Hector Malot

Hector-Henri Malot (Hector Malot) (20 May 1830 – 18 July 1907) was a French writer born in La Bouille, Seine-Maritime. He studied law in Rouen and Paris, but eventually literature became his passion. He worked as a dramatic critic for Lloyd Francais and as a literary critic for L'Opinion Nationale.

Hector Malot
Born	20 May 1830 La Bouille, France
Died	18 July 1907 (aged 77) Fontenay-sous-Bois, France

His first book, published in 1859, was Les Amants. In total Malot wrote over 70 books. By far his most famous book is Sans Famille (Nobody's Boy, 1878), which deals with the travels of the young orphan Remi, who is sold to the street musician Vitalis at age 8. Sans Famille gained fame as a children's book, though it was not originally intended as such.

He announced his retirement as an author of fiction in 1895, but in 1896 he returned with the novel L'amour Dominateur as well as the account of his literary life Le Roman de mes Romans (The Novel of my Novels).

He died in Fontenay-sous-Bois in 1907.

Hector Malot's grave in Fontenay-sous-Bois

Works by Malot

• Victimes d'Amour (a trilogy)
  • Les Amants (1859)
  • Les Epoux (1865)
  • Les Enfants (1869)
• Les Amours de Jacques (1860)
• Un beau-frère (1869)
• Une belle-mère (1869)
• Les Aventures de Romain Kalbris (1869)
• Une Bonne affaire (1870)
• Mme Obernin (1870)
• Un Curé de Province (1872)
• Un Mariage sous le Second Empire (1873)
• L'Auberge du Monde (1875–1876, 4 vols.)
• Les Batailles du Mariage (1877, 3 vols.)
• Cara (1877)
• Sans famille (1878) Translated in 1916 as "Nobody's boy" by Florence Crewe-Jones (1880-1946)
• Le Docteur Claude (1879)
• La Bohême Tapageuse (1880, 3 vols.)
• Pompon, and Une Femme d'Argent (1881)
• La Petite Soeur (1882)
• Les Millions Honteux (1882)
• Les Besogneux (1883)
• Paulette (1883)
• Marichette, and Micheline (1884)
• Le Lieutenant Bonnet (1885)
• Sang Bleu (1885)
• Baccara (1886)
• Zyte (1886)
• Vices Français, Séduction, and Ghislaine (1887)
• Mondaine (1888)
• Mariage Riche, and Justice (1889)
• La Mère (1890)
• Anie (1891)
• Complices (1892)
• Conscience (1892) Translated in 1892 by Lita Angelica Rice (1855-1942)
• En Famille (1893) Translated in 1922 as "Nobody's girl" by Florence Crewe-Jones (1880-1946)
• Amours de Jeunes et Amours de Vieux (1894)
• L'amour dominateur (1896)
• Le Roman de mes Romans (1896)
• Pages choisies (1898)

Legacy

Three anime series have been made based on Malot's works:

• Nobody's Boy: Remi (1977, 51 episodes, based on Sans Famille)
• The Story of Perrine (1978, 53 episodes, based on En Famille)
• Remi, Nobody's Girl (1996, 26 episodes, based on Sans Famille with gender swap)

External links

• Works by Hector Malot at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Hector Malot at Internet Archive
• Works by Hector Malot at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)