# Erckmann-Chatrian

Erckmann-Chatrian was the name used by French authors Émile Erckmann (1822–1899) and Alexandre Chatrian (1826–1890), nearly all of whose works were jointly written.

## History

Both Erckmann and Chatrian were born in the département of Meurthe (now Moselle), in the Lorraine region in the extreme north-east of France. They specialised in military fiction and ghost stories in a rustic mode Lifelong friends who first met in the spring of 1847, they finally quarreled during the mid-1880s, after which they did not produce any more stories jointly. During 1890 Chatrian died, and Erckmann wrote a few pieces under his own name.
Many of Erckmann-Chatrian's works were translated into English by Adrian Ross.
Tales of supernatural horror by the duo that are well known in English include "The Wild Huntsman" (tr. 1871), "The Man-Wolf" (tr. 1876) and "The Crab Spider." These stories received praise from the renowned English ghost story writer, M. R. James, as well as H. P. Lovecraft.
Erckmann-Chatrian wrote numerous historical novels, some of which attacked the Second Empire in anti-monarchist terms. Partly as a result of their republicanism, they were praised by Victor Hugo and Émile Zola, and fiercely attacked in the pages of Le Figaro. Gaining popularity from 1859 for their nationalistic, anti-militaristic and anti-German sentiments, they were well-selling authors but had trouble with political censorship throughout their careers. Generally the novels were written by Erckmann, and the plays mostly by Chatrian.
A festival in their honour is held every summer in the town of Erckmann's birth, Phalsbourg (German Pfalzburg), which also contains a military museum exhibiting editions of their works.

## Works
### First works

Many of these were not published until the 1860s.
* Malédiction; Vin rouge et vin blanc (1849)
* L’Alsace en 1814, play (1850)
* Science et génie, fantasy story (1850)
* Schinderhannes ou les Brigands des Vosges (1852)
* Le Bourgmestre en bouteille (by Erckmann, 1856)
* L’Illustre Docteur Mathéus (1856)
* Contes fantastiques: Le Requiem du corbeau, Rembrandt et L’Œil invisible (1857)
* Gretchen et La Pie (1858)

### From 1859

* Les Lunettes de Hans Schnaps (1859)
* Le Rêve du cousin Elof (1859)
* La Montre du doyen (1859)
* Hans Storkus (1859)
* Les Trois âmes (1859)
* Hugues-le-loup (1859) – this notable tale of a werewolf has been translated into English as "The Man-Wolf" (1876)
* La Tresse Noire (1859)
* Contes de la montagne; Contes fantastiques (1860)
* Maître Daniel Rock (1861)
* Le Fou Yégof (1861)
* L’Invasion ou le Fou Yégof (1862)
* Les Contes du bord du Rhin (1862)
* Confidences d’un joueur de clarinette (1862)
* Madame Thérèse (1863)
* La Taverne du jambon de Mayence (1863)
* Confidences d’un joueur de clarinette (1863)
* Les Amoureux de Catherine (1863)
* Histoire d’un conscrit de 1813 (1864)
* L’Ami Fritz (1864)
* Waterloo (sequel to Conscrit de 1813, 1865)
* Histoire d’un homme du peuple (1865)
* La Maison forestière (1866)
* La Guerre (1866)
* Le Blocus (1866)
* Contes et romans populaires (1867)
* Le Juif polonais, play (1867)
* Histoire d’un paysan (1867)

### After the Franco-Prussian War

* Histoire du plébiscite racontée par un des 7 500 000 oui, essay (1871)
* Lettre d’un électeur à son député, pamphlet against reactionaries (1871)
* Les Deux Frères (1871)
* Histoire d’un sous-maître (1871)
* Une campagne en Kabylie (1873)
* Les Années de collège de Maître Nablot (1874)
* Le Brigadier Frédéric, histoire d’un Français chassé par les Allemands (1874)
* Maître Gaspard Fix, histoire d’un conservateur (1875)
* L’Education d’un féodal (1875)
* L’Intérêt des paysans, lettre d’un cultivateur aux paysans de France, essay (1876)
* Contes et romans alsaciens (1876)
* Souvenirs d’un ancien chef de chantier à l’isthme de Suez (1876)
* Les Amoureux de Catherine and L’Ami Fritz, plays (adapted by Chatrian, 1877)
* Contes vosgiens (1877)
* Alsace ou les fiancés d’Alsace, play (adapted by Chatrian from Histoire du plébiscite, 1880)
* Le Grand-père Lebigre (1880)
* Les Vieux de la vieille (1880)
* Quelques mots sur l’esprit humain, résumé de la philosophie d’Erckmann, essay (1880)
* Le Banni (sequel to Le Brigadier Frédéric, 1881)
* La Taverne des Trabans, play (adapted from La Taverne du jambon de Mayence, 1881)
* Les Rantzau, play (adapted from Deux Frères, 1882)
* Madame Thérèse, play (adapted by Chatrian, 1882)
* Le Banni (1882)
* Le Fou Chopine, play (adapted from Gretchen, 1883)
* Époques mémorables de l’Histoire de France: avant ’89 (1884)
* Myrtille, play (1885)
* L’Art et les grands idéalistes, essay (1885)
* Pour les enfants, essay (published 1888)

### English translations

* The Man-Wolf and Other Tales (1876, rpt 1976)
* Strange Stories (1880)
* The Count of Nideck (1897), translated by Ralph Browning Fiske
* Best Tales of Terror (1980) edited by Hugh Lamb