Michel Zevaco (also written as Zévaco) (1 February 1860,

Ajaccio Ajaccio (, , ; French: ; it, Aiaccio or ; co, Aiacciu , locally: ; la, Adiacium) is a French commune, prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud, and head office of the '' Collectivité territoriale de Corse'' (capital city of Corsic ...

- 8 August 1918,

Eaubonne Eaubonne () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department, in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Population Twin towns It is twinned with Matlock, Derbyshire, England; Budenheim, Germany and Văleni ...

) was a French

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while othe ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, ...

, and

anti-clerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

as well as

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

activist. Michel Zevaco founded the anarchist weekly magazine ''Gueux'' (French, ''Beggars'') on 27 March 1892. A month later he was jailed for 6 months and fined for praising Pini and Ravachol. Afterwards he wrote for

Sébastien Faure Sébastien Faure (6 January 1858 – 14 July 1942) was a French anarchist, freethought and secularist activist and a principal proponent of synthesis anarchism. Biography Before becoming a free-thinker, Faure was a seminarist. He engage ...

's journal, ''Libertaire'', as well as for the anarchist newspaper ''La Renaissance''. In 1898, he edited ''l'Anticlérical'', for the Anticlerical League of France and was involved in supporting

Alfred Dreyfus Alfred Dreyfus ( , also , ; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history ...

during the eponymous

Dreyfus Affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

. Zevaco's famous

cloak and dagger "Cloak and dagger" was a fighting style common in the Renaissance involving a knife hidden beneath a cloak. The term later came into use as a metaphor, referring to situations involving intrigue, secrecy, espionage, or mystery. Overview In "The ...

novels, ''Les Pardaillan'', began to be serialized in the daily newspapers in 1900 to great popular success. Yet he is today quite unknown, in spite of the new interest aroused by popular literature. A former school teacher, then an officer, he became a militant journalist, who wrote for various revolutionary newspapers, of anarchist tendency. He became famous mainly for the part he played in the anti-clerical struggles at the end of the 19th century. Then, as a writer of serial novels, he published works which had a great success in

Jean Jaurès Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social de ...

' daily ''La Petite République'', and he became appointed serial writer for '' Le Matin'' from 1906 to his death. His already well-established popularity was made even greater by his promising beginnings as a film-director in 1917. His novels first published by

Fayard Fayard (complete name: ''Librairie Arthème Fayard'') is a French Paris-based publishing house established in 1857. Fayard is controlled by Hachette Livre. In 1999, Éditions Pauvert became part of Fayard. Claude Durand was director of Fayar ...

and Tallandier were republished several times and adapted for the screen; the latest

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, le ...

edition only gives a mutilated version, and is impaired by many cuts. He is remembered as the author of ''Les Pardaillan'', ''Le Capitan'', ''Le Pont des soupirs (Bridge of Sighs)'', ''Borgia'', ''Buridan'', ''L'Héroïne'', ''l'Hôtel Saint Pol'' and ''Nostradamus'', his most famous

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other t ...

s, but also published novels related to his times. Some of his serials have not yet been published. Zevaco's novels, including the Les Pardaillan series, were translated into Persian as part of the great interest in historical novels in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

. The publisher was Gutenberg Publishers, a joint project of the famous Soviet Mir Publishing House and an Iranian publisher. Following the success of the translations of the novels of

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer. ...

in Iran, many translators sought similar novels to translate. Among these were Zabihollah Mansouri and Manuchehr Motiei, the latter even attempting to write similar novels set in an Iranian environment. Among the novels translated were the Les Pardaillan, Fausta the Female Pope, Nostradamus, Buridan, and many other works of Zevaco. In Persian, due to a mistake, his name sometimes is written as Z-W-A-G-O which can be read as Zewago or Zouago and has caused problems. Leader of Iran

Ayatollah Khamenei Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنه‌ای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...

has also read some novels of Zevaco and recommended them to the youths :

I do not want to introduce too many books and novels to the youths, but I may name some authors. For instance, there is a well-known French author called Michel Zevaco who has written many books. I have read most of his novels in the past.

In the 1960s, many of Zevaco's historical novels were translated to

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and published with considerable success by the M. Mizrahi (מ. מזרחי) publishing house in Tel Aviv מ. מזרחי. The 1963 translation of ''Le Capitan'' was by Yehoshua Kenaz, a well-known Israeli writer.Mentioned in the online list of Kenaz works
However, these Hebrew translations are long out of print, and Zevaco is virtually unknown to later generations of Hebrew readers. Zevaco is well known in Turkey; his most important books have been translated and published in Turkish. ''Borgia'' was translated in 1909 into Ottoman language, and printed by Hilal Matbaası. The ''Les Pardaillan'' series have appeared in many different editions, printed by Şems Matbaası in 1910s, by İNKILAP VE AKA in 1940s, by GÜVEN BASIM VE YAYINEVİ in 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, by Baskan and Oluş in 1970s. There are two new translations after 2000.

Adaptations

Several of his novels have been adapted for film and television. * ''Il ponte dei sospiri'' (1921, dir.

Domenico Gaido Domenico is an Italian given name for males and may refer to: People * Domenico Alfani, Italian painter * Domenico Allegri, Italian composer * Domenico Alvaro, Italian mobster * Domenico Ambrogi, Italian painter * Domenico Auria, Italian archit ...

) * ''Buridan, le héros de la tour de Nesle'' (1923, dir. Pierre Marodon) * ''Triboulet'' (1923, dir. Febo Mari) * ''Nostradamus'' (1937, dir. Juan Bustillo Oro and

Antonio Helú Antonio Helú Atta (1900–1972) was a Mexican screenwriter and film director. According to Darrell B. Lockhart, Helú Atta was supposedly the first writer to have created a recurring Mexican detective figure in literature, namely Máximo Roldán ...

) * ''Il ponte dei sospiri'' (1940, dir.

Mario Bonnard Mario Bonnard (24 December 1889 – 22 March 1965) was an Italian actor and film director. Bonnard was born and died in Rome. He began his cinematic career as an actor becoming a popular romantic lead in numerous silent films made before World ...

) * '' Le Capitan'' (1946, dir.

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 o ...

) * ''Buridan, héros de la Tour de Nesle'' (1952, dir. Émile Couzinet) * '' Sul ponte dei sospiri'' (1953, dir. Antonio Leonviola) * '' Le Capitan'' (1960, dir.

André Hunebelle André Hunebelle (1 September 1896 – 27 November 1985) was a French maître verrier (master glassmaker) and film director. Master Glass Artist After attending polytechnic school for mathematics, he became a decorator, a designer, and then a mas ...

) * ' (1962, dir.

Bernard Borderie Bernard Borderie (10 June 1924 in Paris – 28 May 1978 in Paris) was a French film director and screenwriter. His father, Raymond Borderie, was one of the producers of ''Children of Paradise, Les Enfants du Paradis'' (''Children of Paradise'', 1945 ...

) * ''

Hardi Pardaillan! ''Hardi Pardaillan!'' is a 1964 French-Italian adventure film directed by Bernard Borderie and starring Gérard Barray, Valérie Lagrange, Philippe Lemaire, Sophie Hardy, and Guy Delorme. It was also known as ''The Gallant Musketeer''. Cast * ...

'' (1964, dir.

) * '' The Avenger of Venice'' (1964, dir.

Carlo Campogalliani Carlo Campogalliani (10 October 1885 – 10 August 1974) was an Italian screenwriter, actor and film director. Campogalliani directed around eighty films during his career and acted in another fifty. He directed the 1934 sports film ''Stadio''.Re ...

and

Piero Pierotti Piero Pierotti (1 January 1912 – 4 May 1970) was an Italian director, screenwriter and journalist. Life and career Born in Pisa, Pierotti started his career as a journalist, working for ''La Nazione'' and ''Il Nuovo Corriere'', and later fou ...

)

References

External links

* *
Michel Zévaco - Bibliographie complète
at Roman-Feuilleton & HARD-BOILED site (Comprehensive Bibliographies by Vladimir Matuschenko)
List and covers of the Hebrew translations of Zevaco's books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zevaco, Michel 1860 births 1918 deaths Writers from Ajaccio 19th-century French novelists 20th-century French novelists French journalists French anarchists French historical novelists French newspaper founders French male novelists 19th-century French male writers 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers