Millet, Richard 1953–
Millet, Richard 1953–
PERSONAL: Born 1953.
ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Northwestern University Press, 629 Noyes St., Evanston, IL 60208-4210.
CAREER: Writer.
WRITINGS:
L'invention du corps de Saint Marc: roman (novel), P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1983.
L'innocence: roman (novel), P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1984.
Sept passions singulières: récits (fiction; title means "Seven Singular Passions"), P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1984.
Le sentiment de la langue: mélange, Champ Vallon (Paris, France), 1986.
Le plus haut miroir, Fata Morgana (Montpellier, France), 1986.
Beyrouth (travel), Champ Vallon (Paris, France), 1987.
L'angélus: récit, P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1988.
La chamber d'ivoire: récit, P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1989.
Laura Mendoza: récit, P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1991.
Accompagnement: lectures, P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1991.
(With Jacques Brault) Recueil, Champ Vallon (Seyssel, France), 1991.
L'écrivain Sirieix: récit, P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1992.
Le sentiment de la langue: I, II, III, Le Table Ronde (Paris, France), 1993.
Le chant des adolescents: récits, P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1993.
Coeur blanc: nouvelles (novellas), P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1994.
Un balcon á Beyrouth: récit, La Table Ronde (Paris, France), 1994.
La gloire des Pythre: roman (novel), P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1995.
(Editor and contributor, with Gérard Bocholier) Pour saluer Robert Marteau (criticism), Champ Vallon (Seyssel, France), 1996.
L'amour mendiant: notes sur le désir, P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1996.
L'amour des trois soeurs Piale: roman (novel), P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1997.
Cité perdue: Istanbul, 1967–1995, Fata Morgana (Saint-Clément-la-Rivière, France), 1998.
Lauve le pur: roman (novel), P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1999.
La voix d'alto: roman (novel), Gallimard (Paris, France), 2001.
Ma vie parmi les ombres: roman (novel; title means "My Life in the Shadows"), Gallimard (Paris, France), 2003.
Le renard dans le nom: récit, Gallimard (Paris, France), 2003.
Musique secrète, Gallimard (Paris, France), 2004.
Pour la musique contemporaine: chroniques discographiques, Fayard (Paris, France), 2004.
SIDELIGHTS: Richard Millet was named one of the "most penetrating and stylistically sophisticated French novelists born during the postwar years" by a contributor to the France Magazine Web site. The writer went on to note: "In his absorbing, pessimistic novels, Millet promulgates the Balzacian ideas that permanent love is a mirage, that a more glorious past is gone forever and that Western civilization is in decline."
In his novel L'amour des trois soeurs Piale: roman, the author tells the story of the three Piale sisters as it is related to an insurance salesman by the oldest, and now aged, sister. Much of the novel relates the love lives and tragedies of the sisters and others living on a remote plateau in France. "Key questions about the past are gradually answered as narrative viewpoints shift and the vivid characters … become even more complex," wrote John Taylor in the Times Literary Supplement. Taylor went on to note: "Filled with evocative detail … the novel depicts the desperate inner urges and uncontrollable outer forces" that influence the characters' lives. Millet has also served as editor and contributor, with Gérard Bocholier, of Pour saluer Robert Marteau, a collection of essays honoring the French poet. Writing in the French Review, Glenn W. Fetzer called the essays in the volume "abundant, itinerant, and compelling."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Cahiers Jean Giraudoux, Volume 27, 1999, Sylviane Coyault, "Jean Giraudoux, Richard Millet et L'Institutrice," pp. 221-224.
French Review, December, 1998, Glenn W. Fetzer, review of Pour saluer Robert Marteau pp. 367-368.
Times Literary Supplement, May 1, 1998, John Taylor, review of L'amour des trois soeurs Piale: roman, p. 24.
ONLINE
France Magazine Web site, http://www.francemagazine.org/ (March 4, 2006), "Leaving Home," profile of author's work.