A short life of the author
Pierre Michon (b. 1945) was born on 28 March 1945 in Cards, Creuse, a remote rural commune in central France. He studied at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. He did not publish his first book until he was thirty-nine.
Life and Career
Vies minuscules (1984, Small Lives) — eight biographical narratives about obscure people from Michon’s rural origins: grandparents, local figures, failed priests, and forgotten peasants — is his masterwork. The prose is dense, elevated, and intensely lyrical, treating these “small lives” with the gravity and beauty that literature usually reserves for great ones. It was voted one of the ten greatest French novels of the twentieth century in a 1999 poll.
Maîtres et serviteurs (1990, Masters and Servants) — about three painters: Goya, Watteau, and Lorentino d’Angelo — and Rimbaud le fils (1991, Rimbaud the Son) — about Arthur Rimbaud’s origins — continued his project of illuminating lives through compressed, visionary prose.
Les Onze (2009, The Eleven) — about an imaginary Revolutionary-era painting depicting the eleven members of the Committee of Public Safety — was his most sustained fiction.
Key Works
- Small Lives (1984)
- Rimbaud the Son (1991)
- The Eleven (2009)
Collecting Michon
French editions (Gallimard, Verdier) are the true firsts. English translations (Archipelago) bring $10–$25.