Christine Arnothy
Christine Arnothy (born Irène Kovach de Szendrö; 20 November 1930 – 6 October 2015) was a Hungarian-born French writer. She was born in Budapest. Her first book, J'ai quinze ans et je ne veux pas mourir (I Am Fifteen and I Do Not Want to Die)[1] was submitted for a literary competition and won the Grand Prix Verité in 1954.
J'ai quinze ans et je ne veux pas mourir is based on her diary, which recorded her experiences as a teenager during the 1945 siege of Budapest. The book was reviewed in Harper's Magazine in 1956,[2] The Daily Express,[3] The New York Times,[4]Herald Tribune,[5] San Francisco Examiner,[6] Chicago Sunday Tribune[7] and The Times.[8]
Her second novel "Dieu est en retard", Gallimard, 1955 ("God is Late") and her third book, "Il n'est pas si facile de vivre ", Fayard, 1957 ("It Is Not So Easy To Live"), describe the travels of a stateless young woman without a passport. Other novels include "Le Cardinal Prisonnier", Julliard, 1962 ("The Captive Cardinal"), "La Saison des Américains", Cercle du Nouveau Livre, 1964 ("The American Season") and Le Cavalier Mongol, Groupe Flammarion 1976, for which she received the price from the French Academy, Prix de la nouvelle de l'Académie Française.[9]
Personal life
Arnothy spent her childhood in Budapest. Her family fled the russian occupied city of Budapest and took refuge in Austria in 1948. During the occupation and until they fled to Austria, Arnothy wrote her experiences in her daily journal by candlelight, which was the basis of her first book J'ai quinze ans et je ne veux pas mourir. She studied at a French-speaking school in Austria and continued writing. She then moved to France where she continued her studies at the Sorbornne In Paris. It was in France where she published under her French Name, Christine Arnothy.
Arnothy married Claude Bellanger (1909–1978) a French newspaper publisher in 1964[10] with whom she had two sons, Pierre and Francois.[11]
She also wrote several detective stories under the pseudonym William Dickinson, among other books.[12][13]
References
- ^ "Décès de la romancière Christine Arnothy". RTBF Info (in French).
- ^ Harpers Magazine review of J'ai quinze ans et je ne veux pas mourir, harpers.org; accessed 12 October 2015.
- ^ The Daily Express, 25 February 1956; "For this ugly story is made beautiful by Christine's love of life: her enjoyment of humanity. What a triumph to live through such horror and to make it a resounding success."
- ^ The New York Times, 10 June 1956; "This astonishing tale always rings true and it is not surprising that in the original French it won the Prix des Vérités. Christine Arnothy writes with compassion, economy and reticence."
- ^ Herald Tribune, 10 June 1956; "The juxtaposition of tender youth with war's brutality gives any book an irresistible poignance, and when the narrator has so marked a flair for writing as Christine Arnothy, the story can hardly fail to move."
- ^ San Francisco Examiner, 11 June 1956; "Seldom have horror and tenderness been more effectively juxtaposed."
- ^ Chicago Sunday Tribune, 8 July 1956; "The incidents recorded by Miss Arnothy set the book apart from other such records. As in the diary of Anne Frank, such a story becomes more tender, yet richer, because of the point of view. (…) It is a book believable and intense, with a "you are there" quality that makes the ultimate fleeing from the city and then from the country a great relief."
- ^ The Times, 15 March 1956; "If Miss Arnothy's account is credible, yet not intolerable, this is in part due to her instinctive skill as a writer, and in part to the sudden flashes of humanity which light up the terror."
- ^ "Académie Française". Académie Française.
- ^ International Who's who of Authors and Writers. Europa Publications, Taylor & Francis Group. 2008. ISBN 9781857434286.
- ^ "We owe Claude Bellanger what brings us together today". World Association of News Publishers.
- ^ "J'aime la vie by Christine Arnothy William Dickinson".
- ^ "Mrs Clark et les enfants du diable". goodreads.
Sources
- Citatum
External links
- Works by or about Christine Arnothy at the Internet Archive
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- 1930 André Malraux
- 1931 Pierre Bost
- 1932 Simonne Ratel
- 1933 Robert Bourget-Pailleron
- 1934 Marc Bernard
- 1935 Jacques Debû-Bridel [fr]
- 1936 René Laporte [fr]
- 1937 Romain Roussel
- 1938 Paul Nizan
- 1939 Roger de Lafforest
- 1940
- 1941
- 1942
- 1943
- 1944
- 1945 Roger Vailland
- 1946 Jacques Nels [fr]
- 1947 Pierre Daninos
- 1948 Henry Castillou [fr]
- 1949 Gilbert Sigaux [fr]
- 1950 Georges Auclair [fr]
- 1951 Jacques Perret
- 1952 Jean Dutourd
- 1953 Louis Chauvet
- 1954 Maurice Boissais
- 1955 Félicien Marceau
- 1956 Armand Lanoux
- 1957 Paul Guimard
- 1958 Bertrand Poirot-Delpech
- 1959 Antoine Blondin
- 1960 Jean Portelle [fr]
- 1960 Henry Muller
- 1961 Jean Ferniot
- 1962 Henri-François Rey
- 1963 Renée Massip
- 1964 René Fallet
- 1965 Alain Bosquet
- 1966 Kléber Haedens
- 1967 Yvonne Baby
- 1968 Christine de Rivoyre
- 1969 Pierre Schoendoerffer
- 1970 Michel Déon
- 1971 Pierre Rouanet [fr]
- 1972 Georges Walter [fr]
- 1973 Lucien Bodard
- 1974 René Mauriès
- 1975 Voldemar Lestienne
- 1976 Raphaële Billetdoux
- 1977 Jean-Marie Rouart
- 1978 Jean-Didier Wolfromm
- 1979 François Cavanna
- 1980 Christine Arnothy
- 1981 Louis Nucéra
- 1982 Éric Ollivier
- 1983 Jacques Duquesne [fr]
- 1984 Michèle Perrein
- 1985 Serge Lentz
- 1986 Philippe Labro
- 1987 Raoul Mille [fr]
- 1988 Bernard-Henri Lévy
- 1989 Alain Gerber [fr]
- 1990 Bayon [fr]
- 1991 Sébastien Japrisot
- 1992 Dominique Bona
- 1993 Jean-Pierre Dufreigne
- 1994 Marc Trillard
- 1995 Franz-Olivier Giesbert
- 1996 Eduardo Manet
- 1997 Éric Neuhoff
- 1998 Gilles Martin-Chauffier [fr]
- 1999 Jean-Christophe Rufin
- 2000 Patrick Poivre d'Arvor
- 2001 Stéphane Denis
- 2002 Gonzague Saint Bris
- 2003 Frédéric Beigbeder
- 2004 Florian Zeller
- 2005 Michel Houellebecq
- 2006 Michel Schneider
- 2007 Christophe Ono-dit-Biot [fr]
- 2008 Serge Bramly
- 2009 Yannick Haenel
- 2010 Jean-Michel Olivier [fr]
- 2011 Morgan Sportès
- 2012 Philippe Djian
- 2013 Nelly Alard
- 2014 Mathias Menegoz
- 2015 Laurent Binet
- 2016 Serge Joncour
- 2017 Jean-René Van der Plaetsen
- 2018 Thomas B. Reverdy
- 2019 Karine Tuil
- 2020 Irène Frain
- 2021 Mathieu Palain [fr]
- 2022 Philibert Humm [fr]