Maurice Dekobra (26 May 1885,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– 1 June 1973, Paris) was a French writer. His real name was Ernest-Maurice Tessier.Maurice Dekobra, Voyage au pays de l’oubli
Viewed as a subversive writer in the 1920s and 1930s, he became one of the best-known French writers between the First and the Second World Wars. His books have been translated into 77 languages, and he has been described as an early example of an international best-seller writer. This is particularly true of his best known work, ''La Madone des Sleepings'' (1925). In spite of this, and the publication of a biography by Philippe Collas in 2001, he was declared a "total unknown" in 2005, though the republication of ''La Madone des Sleepings'' by the publisher Zulma in 2006 has increased awareness of him, at least in France.

Biography

At the age of 19, he started his career as a trilingual journalist – French, English, German. During the 1914–18 War he was attached as liaison officer/interpreter first to the Indian army, and later to the United States army. The contacts he made at this time ignited his passion for travel. He attributed the origin of his pen name to an episode in North Africa when he saw a snake charmer with two cobras. Allegedly he began thinking of the "deux cobras", which led him to De-kobra, then Dekobra. The term 'dekobrisme' was coined from his fiction, which used journalistic features in his novels. He chose to live in the United States from 1939 to 1946. Upon returning to France, he started writing

whodunit A ''whodunit'' (less commonly spelled as ''whodunnit''; a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal ...

s. One of these, ''Opération Magali'' (1951) won the Prix du Quai des Orfèvres. Some of his novels were made into films.

Bibliography

* ''Les Mémoires de Rat-de-Cave ou Du Cambriolage considéré comme un des beaux-arts'' (1912) * ''Grain d'Cachou'' ou ''Montmartre pendant la guerre'' ou ''La petite dame sans camélias'' (1918) * ''Les Liaisons tranquilles'' (1920) * ''Minuit... Place Pigalle'' (1923) * ''Mon coeur au ralenti'' (1924) * ''La Vénus à roulettes'' (1925) * ''La Madone des sleepings'' (1925) * ''La Gondole aux chimères'' (1926) * ''Les nuits de Walpurgis'' (1926) * ''Tu seras courtisane'' (1927) * ''Flammes de velours'' (1927) * ''Sérénade au Bourreau'' (1928) * ''Les Tigres Parfumés - Aventures Au Pays Des Maharajahs'' (1929) * ''Prince ou Pitre'' (1929) * ''Le Sphinx a parlé...'' (1930) * ''Aux cent mille sourires'' (1931) * ''Fusillé à l'aube'' (1931) * ''Aux cent mille sourires '' (1931) * ''Pourquoi mourir?'' (1931) * ''L'Archange aux pieds fourchus'' (1931) * ''La Volupté éclairant le monde'', (1932) * ''Rat-de-cave, cambrioleur'' (1932) * ''Confucius en pull-over'' (1934) * ''Madame Joli-Supplice'' (1935) * ''Macao, enfer du jeu'' (1938) * ''Émigrés de luxe'' (1941) * ''Le roman d'un lâche'' (1942) * ''La Perruche Bleue Journal d'une courtisane sous la terreur nazie'' (1945) * ''Hamydal le Philosophe'' (1947) * ''La Prison des Rêves'' (1947) * ''Satan refuse du monde'' (1947) * ''Et Eve gifla Adam... ou les aventures d'une Yankee à Montparnasse'' (1949) * ''Salutations distinguées'' (1949) * ''La Pavane des poisons'' (1950) * ''La Rafle est pour ce soir'' (1953) * ''Monsieur Lambers mourra ce soir'' (1957) * ''Son altesse mon amant'' (1958) * ''Passeport diplomatique'' (1959) * ''Casanova à Manhattan'' (1960) * ''La Trahison du colonel Redko'' (1960) * ''L'homme qui mourut deux fois - Les vestales du veau d'or'' (1960) * ''Secrets de sleeping'' (1960) * ''13ÈME AMANT

Filmography

*', directed by (1927, based on the short story ''La Girl aux mains fines'') *''

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'', directed by

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(1928, based on the novel ''Prince ou Pitre'') *'' Change of Heart'', directed by

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(1928, based on the novel ''Mon coeur au ralenti'') *'' Madonna of the Sleeping Cars'', directed by

Maurice Gleize Maurice Gleize (1898–1974) was a French screenwriter and film director.Hayward p.201 Selected filmography Director * '' The Red Night'' (1923) * '' Madonna of the Sleeping Cars'' (1928) * ''A Hen on a Wall'' (1936) * ''Coral Reefs'' (1939) * '' ...

and

(1928, based on the novel ''La Madone des sleepings'') *''Minuit, place Pigalle'', directed by

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(1928, based on the novel ''Minuit... Place Pigalle'') *''

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'', directed by

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(1929, based on the novel ''Quartier Latin'') *'' Friends and Lovers'', directed by

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(1931, based on the novel ''Le Sphinx a parlé'') *', directed by

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(1934, based on the novel ''Minuit... Place Pigalle'') *''

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(1936, based on the novel ''La Gondole aux chimères'') *''

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'', directed by

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(1937, based on the novel ''Yoshiwara'') *''

'', directed by

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and

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(1939, based on the novel ''Quartier Latin'') *', directed by

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(1939/42, based on the novel ''Macao, l'enfer du jeu'', starring

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)Did Japan really offer Portugal US$100 million for Macau in 1935?
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(1950, based on the novel ''Fusillé à l'aube'') * ''

Serenade to the Executioner ''Serenade to the Executioner'' (French: ''Sérénade au bourreau'') is a 1951 French crime drama film directed by Jean Stelli and starring Paul Meurisse, Tilda Thamar and Antonin Berval. Rège p.296 It is based on the 1928 novel of the same tit ...

'', directed by

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(1951, based on the novel ''Sérénade au bourreau'') *''

Hell Is Sold Out ''Hell Is Sold Out'' is a 1951 British drama film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Mai Zetterling, Herbert Lom and Richard Attenborough. The film was written by Guy Morgan and Moie Charles, from an adaptation by Nick Salamon of the ...

'', directed by Michael Anderson (1951, based on the novel ''Satan refuse du monde'') *', directed by (1953, based on the novel ''Opération Magali'') *', directed by

Robert Vernay Robert Vernay (May 30, 1907 in Paris – October 17, 1979 in Paris) was a French director and screenwriter. Career In 1937, Vernay worked as assistant director to Julien Duvivier on ''Pépé le Moko''. In 1944, Vernay directed an adaptation of ...

(1955, based on the novel ''Rue des bouches peintes'') *'' Madonna of the Sleeping Cars'', directed by

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(1955, based on the novel ''La Madone des sleepings'') * '' Suspicion'', directed by Pierre Billon (1956, based on the novel ''La Pavane des poisons'') *''

Passeport diplomatique agent K 8 ''Passeport diplomatique agent K 8''/''Operation Diplomatic Passport'' is a 1965 French and Italian spy film thriller directed by Robert Vernay. It was based on the 1959 novel by Maurice Dekobra. Cast *Roger Hanin as Mirmont *Christiane Minazzo ...

'', directed by

(1965, based on the novel ''Passeport diplomatique'')

Screenwriter

*''

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'' (dir. Henri Étiévant and Mario Nalpas, 1927) *' (dir. Maurice Dekobra, 1954)

Director

*' (1954)

References

*Davis, Robert Leslie "Maurice Dekobra: grand voyageur et romancier cosmopolite", PhD, Queen's University Belfast, 1970 * Philippe Collas "Maurice Dekobra: gentleman entre deux mondes", Paris, Seguier, 2001, *https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307668782_La_Madone_des_Sleepings_ou_le_kitsch_des_annees_folles *https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307640750_Imagining_adventure_in_Middlebrow_fiction_Cosmopolitan_Novels_by_Maurice_Dekobra_and_Johan_Fabricius {{DEFAULTSORT:Dekobra, Maurice 1885 births 1973 deaths Writers from Paris 20th-century French novelists Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery French male novelists French writers in German 20th-century French male writers