{{Short description|Team of French writers}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} '''Boileau-Narcejac''' ({{IPA|fr|bwalo naʁsəʒak|lang}}) is the [[pen name]] used by the French crime-writing duo of '''Pierre Boileau''' (28 April 1906 – 16 January 1989) and '''Pierre Ayraud''', also known as '''Thomas Narcejac''' (3 July 1908 – 7 June 1998). Their successful collaboration produced 43 novels, 100 short stories and 4 plays.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/05/nyregion/thomas-narcejac-89-author-of-crime-novels.html|title=Thomas Narcejac, 89, Author of Crime Novels|last=Associated Press|date=1998-07-05|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-11-05|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> They are credited with having helped to form an authentically French subgenre of [[crime fiction]] with the emphasis on local settings and mounting [[Psychological thriller|psychological suspense]]. They are noted for the ingenuity of their plots and the skillful evocation of the mood of disorientation and fear. Their works were adapted into numerous films, most notably, ''[[Les Diaboliques (film)|Les Diaboliques]]'' (1955), directed by [[Henri-Georges Clouzot]], and ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'' (1958), directed by [[Alfred Hitchcock]].<ref>James M Welsh and Peter Lev, ''The Literature/Film Reader :Issues of Adaptation'' Scarecrow Press, 2007. {{ISBN|9780810859494}} (p. 175)</ref>
==Biography== '''Pierre Louis Boileau''' was born on 28 April 1906 in [[Paris]], the son of Léon and Maria Boileau (n''é''e Guillaud).<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=World Authors, 1950-1970: A Companion Volume to Twentieth Century Authors|publisher=H.W. Wilson|year=1975|isbn=9780824204297|editor-last=Wakeman|editor-first=John|pages=174}}</ref> His studies prepared him for a career in commerce, but he had been passionate about detective fiction since childhood.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sites.univ-lyon2.fr/lettres/lire-ensemble/an2002/pages02/houcques_redon/biographie.html|title=Pierre Boileau-Thomas Narcejac: Biographie|website=sites.univ-lyon2.fr|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref> He changed several occupations while also contributing short stories and novellas to various newspapers and magazines. Then he wrote a series of novels about André Brunel, a dapper private detective specialized in difficult cases. Boileau's novel ''Le repos de Bacchus'' was awarded the prestigious Prix du Roman d'Aventures in 1938. He was [[Conscription|drafted]] during [[World War II]], [[Prisoner of war|taken prisoner]] in June 1940, and spent two years in a [[stalag]], where he met [[Jean-Paul Sartre]]. Boileau was released from the camp due to his medical condition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.grandsdetectives.fr/boileau.html|title=GRANDS DETECTIVES|website=www.grandsdetectives.fr|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref> He returned to Paris in 1942, and enlisted as a social worker for the Secours National, an organization helping the disadvantaged. His work involved visiting [[Penal colony|penal colonies]] and interviewing criminals.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/vertigomakingofa00auil/page/28|title=Vertigo : the making of a Hitchcock classic|last=Auiler, Dan.|year=1998|isbn=0312169159|edition=First|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/vertigomakingofa00auil/page/28 28–29]|oclc=37606191}}</ref> He resumed his writing career in 1945 with the novel ''L'Assassin vient les mains vides'', and scripting a couple of successful radio series in 1945–1947.
'''Pierre Ayraud''' was born on 3 July 1908 in [[Rochefort-sur-Mer]] to a family of seamen. He lost one eye in a childhood accident, which prevented him from going into a seafaring business.<ref name=":2" /> In his youth, he used to go fishing on the [[Charente (river)|Charente river]] near two hamlets called St. Thomas and Narcejac, and he remembered them when picking his pen name – "Thomas Narcejac".<ref name=":8" /> He studied at the universities of [[Bordeaux]], [[Poitiers]] and [[Paris]] where he received degrees in literature and philosophy.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bibliotheques.agglo2b.fr/author/view/id/1386|title=Auteur - Thomas Narcejac|website=www.bibliotheques.agglo2b.fr|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref> He moved to [[Nantes]] in 1945, where he became a professor of philosophy and literature at the [[Lycée Georges Clemenceau (Nantes)|Lycée Georges-Clemenceau]], and held this position until his retirement in 1967.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ouest-france.fr/pays-de-la-loire/nantes-44000/pierre-ayraud-et-thomas-narcejac-ne-font-quun-3602751|title=Pierre Ayraud et Thomas Narcejac ne font qu'un !|date=2015-08-03|website=Ouest-France.fr|language=fr|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref>
Narcejac began writing [[pastiche]]s of various crime fiction authors which were published in the collections ''Confidences dans ma nuit'' (1946) and ''Nouvelles confidences dans ma nuit'' (1947). At the same time, he wrote his first crime novel ''L'Assassin de minuit'' (1945). Narcejac also partnered with Serge Arcouët, who used the pseudonym "Terry Stewart", to produce a series of novels imitating American thrillers. They were published under the joint pen name "John-Silver Lee".<ref name=":1" />
In 1947, Narcejac also published an essay titled ''L'esthétique du roman policier'' ("The Esthetics of the Crime Novel") which drew Pierre Boileau's attention.<ref name=":0" /> The two writers began to correspond and finally met at the awards dinner in 1948, where Narcejac was receiving the Prix du Roman d'Aventures for his novel ''La mort est du voyage''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reseaumediaval.fr/author/view/id/824|title=Auteur - Boileau-Narcejac|website=www.reseaumediaval.fr|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref> Two years later, they began writing together, with Boileau providing the plots and Narcejac the atmosphere and [[characterisation]], not unlike [[Frederic Dannay]] and [[Manfred Lee]] ("[[Ellery Queen]]").
Their first collaborative effort, ''L’ombre et la proie'' (1951), published under the name "Alain Bouccarèje" (the anagram of Boileau-Narcejac), went largely unnoticed. Their second novel ''[[The Woman Who Was No More|She Who Was No More]]'' (1952), signed "Boileau-Narcejac", became their breakthrough, and was later filmed by [[Henri-Georges Clouzot]] as ''[[Les Diaboliques (film)|Les Diaboliques]]''. Their success was further sealed when [[Alfred Hitchcock]] adapted ''[[The Living and the Dead (Boileau-Narcejac novel)|The Living and the Dead]]'' (1954) as ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'' in 1958.
Boileau and Narcejac also worked as screenwriters, most notably on the adaptation of the novel {{Lang|fr|Les yeux sans visage}} by Jean Redon into the [[Horror film|horror movie]] known in English as ''[[Eyes Without a Face (film)|Eyes Without a Face]]'' (1960).
Their works often flirted with the fantastic and the macabre, erupting full-blown in their novel ''Et mon tout est un homme'' (published in English as ''Choice Cuts'') which received the Grand Prix de l’Humour Noir in 1965.<ref name=":8" />
In 1964, they published ''Le Roman policier,'' a theoretical study of the crime genre.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Le roman policier|last1=Boileau|first1=Pierre|last2=Narcejac|first2=Thomas|date=1964|publisher=Payot|location=Paris|language=fr|oclc=2157121}}</ref>
In the 1970s, Boileau and Narcejac received the permission from the [[Maurice Leblanc]] estate to write new adventures of [[Arsène Lupin]]. They also wrote the "Sans Atout" series for younger readers, about a boy detective.
Their collaboration ended with Boileau's death on 16 January 1989 in [[Beaulieu-sur-Mer]]. The last novel containing his contribution was ''J'ai été un fantôme'' ("I was a ghost") published later that year.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lacassin|first=Francis|title=Mémoires : sur les chemins qui marchent|date=2006|publisher=Ed du Rocher|isbn=2-268-05989-8|location=Monaco|oclc=421637523}}</ref> Narcejac continued writing alone, still signing his works as "Boileau-Narcejac". He died on 7 June 1998 in [[Nice]].
===Personal life=== Boileau was married in 1939 to Josette Baudin.<ref name=":5" />
Narcjeac was married twice--in 1930 to Marie Thérèse Baret, with whom he had two daughters, Annette and Jacqueline,<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|url=https://www.lyceedenantes.fr/remi/allaire-bernard/|title=Allaire Bernard {{!}} Georges et les autres|website=www.lyceedenantes.fr|access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> and in 1967 to Renée Swanson.<ref name=":7">''World Authors, 1950-1970'', p. 1059</ref>
==Writing style== Narcejac, who was the team's stylist and theoretician, wrote: "I felt that the best kind of detective novel could not be written by any one person, since it involved the improbable blending, in a single individual, of two opposite personalities: the technician’s and the psychologist’s."<ref name=":8" /> He pointed out that the success of their collaboration lies in the fact that Boileau "was interested in the 'hows' and I was interested in the 'whys' of a story."<ref name=":8" />
Boileau and Narcejac were exponents of what they termed "le roman de la victime" ("the victim novel") which may be defined as a suspense novel that adopts the victim's point of view.<ref name=":9" /> "Boileau-Narcejac characters typically have character traits which make them susceptible and vulnerable, and they find themselves in situations under pressure. The more they resist, the greater the pressure, and the more inevitable their eventual fate. The situation in question may take the reader into the realms of the fantastic or supernatural before a final twist reveals the workings of some criminal machination. By which time it may be too late for the victim, and the reader should have been drawn into a climate of unease, disorientation, and angst. This is a constant in Boileau-Narcejac’s work, a formula which realizes suspense through the rhythmic combination of retention and release…"<ref name=":9">{{Cite book|title=Crime scenes : detective narratives in European culture since 1945|date=2000|publisher=Rodopi|others=Mullen, Anne, O'Beirne, Emer.|isbn=9042012331|location=Amsterdam|pages=49|oclc=45797910}}</ref>
François Guérif notes that the team's brand of [[Psychological suspense novel|psychological suspense]] was inspired by [[Cornell Woolrich]] but remarks that the latter's victim characters are always sympathetic which is not always the case with Boileau-Narcejac.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-nuits-de-france-culture/nuit-boileau-narcejac-12-entretient-23-avec-francois-guerif-1ere-diffusion-02092018|title=François Guérif : "Boileau et Narcejac ont voulu changer les choses en disant le roman policier c'est le roman de la victime"|website=France Culture|date=2 September 2018 |language=fr|access-date=2019-08-13}}</ref>
The editors of ''World Authors, 1950-1970'' wrote that Boileau-Narcejac's novels "reflect Narcejac's admiration for [[Georges Simenon|Simenon]] in their compelling use of atmosphere but have none of the scrupulous naturalism of the [[Jules Maigret|Maigret]] stories."<ref name=":8">''World Authors, 1950-1970'', p. 1058</ref> They also said that the duo's work "at least in translation, is stylistically undistinguished, but for most critics this fact is outweighed by the ingenuity of their plots and their power to involve the reader in the mood of doubt and mounting fear that they so skillfully evoke."<ref name=":7" />
==Legacy==
While their contemporaries in the late 1940s and 1950s were fascinated by an imaginary America, Boileau and Narcejac are credited with having helped to form an authentically French subgenre of crime fiction.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=The BFI companion to crime|publisher=Cassell|others=British Film Institute|year=1997|isbn=0304332119|editor-last=Hardy|editor-first=Phil|location=London|pages=57–58|oclc=38423177}}</ref> They emphasized local settings and stressed the psychological dimension of coolly calculated and diabolically engineered crimes, revolving around greed, corruption, and what they called "the dark side of reason." "Boileau and Narcejac thus provided an indigenous French equivalent to the American [[film noir]], but without having to detour through a reference to the USA".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The BFI companion to crime|pages=265|oclc=38851234}}</ref>
Michel Lafon and [[Benoît Peeters]] praised Boileau and Narcejac for the renewal of the crime novel in the 1950s by finding "the third way between the English-style whodunit and the North American hard-boiled novel."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Nous est un autre: enquête sur les duos d'écrivains|last1=Lafon|first1=Michel|last2=Peeters|first2=Benoît|publisher=Flammarion|year=2006|isbn=2-08-210553-9|location=Paris|pages=293|language=fr|oclc=65405349}}</ref>
Only two English translations of their novels are currently in print and their reputation in the English-speaking world has been largely superseded by the film adaptations made by Hitchcock and Clouzot. [[Robin Wood (critic)|Robin Wood]] wrote about ''[[The Living and the Dead (Boileau-Narcejac novel)|The Living and the Dead]]'': "The drab, willful pessimism of ''D’entre les morts'' is an essentially different world from the intense traffic sense of ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'', which derives from a simultaneous awareness of the immense value of human relationships and their inherent incapability of perfect realization."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hitchcock's Films Revisited|last=Wood|first=Robin|publisher=Faber and Faber|year=1989|location=London|pages=108–109}}</ref> Christopher Lloyd made a similar comment about ''[[She Who Was No More]]'': "Many spectators and readers would probably agree that Clouzot’s film outclasses the original novel both in terms of creating horror and suspense, and in displaying an insouciant disregard for implausibilities of plot."<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Crime scenes : detective narratives in European culture since 1945|last=Lloyd|first=Christopher|publisher=Rodopi|year=2000|isbn=9042012331|editor-last=Mullen|editor-first=Anne|pages=43|chapter=Eliminating the Detective: Boileau-Narcejac, Clouzot, and Les Diaboliques|oclc=863303255|editor-last2=O'Beirne|editor-first2=Emer}}</ref> He also remarked: "If Boileau-Narcejac are genuine innovators in detective fiction, then, it is certainly not because of their psychological realism or sociological perspicacity, but essentially because of their reconfiguration of plot and the conflictual relations between characters."<ref name=":4" />
A street in [[Nantes]] was named after Thomas Narcejac in 2010.<ref name=":6" />
In 2023, the French television movie ''[[Adieu Vinyle]]'', starring [[Isabelle Adjani]], [[Grégory Fitoussi]] and [[Barbara Pravi]], adapted the duo's novel ''A cœur perdu''.
==Bibliography== Only a handful of Boileau-Narcejac works have been translated into English, and most of these translations are out of print.
*1952 – ''Celle qui n'était plus''; English translation: ''[[The Woman Who Was No More]]'' (Rinehart, 1954), also published as ''The Fiends'' (Arrow, 1956) and ''She Who Was No More'' (Pushkin Vertig''o,'' 2015).<ref>{{Cite book|title=She Who Was No More|last=Boileau-Narcejac|publisher=Pushkin Vertigo|others=transl. Sainsbury, Geoffrey|date=15 September 2015 |isbn=9781782270812|location=London|oclc=903634685}}</ref> *1952 – ''Les Visages de l'ombre''; English translation: ''[[Faces in the Dark (novel)|Faces in the Dark]]'' (Hutchinson, 1955). *1954 – ''D'entre les morts'' ("From amongst the dead"); English translation: ''[[The Living and the Dead (Boileau-Narcejac novel)|The Living and the Dead]]'' (1956), also published as ''Vertigo'' (Dell, 1958; Pushkin Vertigo, 2015).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Vertigo|last=Boileau-Narcejac|publisher=Pushkin Vertigo|others=transl. Sainsbury, Geoffrey|year=2015|isbn=9781782270805|location=London|oclc=919895789}}</ref> *1955 – ''[[:fr:Les Louves (roman)|Les Louves]]''; English translation: ''The Prisoner'' (Hutchinson, 1957). *1956 – ''Le mauvais oeil''; English translation: ''[[The Evil Eye (novel)|The Evil Eye]]'' (Hutchinson, 1959). *1956 – ''Au bois dormant''; English translation: ''Sleeping Beauty'' (1959). *1957 – ''Les magiciennes'' ("The Sorceresses"). *1958 – ''L'ingénieur aimait trop les chiffres''; English translation: ''[[The Tube (novel)|The Tube]]'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1960). *1959 – ''À cœur perdu''; English translation: ''[[Heart to Heart (novel)|Heart to Heart]]'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1959). *1961 – ''Maléfices''; English translation: ''[[Spells of Evil]]'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1961). *1962 – ''Maldonne'' ("Misdeal"). *1964 – ''Les victimes''; English translation: ''[[Who Was Clare Jallu?]]'' (Barker, 1965), also published as ''The Victims'' (Panther, 1967). *1965 – ''Le train bleu s'arrête treize fois'' ("The Blue Train Stops Thirteen Times"; short stories). *1965 – ''Et mon tout est un homme'' ("And My Entirety Is a Man"); English translation: ''[[Choice Cuts (novel)|Choice Cuts]]'' (Barker, 1966) *1967 – ''La mort a dit : Peut-être'' ("Death Said: Perhaps") *1969 – ''La Porte du large'' *1969 – ''Delirium, suivi de L'Île'' *1970 – ''Les Veufs'' ("The Widowers"). *1972 – ''La Vie en miettes'' *1973 – ''Opération Primevère'' *1974 – ''Frère Judas'' *1975 – ''La Tenaille'' *1976 – ''La lèpre'' ("The leper"). *1978 – ''L'âge bête'' ("Awkward Age"). *1979 – ''Carte vermeil'' ("Scarlet Card"). *1980 – ''Les intouchables'' ("The Untouchables"). *1980 – ''Terminus''. *1981 – ''Box-office'' . *1983 – ''Mamie''. *1984 – ''Les Eaux dormantes''. *1984 – ''La Dernière Cascade'' ("The Last Stunt"). *1985 – ''Schuss''. *1987 – ''Mister Hyde''. *1988 – ''Champ clos''. *1988 – ''Le Contrat'' ("The Contract"). *1989 – ''J'ai été un fantôme'' ("I Was a Ghost"). *1990 – ''Le Bonsaï''. *1990 – ''Le soleil dans la main'' ("The Sun in the Hand"). *1991 – ''La main passe'' ("Turning Tables"). *1991 – ''Les nocturnes'' ("Nocturnes").
Boileau-Narcejac also wrote the "Sans Atout" [[juvenile fiction]] series. They relate the adventures of a young boy detective. * ''Les pistolets de Sans Atout'' ("The Guns of Sans Atout"). * ''Sans Atout contre l'homme à la dague'' ("Sans Atout Versus the Man With the Dagger"). * ''Sans Atout et le cheval fantôme'' ("Sans Atout and the Ghost Horse"). * ''Sans Atout, une étrange disparition'' ("Sans Atout: A Strange Disappearance"). * ''Sans Atout, l'invisible agresseur'' ("Sans Atout: The Invisible Stalker"). * ''Sans Atout, la vengeance de la mouche'' (“Sans Atout: The Vengeance of the Fly”). * ''Sans Atout dans la gueule du loup'' ("Sans Atout in the Gullet of the Wolf"). * ''Sans Atout, le cadavre fait le mort'' (“Sans Atout: The Cadaver Made Dead”)
The pair also added five authorized sequels to Maurice Leblanc's series about gentleman thief [[Arsène Lupin]]. * ''Le Secret d'Eunerville'' (1973). * ''La Poudrière'' (1974). * ''Le Second visage d'Arsène Lupin'' (1975). * ''La Justice d'Arsène Lupin'' (1977). * ''Le Serment d'Arsène Lupin'' (1979).
==Notable cinematic adaptations== *''[[Les Diaboliques (film)|Les Diaboliques]]'', directed by [[Henri-Georges Clouzot]] (France, 1955, based on the novel ''[[She Who Was No More|Celle qui n'était plus]]'') *''{{interlanguage link|Les Louves|fr|3=Les Louves (film)|lt=Les Louves}}'', directed by [[Luis Saslavsky]] (France, 1957, based on the novel ''Les Louves'') *''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'', directed by [[Alfred Hitchcock]] (1958, based on the novel ''[[The Living and the Dead (Boileau-Narcejac novel)|D'entre les morts]]'') *''[[Murder at 45 R.P.M.]]'', directed by [[Étienne Périer (director)|Étienne Périer]] (France, 1960, based on the novel ''À cœur perdu'') *''{{interlanguage link|Les Magiciennes|fr|3=Les Magiciennes (film, 1960)|lt=Les Magiciennes}}'', directed by {{interlanguage link|Serge Friedman|fr}} (France, 1960, based on the novel ''Les Magiciennes'') *''[[Faces in the Dark]]'', directed by [[David Eady (film director)|David Eady]] (UK, 1960, based on the novel ''Les Visages de l'ombre'')<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-studios-the-rank-organisation-1960/|magazine=Filmink|date=4 July 2025|access-date=4 July 2025|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Forgotten British Film Studios: The Rank Organisation, 1960}}</ref> *''[[Where the Truth Lies (1962 film)|Where the Truth Lies]]'', directed by [[Henri Decoin]] (France, 1962, based on the novel ''Maléfices'') *''Choice Cuts'', abandoned [[Arthur P. Jacobs]] production with [[James Bridges]] screenplay (1967, based on the novel ''Et mon tout est un homme''). *''{{Interlanguage link multi|Maldonne|fr|3=Maldonne (film)|lt=Maldonne}}'', directed by [[Sergio Gobbi]] (France, 1969, based on the novel ''Maldonne'') *''[[Reflections of Murder]]'', directed by [[John Badham]] (1974, TV film, based on the novel ''[[She Who Was No More|Celle qui n'était plus]]'') *''[[Body Parts (film)|Body Parts]]'', directed by [[Eric Red]] (1991, based on the novel ''Et mon tout est un homme'') *''[[Entangled (film)|Entangled]]'', directed by Max Fischer (Canada, 1993, based on the novel ''Les Veufs'') *''[[Diabolique (1996 film)|Diabolique]]'', directed by [[Jeremiah S. Chechik]] (1996, based on the novel ''[[She Who Was No More|Celle qui n'était plus]]'') *[[Adieu Vinyle]] directed by [[Josée Dayan]] (2023)
=== Screenwriters === *''[[S.O.S. Noronha]]'', directed by [[Georges Rouquier]] (France, 1957) * ''[[Twelve Hours By the Clock]]'', directed by [[Géza von Radványi]] (France, 1959) *''[[Witness in the City]]'', directed by [[Édouard Molinaro]] (France-Italy, 1959) *''{{interlanguage link|Un témoin dans la ville|fr}}'', directed by [[Édouard Molinaro]] (France, 1959) *''[[Eyes Without a Face (film)|Eyes Without a Face]]'', directed by [[Georges Franju]] (France, 1960) *''[[Spotlight on a Murderer]]'', directed by [[Georges Franju]] (France, 1961)
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|name=Pierre Boileau|id=0092267}} * {{IMDb name|name=Thomas Narcejac|id=0092268}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Boileau-Narcejac |sopt=w}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boileau-Narcejac}} [[Category:20th-century French male writers]] [[Category:20th-century French novelists]] [[Category:French Army personnel of World War II]] [[Category:French crime fiction writers]] [[Category:French male novelists]] [[Category:French male screenwriters]] [[Category:French prisoners of war in World War II]] [[Category:Military personnel from Paris]] [[Category:Writing duos]] [[Category:Writers from Paris]]