Robert Merle

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Robert Merle (August 28, 1908 - March 28, 2004) was a French novelist.

Born in Tebessa in French occupied Algeria, he moved to France in 1918. Merle wrote in many styles and won the Prix Goncourt for his novel Week-end à Zuydcoote. He has also written a 13 book series of historical novels, Fortune de France. Recreating 16th and 17th century France through the eyes of a fictitious Protestant doctor turned spy, he went so far as to write it in the period's French making it virtually untranslatable.

His novels Un animal doué de la raison (A Sentient Animal, 1967), a stark Cold War satire inspired by John Lilly's studies of dolphins and the Caribbean Crisis, and Malevil (1972), a post-apocalyptic story, were both translated into English and filmed, the former as Day of the Dolphin. The film The Day of the Dolphin bore very little resemblance to Merle's story.

He died of a heart attack in his house near Paris.

[edit] Bibliography

Week-end à Zuydcoote (1949) - Published in US as Week-end at Zuydcoote (1950)
La mort est mon métier (1952) - Published in UK as Death is my Trade (1954)
L'île (1962) - Published in US as The Island (1964)
Un animal doué de raison (1967) - Published in US as The Day of the Dolphin (1967)
Derrière la vitre (1970) - Published in US as Behind the Glass (1972)
Malevil (1972)
Les hommes protégés (1974) - Published in US as The Virility Factor (1977)
Madrapour (1976)
L'idole (1987) - Published in US as The Idol
Le Soleil ne se lève pas pour nous (1987)
Le propre de l'homme (1989)