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58-644: The grandson of Norman notaries and the son of a doctor, Mirbeau spent his childhood in a village in Normandy , Rémalard , pursuing secondary studies at a Jesuit college in Vannes , which expelled him at the age of fifteen. Two years after the traumatic experience of the 1870 war , he was tempted by a call from the Bonapartist leader Dugué de la Fauconnerie, who hired him as private secretary and introduced him to L'Ordre de Paris . After his debut in journalism in

116-645: A Chambermaid ) (1900), then Les Vingt et un Jours d'un neurasthénique (The twenty one days of a neurasthenic person) (1901). In the process of writing these works, Mirbeau unsettled traditional novelistic conventions, exercising collage techniques, transgressing codes of verisimilitude and fictional credibility, and defying the hypocritical rules of propriety. In his last two novels, La 628-E8 (1907) – including La Mort de Balzac – and Dingo (1913), he strayed ever further from realism , giving free rein to clinical fantasy elements and casting his cat and his own dog as heroes. These last Mirbeau stories show

174-595: A characteristic shared with the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands are considered culturally and historically a part of Normandy. However, they are British Crown Dependencies , and are not part of the modern French administrative region of Normandy . Although the British surrendered claims to mainland Normandy, France, and other French possessions in 1801, the monarch of the United Kingdom retains

232-407: A complete break with the conventions of realist fiction, also signifying a breakdown of reality. In the theatre, Mirbeau made his first steps with a proletarian drama and modern tragedy, Les Mauvais bergers ( The Bad Shepherds , 1897). Then he experienced worldwide acclaim with Les affaires sont les affaires ( Business is business , 1903) — his classical comedy of manners and characters in

290-619: A constant use of Old Norse during four or five generations in certain parts of Normandy. They then became the Normans – a Norman French -speaking mixture of Norsemen and indigenous Gallo-Franks. Rollo's descendant William became king of England in 1066 after defeating Harold Godwinson , the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings , at the Battle of Hastings , while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants. Aside from

348-526: A faithful rendering of his real-life counterpart. Like Clara in Le Jardin des supplices ( The Torture Garden ) and Célestine in Le Journal d'une femme de chambre ( The Diary of a Chambermaid ), Lucien is given no last name. The son of a butcher, Lucien had had the good fortune to emerge « sound in mind and body from the stupefying regimen of secondary school », and thereafter, against

406-514: A fantastic mountain peak that rises vertiginously into the sky. Lucien is modeled on Vincent van Gogh , whose paintings The Irises and The Sunflowers} Mirbeau himself had purchased, and whose masterpiece The Starry Night is attributed to Lucien. However, while considering the Dutch artist to be entirely sane, Mirbeau portrays Lucien as becoming gradually unhinged. Still, Lucien is meant to be taken as an entirely imaginary character, in no way

464-417: A literary critic and early member of Académie Goncourt , he 'discovered' Maurice Maeterlinck and Marguerite Audoux and admired Remy de Gourmont , Marcel Schwob , Léon Bloy , Georges Rodenbach , Alfred Jarry , Charles-Louis Philippe , Émile Guillaumin  [ fr ] , Valery Larbaud and Léon Werth (cf. his Combats littéraires , 2006). Mirbeau ghostwrote ten novels, including three for

522-468: A new taboo subject, the economic and sexual exploitation of adolescents in a home that pretended to be a charitable one. He also wrote six one act plays , published under the title of Farces et moralités (1904), among them being L'Épidémie ( Epidemics , 1898). Here, Mirbeau can be seen as anticipating the theatre of Bertolt Brecht , Marcel Aymé , Harold Pinter , and Eugène Ionesco . He calls language itself into question, demystifying law, ridiculing

580-551: A pre-existentialist novel about the artist's fate, Dans le ciel ( In the Sky ), introducing the figure of a painter ( Lucien ), directly modeled on Van Gogh . In the aftermath of the Dreyfus Affair — which exacerbated Mirbeau's pessimism — he published two novels judged to be scandalous by self-styled paragons of virtue: Le Jardin des supplices ( Torture Garden (1899) and Le Journal d'une femme de chambre ( Diary of

638-410: Is Charles III and each have an appointed Lieutenant-Governor . The Bailiwick of Guernsey comprises three separate jurisdictions: Guernsey , Alderney and Sark . Administratively, Herm forms part of Guernsey . Much of Normandy is predominantly agricultural in character, with cattle breeding the most important sector (although in decline from the peak levels of the 1970s and 1980s). The bocage

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696-655: Is a patchwork of small fields with high hedges, typical of western areas. Areas near the Seine (the former Upper Normandy region) contain a higher concentration of industry. Normandy is a significant cider -producing region, and also produces calvados , a distilled cider or apple brandy . Other activities of economic importance are dairy produce, flax (60% of production in France), horse breeding (including two French national stud farms), fishing, seafood, and tourism. The region contains three French nuclear power stations . There

754-573: Is also easy access to and from the UK using the ports of Cherbourg , Caen ( Ouistreham ), Le Havre and Dieppe . Jersey and Guernsey are often considered to be tax havens, due to having large financial services sectors and low tax rates. In January 2006 the population of French Normandy (including the part of Perche which lies inside the Orne département but excluding the Channel Islands )

812-584: Is regardless still sometimes informally referred to by the title "Duke of Normandy". The historical Duchy of Normandy was a formerly independent duchy occupying the lower Seine area, the Pays de Caux and the region to the west through the Pays d'Auge as far as the Cotentin Peninsula and Channel Islands. Western Normandy belongs to the Armorican Massif , while most of the region lies in

870-643: The British Isles , and often turned the women into frilla , a Scandinavian tradition which became known as more Danico , medieval Latin meaning "Danish marriage". The first counts of Rouen and the dukes of Normandy had concubines too. While very little archeological excavations about the Vikings were done in Normandy, the Norman toponymy retains a large Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian heritage, due to

928-696: The Bronze Age . When Julius Caesar invaded Gaul (58–50 BC), there were nine different Celtic tribes living in this part of Gaul. The Romanisation of this region partly included in the Gallia Celtica and in the Gallia Belgica (the Seine being more or less the limit between them) was achieved by the usual methods: Roman roads and a policy of urbanisation. Classicists mention many Gallo-Roman villas and archeology found their traces in

986-608: The French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), there was an economic revival that included the mechanization of textile manufacturing and the introduction of the first trains. Also, with seaside tourism in the 19th century came the advent of the first beach resorts. During the Second World War, following the armistice of 22 June 1940 , continental Normandy was part of

1044-564: The German occupied zone of France . The Channel Islands were occupied by German forces between 30 June 1940 and 9 May 1945. The town of Dieppe was the site of the unsuccessful Dieppe Raid by Allied forces. The Allies coordinated a massive build-up of troops and supplies to support a large-scale invasion of Normandy in the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord . German forces dug into fortified emplacements above

1102-559: The Mississippi Delta were opened up to establish Canada and Louisiana . Colonists from Normandy were among the most active in New France , comprising Acadia , Canada, and Louisiana. Honfleur and Le Havre were two of the principal slave trade ports of France. Although agriculture remained important, industries such as weaving, metallurgy, sugar refining, ceramics, and shipbuilding were introduced and developed. In

1160-670: The Paris Basin . France's oldest rocks are exposed in Jobourg, on the Cotentin peninsula. The region is bounded to the north and west by the English Channel . There are granite cliffs in the west and limestone cliffs in the east. There are also long stretches of beach in the centre of the region. The bocage typical of the western areas caused problems for the invading forces in the Battle of Normandy . A notable feature of

1218-692: The Wars of Religion . When many Norman towns ( Alençon , Rouen, Caen , Coutances , Bayeux ) joined the Protestant Reformation , battles ensued throughout the province. In the Channel Islands, a period of Calvinism following the Reformation was suppressed when Anglicanism was imposed following the Stuart Restoration . Samuel de Champlain left the port of Honfleur in 1604 and founded Acadia . Four years later, he founded

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1276-688: The regional elections in December 2015 . The Regional Council has 102 members who are elected under a system of proportional representation . The executive consists of a president and vice-presidents. Hervé Morin from the Centre party was elected president of the council in January 2016. The Channel Islands are not part of French territory, but are instead British Crown Dependencies . They are self-governing, each having its own parliament, government and legal system. The head of state of both territories

1334-578: The 10th century between King Charles III of France and the Viking jarl Rollo . For almost 150 years following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by having the same person reign as both Duke of Normandy and King of England . Archaeological finds, such as cave paintings , prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Normandy also has many megalithic monuments . Celts (also known as Belgae and Gauls ) have populated Normandy since at least

1392-591: The 1780s, the economic crisis and the crisis of the Ancien Régime struck Normandy as well as other parts of the nation, leading to the French Revolution . Bad harvests, technical progress and the effects of the Eden Agreement signed in 1786 affected employment and the economy of the province. Normans laboured under a heavy fiscal burden. In 1790, the five departments of Normandy replaced

1450-522: The British Channel Islands ). It covers 30,627 square kilometres (11,825 sq mi). Its population in 2017 was 3,499,280. The inhabitants of Normandy are known as Normans ; the region is the historic homeland of the Norman language . Large settlements include Rouen , Caen , Le Havre and Cherbourg . The cultural region of Normandy is roughly similar to the historical Duchy of Normandy, which includes small areas now part of

1508-400: The Channel Islands and England. Jersey and Guernsey use three leopards in their national symbols. The leopards represents the strength and courage Normandy has towards the neighbouring provinces. The unofficial anthem of the region is the song " Ma Normandie ". The Norman language, including its insular variations Jèrriais and Guernésiais , is a regional language , spoken by a minority of

1566-748: The City of Québec. From then onwards, Normans engaged in a policy of expansion in North America. They continued the exploration of the New World: René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle travelled in the area of the Great Lakes , then on the Mississippi River . Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and his brother Lemoyne de Bienville founded Louisiana , Biloxi , Mobile and New Orleans. Territories located between Québec and

1624-892: The Great Count progressively claimed territories in southern Italy until founding the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor and the Holy Land . The 14th-century explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands in 1404. He received the title King of the Canary Islands from Pope Innocent VII but recognized Henry III of Castile as his overlord, who had provided him with military and financial aid during

1682-557: The Swiss writer Dora Melegari . He made his own literary debut with Le Calvaire ( Calvary , 1886), in which writing allowed him to overcome the traumatic effects of his devastating liaison with the ill-reputed Judith Vinmer (1858-1951), renamed Juliette Roux in the novel. In 1888, Mirbeau published L'Abbé Jules ( Abbé Jules ), the first pre- Freudian novel written under the influence of Dostoyevsky to appear in French literature;

1740-466: The area between the rivers Somme and Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis . Vikings started to raid along the river Seine during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, the principal route by which they entered the kingdom. After attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges , they took advantage of

1798-507: The area during this period and Rouen already had a metropolitan bishop by the 4th century. The ecclesiastical province of Rouen was based on the frame of the Roman Lugdunensis Secunda , whose limits corresponded almost exactly to the future duchy of Normandy. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, followed by dispersed settlements mainly in the Pays de Bray , Pays de Caux and Vexin . As early as 487,

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1856-482: The beaches. Caen , Cherbourg , Carentan , Falaise and other Norman towns endured many casualties in the Battle of Normandy , which continued until the closing of the so-called Falaise gap between Chambois and Mont Ormel . The liberation of Le Havre followed. This was a significant turning point in the war in western Europe and led to the restoration of the French Republic. The remainder of Normandy

1914-523: The conquest of England and the subsequent invasions of Wales and Ireland, the Normans expanded into other areas. Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville , Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the conquest of southern Italy and the Crusades . The Drengot lineage, de Hauteville's sons William Iron Arm , Drogo , and Humphrey , Robert Guiscard and Roger

1972-560: The conquest. In 1204, during the reign of John, King of England , mainland Normandy was captured from the English by the forces of Philip II of France , ending some 293 years of relative Norman independence from the French crown. Insular Normandy (the Channel Islands) remained under control of the English, though still attached to the ecclesiastical province of Rouen. In the 1259 Treaty of Paris , Henry III of England recognized

2030-429: The departments of Mayenne and Sarthe . The Channel Islands (French: Îles Anglo-Normandes ) are also historically part of Normandy; they cover 194 square kilometres (75 sq mi) and comprise two bailiwicks : Guernsey and Jersey , which are British Crown Dependencies. Normandy's name comes from the settlement of the territory by Vikings (" Northmen ") starting in the 9th century, and confirmed by treaty in

2088-432: The discourse of politicians, and making fun of the language of love ( Les Amants , The Lovers , 1901). There has been no interruption in the publication of Mirbeau's works. Yet his immense literary production has largely been known through only three works, and he was considered as literally and politically incorrect . But, more recently, Mirbeau has been rediscovered and presented in a new light. A fuller appreciation of

2146-480: The former province. On 13 July 1793, the Norman Charlotte Corday assassinated Jean-Paul Marat . The Normans reacted little to the many political upheavals which characterized the 19th century. Overall, they warily accepted the changes of régime ( First French Empire , Bourbon Restoration , July Monarchy , French Second Republic , Second French Empire , French Third Republic ). Following

2204-463: The hand – that, I believe, is beyond one's human capabilities. » Thus, in the course of his development as a character – having forgotten his original convictions and lost himself in the aesthetic of the Symbolists and Pre-Raphaelites , whom Octave Mirbeau had earlier skewered in his Combats esthétiques – Lucien ends by committing suicide after cutting off his “guilty” hand. In creating

2262-519: The landscape is created by the meanders of the Seine as it approaches its estuary. The highest point is the Signal d'Écouves (417 m), in the Armorican Massif. Normandy is sparsely forested: 12.8% of the territory is wooded, compared to a French average of 23.6%, although the proportion varies between the departments. Eure has the most cover, at 21%, while Manche has the least, at 4%,

2320-590: The late 3rd century AD, Germanic raids devastated "Lugdunensis Secunda", as the modern area of Normandy was known at the time. The Romans built a system of coastal defences known as Saxon Shore on both sides of the English Channel. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates that finally settled mainly in the Bessin region. Modern archeology reveals their presence in different Merovingian cemeteries excavated east of Caen. Christianity also began to enter

2378-459: The legitimacy of the French possession of mainland Normandy. His successors, however, often fought to regain control of their ancient fiefdom. The Charte aux Normands granted by Louis X of France in 1315 (and later re-confirmed in 1339) – like the analogous Magna Carta granted in England in the aftermath of 1204 – guaranteed the liberties and privileges of the province of Normandy. Normandy

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2436-535: The metropolitan area) and formerly the capital of Lower Normandy; Le Havre (296,773 in the metropolitan area); and Cherbourg (117,855 in the metropolitan area). The traditional provincial flag of Normandy , gules, two leopards passant or , is used in the region and its predecessors. The three-leopard version (known in the Norman language as les treis cats , "the three cats") is used by some associations and individuals, especially those who support cultural links with

2494-608: The past 30 years. In the Late Roman Empire a new province was created and called Lugdunensis Secunda , it sketched the later ecclesiastical province of Rouen , with the Metropolis civitas Rotomagensium ( Rouen ), Civitas Baiocassium ( Augustodorum , Bayeux), Civitas Abrincatum ( Ingena , Avranches), Civitas Ebroicorum ( Mediolanum , Évreux), Civitas Saiorum (Sées), Civitas Lexoviorum ( Noviomagus , Lisieux / Lieuvin) and Civitas Constantia (Coutances). In

2552-710: The population on the continent and the islands, with a concentration in the Cotentin Peninsula in the far west (the Cotentinais dialect), and in the Pays de Caux in the East (the Cauchois dialect ). Lucien (Mirbeau) Lucien is one of the central fictional characters in the 1892-93 novel Dans le ciel ( In the Sky ), by French writer Octave Mirbeau . He is the friend of the embedded narrator, Georges, to whom he has bequeathed his house, situated on

2610-656: The power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagne 's empire to take Northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader Hrólfr , known in Medieval Latin as Rollo . Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks , Charles the Simple , through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte . In exchange for his homage and fealty , Rollo legally gained

2668-566: The role he played in the political, literary, and artistic world of la Belle Époque is emerging. Mirbeau lies buried in the Passy Cemetery , in the 16th arrondissement of Paris . Normandy Normandy (French: Normandie ; Norman : Normaundie or Nouormandie ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy . Normandy comprises mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular Normandy (mostly

2726-548: The service of the Bonapartists , and his debut in literature when he worked as a ghostwriter , Mirbeau began to publish under his own name. Thereafter, he wrote in order to express his own ethical principles and aesthetic values. A supporter of the anarchist cause (cf. La Grève des électeurs ) and fervent supporter of Alfred Dreyfus , Mirbeau embodied the intellectual who involved himself in civic issues. Independent of all parties, Mirbeau believed that one's primary duty

2784-444: The surrender of French possessions in 1801, and the belief that the rights of succession to that title are subject to Salic Law which excludes inheritance through female heirs. Rivers in Normandy include: And many coastal rivers: The modern region of Normandy was created by the territorial reform of French Regions in 2014 by the merger of Lower Normandy , and Upper Normandy . The new region took effect on 1 January 2016, after

2842-471: The territory that he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking (" Norseman ") origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers created an aristocracy that step by step adopted the local Gallo-Romance language , intermarried with the area's native Gallo-Frankish inhabitants, and adopted Christianity. Nevertheless, the first generations of Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian settlers brought slaves, mainly from

2900-497: The text featured two main characters: l'abbé Jules and Father Pamphile . In Sébastien Roch (1890) (English translation: Sébastien Roch , 2000), Mirbeau purged the traumatic effects of his experience as a student at a Jesuits school in Vannes . In the novel, the 13-year-old Sébastien is sexually abused by a priest at the school and the abuse destroys his life. Mirbeau then underwent a grave existential and literary crisis, yet during this time, he still published in serial form

2958-660: The title Duke of Normandy in respect to the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands (except for Chausey ) remain Crown Dependencies of the British Crown in the present era. Thus the Loyal Toast in the Channel Islands is Le Roi, notre Duc ("The King, our Duke"). The British monarch is understood to not be the Duke with regards to mainland Normandy described herein, by virtue of the Treaty of Paris of 1259 ,

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3016-486: The tradition of Molière . Here Mirbeau featured the character of Isidore Lechat , predecessor of the modern master of business intrigue, a product of the new world, a figure who makes money from everything and spreads his tentacles out over the world. In 1908 — at the end of a long legal and media battle — Mirbeau saw his play Le Foyer ( Home ) performed by the Comédie-Française . In this work, he broached

3074-517: The wishes of his father, had elected to become a painter – in the same way that l' Abbé Jules , from the novel of the same name , had chosen to become a priest, « By God! » Lucien's artistic credo can be reduced to the formula he never tires of repeating: « See, feel, understand. » But Lucien's conception of art remains confused, as he moves back and forth between Impressionism , Divisionism , and Expressionism . Never able to express his ideal of art in words, he aims too high, and

3132-450: The works he completes are always tragically inferior to those that he imagines, the works that his refractory hand is incapable of executing: « The deeper that I penetrate into the inexpressible and supernatural mystery of nature, the weaker and more impotent I feel in the face of such beauty. Perhaps one can conceive of nature vaguely in one's mind, but rendering that conception by using the crude, awkward, and untrustworthy instrument of

3190-538: Was devastated by various civil wars and the Hundred Years' War . Between 1419 and 1450, the English controlled all of Normandy apart from Mont-Saint-Michel , and made Rouen the seat of their power in France. Normandy ultimately saw its population decline by three quarters as a result of the various conflicts which took place in the region during the late Middle Ages. Afterwards, prosperity returned to Normandy until

3248-438: Was estimated at 3,260,000 with an average population density of 109 inhabitants per km , just under the French national average, but rising to 147 for Upper Normandy . The population of the Channel Islands is estimated around 174,000 (2021). The main cities (population given from the 1999 census) are Rouen (518,316 in the metropolitan area), the capital since 2016 of the province and formerly of Upper Normandy; Caen (420,000 in

3306-403: Was liberated by Allied forces only on 9 May 1945 at the end of the war, when the Channel Island occupation effectively ended. Despite the renunciation of the Duke of Normandy title by Henry III of England in the 1259 Treaty of Paris , and the extinction of the duchy itself in modern-day, republican France, in the Channel Islands the monarch of the United Kingdom (whether a king or queen)

3364-445: Was to remain lucid. As an art critic, he campaigned on behalf of the "great gods nearest to his heart": he sang the praises of Auguste Rodin , Claude Monet , Camille Pissarro , Paul Cézanne , Paul Gauguin , Félicien Rops Auguste Renoir , Félix Vallotton , and Pierre Bonnard , and was an early advocate of Vincent van Gogh , Camille Claudel , Aristide Maillol , and Maurice Utrillo (cf. his Combats esthétiques , 1993). As

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