Hector Malot

Hector-Henri Malot (Hector Malot) (20 May 1830 – 18 July 1907) was a French writer born in La Bouille, Seine-Maritime. He studied law in Rouen and Paris, but eventually, literature became his passion. He worked as a dramatic critic for Lloyd Francais and a literary critic for L’Opinion Nationale.

Biography.

His first book, Les Amants, was published in 1859. In total, Malot wrote over 70 books. His most famous book is Sans Famille (Nobody’s Boy, 1878), which deals with the travels of the young orphan Remi, who is sold to the street musician Vitalis at age 8. Sans Famille gained fame as a children’s book, though it was not originally intended as such.

He announced his retirement as a fiction author in 1895, but in 1896, he returned with the novel L’amour Dominateur and the account of his literary life, Le Roman de mes Romans (The Novel of My Novels).

He died in Fontenay-sous-Bois in 1907.

Works by Malot

Victimes d’Amour (a trilogy) encompassing:
Les Amants (1859)
Les Époux (1865)
Les Enfants (1866)
Un Beau frère (1869)
Madame Obernin (1870)
Le Docteur Claude (1879)
Justice (1889)
L’amour Dominateur (1896)

Books for children included:

Les Aventures de Romain Kalbris (1869)
Sans Famille (1888)
Legacy

Three anime series have been made based on Malot’s works:

Nobody’s Boy: Remi (1977, 51 episodes, based on Sans Famille)
The Story of Perrine (1978, 53 episodes, based on En Famille)
Remi, Nobody’s Girl (1996, 26 episodes, based on Sans Famille with gender swap)