Erik Orsenna
Author of Grammar Is a Sweet, Gentle Song
About the Author
Erik Orsenna is currently director of the International Center of the Sea.
Series
Works by Erik Orsenna
Associated Works
Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books Retold Through Twitter (2009) — Preface, some editions — 304 copies
L'épopée sibérienne : La Russie à la conquête de la Sibérie et du Grand… (2018) — Foreword, some editions — 6 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Orsenna, Érik
- Legal name
- Arnoult, Erik
- Other names
- Arnoult, Eric
- Birthdate
- 1947-03-22
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- France
- Country (for map)
- France
- Birthplace
- Paris, France
- Education
- Institut d'études politique, Paris (Diplôme, 19 68)
Lycée La Bruyère, Versailles - Occupations
- Haut fonctionnaire
Romancier - Organizations
- Académie française (1998)
- Awards and honors
- Prix Goncourt (1988)
- Short biography
- Né en 1947, Érik Orsenna est romancier et membre de l'Académie française. Après des études de philosophie, de sciences politiques et d'économie, il devient enseignant-chercheur, puis docteur d'état en finance internationale et en économie du développement à l'Université de Paris I et à l'École normale supérieure. En 1981, il travaille au ministère de la Coopération, aux côtés de Jean-Pierre Cot. Conseiller culturel à l'Élysée de 1983 à 1984, il seconde Roland Dumas sur les questions africaines au ministère des affaires étrangères, au début des années 1990. Parallèlement maître des requêtes au Conseil d'État en décembre 1985, il est nommé conseiller d'État en 2000. Érik Orsenna fait partie du Haut Conseil de la Francophonie.
Érik Orsenna est l'auteur de nombreux ouvrages, parmi lesquels La Vie comme à Lausanne (Seuil, 1977), prix Roger-Nimier 1978 et L'Exposition coloniale (Seuil, 1988), prix Goncourt 1988. Érik Orsenna a notamment publié Histoire du monde en neuf guitares, avec Thierry Arnoult (Fayard, 1996), Deux étés (Fayard, 1997), Longtemps (Fayard, 1998), Portrait d'un homme heureux : André Le Nôtre (Fayard, 2000), La Grammaire est une chanson douce (Stock, 2001), Madame Bâ (Stock, 2003), Portrait du Gulf Stream : Éloge des courants : promenade (Seuil, 2005), Voyage aux pays du coton : Petit précis de mondialisation (Fayard, 2006) prix du livre d'économie 2007, Salut au Grand Sud, avec Isabelle Autissier (Stock, 2006) et La Révolte des accents (Stock, 2007).
Members
Reviews
A popular biography of Beethoven published to mark the 251st anniversary of his birth ...???
... Well, for the reason we all know, the Beethoven-year 2020 was not all that it might have been. In January of that year, Orsenna got together with two musicians to develop an evening of music and readings about the life and works of the great composer. The virus turned up and prevented them from ever taking their performance on tour, and eventually Orsenna repurposed his part of it as the next in his series of chatty biographies, following on from Le Nôtre, La Fontaine, and Beaumarchais. But by then the moment for new Beethoven biographies had almost passed.
The result is an engaging, lively account of Beethoven's life, with a lot of emphasis on the political and social context of his times and a few entertaining parallels from Orsenna's own experience as a courtier during the reign of François Mitterand, and some rather vague thoughts on the political role music, and Beethoven's in particular, has played and continues to play. And what relation "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" has to "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité".
This would probably be an enjoyable introduction to the subject for a non-musician, but it's meant as a handy digest of basic facts and it's unlikely to add anything to what you've already read in other books about Beethoven, particularly since it doesn't say anything about the music itself. Obviously that part would have been handled by the musicians if the project had gone ahead as planned. But he also skimps on some quite important details, for instance when he talks about Beethoven setting Schiller's Ode to joy but doesn't say anything about the poem's complicated textual history, shortened several times by Schiller himself and practically rewritten completely by Beethoven. There are also various minor bits of sloppiness in the text (like his assertion on the second page that all the many small German states in the 18th century were ruled by Prince-Electors) that would have gone unnoticed or been corrected on the fly in a live performance, but stick out rather in print.
Fun, but of rather limited appeal.… (more)
... Well, for the reason we all know, the Beethoven-year 2020 was not all that it might have been. In January of that year, Orsenna got together with two musicians to develop an evening of music and readings about the life and works of the great composer. The virus turned up and prevented them from ever taking their performance on tour, and eventually Orsenna repurposed his part of it as the next in his series of chatty biographies, following on from Le Nôtre, La Fontaine, and Beaumarchais. But by then the moment for new Beethoven biographies had almost passed.
The result is an engaging, lively account of Beethoven's life, with a lot of emphasis on the political and social context of his times and a few entertaining parallels from Orsenna's own experience as a courtier during the reign of François Mitterand, and some rather vague thoughts on the political role music, and Beethoven's in particular, has played and continues to play. And what relation "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" has to "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité".
This would probably be an enjoyable introduction to the subject for a non-musician, but it's meant as a handy digest of basic facts and it's unlikely to add anything to what you've already read in other books about Beethoven, particularly since it doesn't say anything about the music itself. Obviously that part would have been handled by the musicians if the project had gone ahead as planned. But he also skimps on some quite important details, for instance when he talks about Beethoven setting Schiller's Ode to joy but doesn't say anything about the poem's complicated textual history, shortened several times by Schiller himself and practically rewritten completely by Beethoven. There are also various minor bits of sloppiness in the text (like his assertion on the second page that all the many small German states in the 18th century were ruled by Prince-Electors) that would have gone unnoticed or been corrected on the fly in a live performance, but stick out rather in print.
Fun, but of rather limited appeal.… (more)
Eine Insel, dreieinhalb Kilometer lang und anderthalb breit. Dort lebt Gilles, der frühere Freund Cocteaus, Übersetzer und Herr über 47 Katzen. Er soll Nabokovs "Ada" übersetzen, ein so schwieriges Unterfangen, daß er die Briefe des Verlegers aus Paris vorsichtshalber ungeöffnet läßt. Als die Situation nach Jahren unhaltbar wird, entschließen sich die Inselbewohner zu einem Akt unerwarteter Solidarität ...
"A Versailles, souvent je tends l'oreille, rêvant de retrouver une amitié, une conversation quotidienne et qui dura trente-cinq ans. Entre Louis XIV et André Le Nôtre. Le monarque le plus puissant à qui tout doit céder, même le temps. Et l'homme de la terre, le saisonnier, celui qui reste du côté de la nature, même s'il la force comme personne avant lui. "Ensemble ils ont écrit le plus grand livre du monde - mille hectares -, le roman du Soleil incarné. La seule histoire occidentale qui impressionnait Quianlong, l'empereur de Chine, le créateur du jardin de la Transparence parfaite."
Autre présentation:
Jamais l'art des jardins n'a connu un tel état de perfection qu'avec André Le Nôtre, contrôleur général des jardins du roi, ami et disciple des grands peintres et architectes de son temps. Louis XIV lui donna son amitié, lui qui en était si avare.
C'est toute cette aventure créative, humaine et sociale qui est évoquée ici.
Portrait très documenté d'un homme heureux, par le plus pétillant de nos grands romanciers.… (more)
Autre présentation:
Jamais l'art des jardins n'a connu un tel état de perfection qu'avec André Le Nôtre, contrôleur général des jardins du roi, ami et disciple des grands peintres et architectes de son temps. Louis XIV lui donna son amitié, lui qui en était si avare.
C'est toute cette aventure créative, humaine et sociale qui est évoquée ici.
Portrait très documenté d'un homme heureux, par le plus pétillant de nos grands romanciers.… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 59
- Also by
- 8
- Members
- 1,882
- Popularity
- #13,675
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 52
- ISBNs
- 246
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 3
De plus: j'adore l'éloge de l'éditeur!