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Scrittori dimenticati:Gabriel Chevallier

Gabriel Chevallier (3 May 1895 – 6 April 1969)^[1] was a French novelist widely known as the author of the satire Clochemerle.

Born in Lyon in 1895, Gabriel Chevallier was educated in various schools before entering Lyon École des Beaux-Arts in 1911. He was called up at the start of World War I and wounded a year later, but returned to the front where he served as an infantryman until the war's end. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre and Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.^[2] Following the war he undertook several jobs including art teacher, journalist and commercial traveller before starting to write in 1925.^[3] His novel La Peur (Fear) published in 1930 drew upon his own experiences and formed a damning indictment of the war. He was married with one son and died in Cannes in 1969.

Clochemerle was written in 1934 and has been translated into twenty-six languages and sold several million copies. It was dramatised first in a 1947 film by Pierre Chenal and in 1972 by the BBC. He wrote two sequels: Clochemerle Babylon (Clochemerle-Babylone, 1951), and Clochemerle-les-Bains (1963). In the USA the Clochemerle books were also published under the English titles The Scandals of Clochmerle (1937) = Clochmerle, and The Wicked Village (1956) = Clochemerle-Babylone.

Other of his books translated into English include: Sainte Colline (Sainte-Colline, 1937), Cherry (Ma Petite Amie Pomme, 1940), The Affairs of Flavie or The Euffe Inheritance (Les Héritiers Euffe,1945), and Mascarade (1948).

Other books in French include: Clarisse Vernon, Propre a Rien, Chemins de Solitude, Le Guerres General.