Emmanuel Bove
Emmanuel Bove (1898-1945) was a French writer known for his introspective exploration of themes such as loneliness, isolation, and the quest for friendship. Born in Paris to an unwed mother and raised in a challenging environment, Bove's early life was marked by instability following the death of his father and the collapse of his benefactor's fortune. He briefly pursued various jobs, including writing pulp fiction, before experiencing a significant creative surge in the late 1920s, during which he produced ten books in two years and gained recognition in Parisian literary circles. His first major work, *Mes Amis* (1924), received the Prix Figuière, and its structure reflects Bove’s interest in the complexities of human relationships, often highlighting the protagonist's futile attempts to connect with others.
Despite receiving acclaim from contemporaries and influencing the postwar experimental novel with his existential themes, Bove's work faded into obscurity after his death. He authored a total of twenty-seven books, with many echoing the feelings of disconnection and the struggles of his characters. Bove's literary contributions remain underappreciated today, though there have been attempts to revive interest in his writing.
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Emmanuel Bove
Writer
- Born: April 20, 1898
- Birthplace: Paris, France
- Died: July 13, 1945
- Place of death: Paris, France
Biography
Emmanuel Bove was born in 1898 in Paris to an unwed mother who was a chambermaid in the hotel where Emmanuel Bobovnikoff, his father, a Russian Jewish émigré, was living. His father later lived with a wealthy Englishwoman, Emily Overweg, who paid for Emmanuel to receive a good education in Paris and England. Emmanuel had one brother and one half brother, spending time with both families. After World War I, his father died and Emily’s fortune collapsed, leaving Emmanuel to earn a living for himself as best he could. Jobs included writing pulp fiction.
In 1921, he married Suzanne Valois, a teacher, by whom he had two children, though he hardly saw them as the couple was soon separated, and then divorced in 1930. He sought work unsuccessfully in Vienna, then returned to Paris, living with a Henriette de Swetschine in 1926 and 1927. Suddenly, in 1927, he had a burst of creative energy and wrote no less than ten books in two years, becoming included in Parisian literary circles. His first book, Mes Amis (1924), won the Prix Figuière. In 1928, he met his second wife, Louise Ottensvoser, a wealthy left-wing Jew. They married on his divorce in 1930. However, with the fall of France in World War II, they moved from Paris to Lyons, then escaped to Algiers, where he met several other French writers in exile. His health was failing, however, and on their return to Paris in 1944, only lived another year. His second wife lived on until 1977.
Many of Bove’s twenty-seven books deal with loneliness, isolation, and the search for friendship. Each of the five chapters of Mes Amis is named after one of the people the protagonist, Victor Bâton, tries to befriend in vain. In the end, he gives up, is forced out of his apartment and lives a solitary hotel life. The somewhat autobiographical Un Soir chez Blutel similarly has a naïve hope of friendship on the part of Blutel. Other people find him a menace. In Un Père et sa fille, the father is isolated; his daughter’s weekly visits are duty visits only and fail to ameliorate his poverty and loneliness. Bove’s strength lies in his delineation of character and how they fail to create relationships.
Bove’s work was much praised by contemporary writers and in some ways foreshadowed developments in the postwar experimental French novel, in its turning away from plot or subject, and in its existential themes of isolation, not dissimilar to Albert Camus’s L’Étranger (The Stranger). However, on Bove’s death, his novels sank into obscurity, and despite various efforts in 1977 in France and 1986 in the U.K. to reprint them, he still remains a little known and unacknowledged writer today.