Hector-Henri Malot (Hector Malot) (French pronunciation: [ɛktɔʁ malo]; 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 as a literary critic for L'Opinion Nationale.
His first book, published in 1859, was Les Amants. In total Malot wrote over 70 books. By far 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.
Hector Malot's parents were Marie-Anne-Victoire Le Bourgeois and Jean Baptiste Malot. They got married on September 30, 1826, each for the second time.
From the union was born a child named Victor who died at a young age. On May 20, 1830 Hector was born in the family home of La Bouille, on the banks of the Seine.
A few hours after his birth, a sailboat moored in front of the house suddenly veers dangerously towards it. It broke the window of the newborn’s room with its bowsprit. When a crowd gathered they found little Hector sleeping peacefully as if nothing happened, which is seen as an omen of an unusual destiny.
From La Bouille to Bosc-Bénard-Commin
Hector spends the first years of his childhood in La Bouille. He observes the ships loading or unloading their cargoes, those leaving for distant destinations; he observes the passage of the ferry, the comings and goings of the stagecoaches, the customers of the inns, etc.
In October 1835 Hector’s family leaves the banks of the Seine to settle in Bosc-Bénard-Commin in the department of Eure. This move follows Jean-Baptiste Malot’s transfer of his La Bouille study to his son-in-law. He becomes a justice of the peace for the canton of Bourgtheroulde.
This new environment allows for Hector’s taste of reading. He stays locked up for hours devouring books, preferring to abandon his French lessons to read Racine, Lesage or even Molière.
Hector begins to appreciate life in the countryside and indulges in numerous escapades during which he “discovered nature, the cycle of seasons and crops, became interested in trees, flowers, insects, animals..”. He developed a taste for nature and botany which would last his entire life.
At age 9, given the poor progress Hector shows in his education, he’s sent to boarding school in Rouen by his father. Marie-Anne-Victoire does everything possible to delay this deadline, but Jean-Baptiste’s decision is final. Hector departs in October 1839.
Hector arrives in Rouen at the Heudron and Lamardeley institute, attended mainly by the sons of well-off peasants and notables of the region. Here he befriends future literary critic Jules Levallois.
Three years later, in 1842, Hector attends the Corneille high school in Rouen but hardly excels in his studies, suffering from a school system in which he feels he cannot express himself. He prefers history class, with a teacher he considers an original, free-spirited person.
Hector Malot arrived in Paris in 1847 when he was 17 years old. He continued his studies there at the Condorcet high school where he obtained his baccalaureate after two years. In accordance with his father’s wishes, he began studying law which he continued for three years. However, in 1853, against the wishes of his father, he decided to abandon the legal path in order to devote himself to a literary career.
In the years that followed, Hector tried in vain to have a first play performed. To ensure his livelihood, he wrote a few articles, notably in Journal pour tous, where Jules Simon hired him for his knowledge of botany.
From Moisselles to Fontenay-sous-Bois
Busy on one hand with his work as a journalist and distracted on the other by Parisian life, Hector Malot found himself unable to advance the writing of his first novel. He therefore decided to retire to his parents, who left Normandy and settled in Moisselles, near Écouen, in Val-d’Oise. Back in the countryside he could devote himself entirely to his writing, resulting in his first novel, Les Amants. It was released in 1859 when Hector had become a journalist at L’Opinion notationale and enjoyed great success.
In October 1862, Marie-Anne-Victoire, Hector’s mother, dies. This loss upset the writer greatly. He later attempted to exorcise this episode through the writing of Romain Kalbris, a novel in which a dying mother awaits the return of her sailor son.