les Malefilâtres (Odéon, 1904), whose characters are drawn from the working class, love remains the central focus.
He was elected to the 6th seat of the Académie Française in 1923. However, he was never officially received to the Académie, because the reading committee found the eulogy he wrote for his predecessor unsatisfactory, and he refused to rewrite it. Porto-Riche was also named a Grand officier in the Legion of Honour.
He died in 1930 and was buried in the churchyard of Saint Valery in Varengeville-sur-Mer, Normandy.
Works
1872: Primo Verba, poems 1873: Le Vertige, comedy in 1 act and in verse, Paris, Odéon, 27 June 1874: Pommes d'Ève (1874) 1875: Un drame sous Philippe II, drama in four acts and in verse, Paris, Odéon, 14 April 1877: Tout n'est pas rose, poems (1877) 1878: Les Deux Fautes, one-act comedy, Odéon, 18 December 1878: Vanina, fantaisie vénitienne in 2 parts and in verse 1888: La Chance de Françoise, one-act comedy, in prose 1889: Bonheur manqué, carnet d'un amoureux 1890: L'Infidèle, comedy in 1 act and in verse, music by Francis Thomé, Paris, Théâtre d'Application, 19 April 1891: Amoureuse, three-act comedy, Odéon, 25 April 1897: Le Passé, five-act comedy,Odéon, 30 December ; reduced to 4 acts at the revival at the Théâtre-Français in 1902. 1904: Les Malefilâtre, two-act comedy, Théâtre de la Renaissance, 28 April 1911: Le Vieil homme, five-act play, Paris, Renaissance, 12 January 1912: Zubiri, fantasy in 1 act drawn from a story by Victor Hugo in Choses vues, Paris, Comédie royale, 1 February 1915: Quelques vers d'autrefois 1918: Le Marchand d'estampes, three-act drama 1920: Anatomie sentimentale, pages préférées 1923: Veux-tu que je sois ta femme ?, short story 1927: Sous mes yeux 1929: Les Vrais Dieux, fantaisie antique in 2 parts, Paris, Théâtre Albert Ier, 22 November
Bibliography Henry Marx : Georges de Porto-Riche, son œuvre, La Nouvelle Revue Critique, Paris, 1924 Wolfgang Asholt: Gesellschaftskritisches Theater im Frankreich der Belle epoque (1887–1914) (Studia Romanica; 59). Verlag, Winter, Heidelberg 1984. (zugl. Habilitationsschrift, Universität Münster 1983). Hermann Bahr: Glossen zum Wiener Thewater (1903–1906). S. Fischer, Berlin 1907. Hendrik Brugmans: Georges de Porto-Riche. Sa vie, son oeuvre. Droz, Paris 1934. Arthur Eloesser: Literarische Portraits aus dem modernen Frankreich. S. Fischer, Berlin 1904. W. Müller: Georges de Porto-Riche. Vrin Paris 1934.
References
Georges de PORTO-RICHE on the site of the Académie-Française.