LEON

See also:

• LEON CLADEL (1835-1892)

CLADEL (1835-1892)  , French novelist, was born at Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) on the 13th of March 1835 . The son of an artisan, he studied law at Toulouse and became a solicitor's clerk in Paris . He made a reputation in a limited circle by his first book, Les Martyrs ridicules (1862), a novel for which Charles Baudelaire, whose literary disciple Cladel was, wrote a preface . He then returned to his native district of Quercy, where he produced a series of pictures of peasant life in Eral le dompteur (1865), Le Nomme Qouael (1868) and other volumes . Returning to Paris he published the two novels which are generally acknowledged as his best work, Le Bouscassie (1869) and La Fete votive de Saint Bartholomee Porte-glaive (1872) . Une Maudite (1876) was judged dangerous to the public morals and cost its author a month's imprisonment . Other works by Cladel are Les Va-nu-pieds (1873), a volume of short stories; N'a qu'un ceil (1882), Urbains et ruraux (1884), Gueux de marque (1887), and the posthumous Juive errante (1897) . He died at Sevres on the 20th of July 1892 . See La Vie de Leon Cladel (Paris, 1905), by his daughter Judith Cladel, containing also an article on Cladel by Edmond Picard, a complete list of his works, and of the critical articles on his work .