Thrale history

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Emile Erckmann was a distinguished French writer of the mid-nineteenth century, and as indicated in the birth brief of Odile Thrale, was born at Phalsbourg in 1822. It was in 1847 that he commenced collaboration with Alexandre Chatrian, and the Erckman-Chatrian partnership continued until 1889. Works they wrote together included Histoires et contes fantastiques (1849), L'illustre Docteur Mathéus (1859), Madame Therèse (1863), L'Ami Fritz (1864), Histoire d'un conscrit de 1813 (1864), Waterloo (1865) Le Blocus (1867), Histoire d'un paysan (1868), L'Histoire du plébiscite (1872) and Le Grand-père Lebigue (188)). Erckmann also wrote some successful plays amongst which were Le Juif Polonais (1869) and Les Rantzau (1882). The Erckmann-Chatrian writings plead the cause of pacifism by describing with stark simplicity the horror of battle scenes, and the work dealing with the Napoleonic wars is anti-imperialistic, although after 1870 anti-German attitudes are clearly shown. A strong democratic attitude is always displayed, and a major feature of the writings is the description of Alsatian peasant life. It was in 1899 whilst attending the marriage of his grand-niece Hélène Weissé, Odile Thrale's grand-mother, that Erckmann was taken ill and died at Luneville on March 14th of that year.