Henry Francois Becque

Henry François Becque , 1837-99, French dramatist. His plays, which portrayed Parisian life in realistic detail, influenced French naturalistic drama. Among them are Les Corbeaux (1882) and La Parisienne (1885), translated in the volume The Vultures, The Woman of Paris, The Merry-go-round (1913).

Becque, Henry François [also Henri François Becque] (1837–99), French dramatist, an outstanding exponent of naturalistic drama in the style of Zola. His first important play was Michel Pauper (1870), which was underrated on its first production and appreciated only in a revival of 1886. Meanwhile Becque had written the two plays usually associated with him, Les Corbeaux (1882) and La Parisienne (1885), naturalistic dramas of great force and uncompromising honesty which present rapacious or amoral characters who seem unaware of their own degradation. These comédies rosses, as they were called, were not wholly successful until Antoine's Théâtre Libre provided a stage suitable for them.