Barcy, Noël

(1891-1970)

   The French-language writer Noël Barcy, who wrote under the pseudonym Virgile, was born in Brussels in 1891. He is noted for his sketches and articles comprising vignettes centering on the daily life of ordinary city residents. Always composed in a comic tone, these short pieces, written as dialogues, center typically on personages characteristic of Brussels's literary traditions — a police officer; a fare collector on a tram; a local gossip; a drunken, girl-chasing husband and his wife. The humor evident throughout his work is reinforced by the contrast between the vernacular language Barcy employs in the dialogues and the refined language he uses in his commentaries. A collection of his writings appears in Cinquante dialogues de la semaine parus dans le Pourquoi Pas? (Fifty dialogues of the week published in Pourquoi Pas? [1977]).