Gabrielle Wittkop French writer Date of Birth: 27.05.1920 Country: France

1. Biography of Gabrielle Wittkop
2. Early Life and Education
3. Marriage and Life During the War
4. Literary Career
5. Notable Works
6. Personal Life and Legacy

Biography of Gabrielle Wittkop

Gabrielle Wittkop, formerly known as Menardeau, was a French writer born on May 27, 1920 in Nantes, France. She chose marginal aspects of human existence as the themes of her books. Her most famous work is the novella "The Necrophiliac" (1972), written in the form of a diary by a Parisian antiquarian, narrating his sexual escapades with corpses.

Early Life and Education

At the age of four, Gabrielle was already able to read, and at six, she studied the classics of French literature, thanks to her father's extensive library. She did not attend school and pursued self-education until the start of World War II, with a particular interest in 18th-century literature.

Marriage and Life During the War

During the occupation years, Gabrielle Menardeau met a German deserter named Justus Franz Wittkop in Paris and helped him evade arrest by hiding him from the Nazis. Despite his homosexuality and a more than twenty-year age difference, they got married. After the war, in 1946, they moved to Germany.

Literary Career

In 1966, Gabrielle Wittkop published her first work in German, "E.T.A. Hoffmann in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumente," a book dedicated to Hoffmann. From that time on, she actively collaborated with newspapers and magazines, including leading publications such as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Notable Works

In 1972, Wittkop's first novella, "The Necrophiliac," was published by a small French erotic publishing house, exploring the themes of death and sexual attraction to corpses. Her travels around the world inspired her subsequent works, including the novella "Death S." (1975) and the novel "White Rajas" (1986). "Death S." is a story reminiscent of Thomas Mann's novella "Death in Venice," depicting the life of a British homosexual dying in the brothels of Bombay.

Personal Life and Legacy

In 1986, Gabrielle Wittkop's husband, Justus Wittkop, passed away voluntarily after suffering from Parkinson's disease for a long time. She depicted this event in her book "Hemlock, or Poisons" (1988). On her 81st birthday in 2001, Wittkop, who was suffering from lung cancer, made the decision to end her own life. In a letter to her publisher, she stated, "I am going to die as I have lived, as a free person... I am a free person, and there are not many of us in our times. A free person does not chase after success." On December 22, 2002, Gabrielle Wittkop passed away by her own choice in Frankfurt, Germany. Russian translations of her works appeared almost a year after her death. Her writings continue to have an impact, with critics sometimes reaching unexpected conclusions, such as the possibility of posthumous connections and affection.