Scènes de la vie de jeunesse: Nouvelles

Henri Murger

Louis-Henri Murger (27 March 1822 – 28 January 1861), also known as Henri Murger and Henry Murger, was a French novelist and poet. He is chiefly distinguished as the author of the 1847-1849 book Scènes de la vie de bohème (Scenes of Bohemian Life), which is based on his own experiences as a desperately poor writer living in a Parisian garret (the top floor of buildings, where artists often lived) and as a member of a loose club of friends who called themselves "the water drinkers" (because they were too poor to afford wine). In his writing he combines instinct with pathos, humour, and sadness. The book is the basis for the 1896 opera La bohème by Puccini, Leoncavallo's opera of the same name, and, at greater removes, Amadeu Vives' zarzuela Bohemios, Kálmán's 1930 operetta Das Veilchen vom Montmartre, and the 1996 Broadway musical Rent. He wrote lyrics as well as novels and stories, the chief being La Chanson de Musette – "a tear", says Gautier, "which has become a pearl of poetry".