Babar
Babar, fictional character, a sartorially splendid elephant who is the hero of illustrated storybooks for young children by the French writer and illustrator Jean de Brunhoff (1899â1937) and his son Laurent de Brunhoff (1925â2024).
The character originated in a bedtime story that CĂ©cile de Brunhoff told to her young sons, Laurent and Mathieu, in 1930. The tale centered on an orphaned young elephant who leaves the jungle and visits Paris, where he has many adventures. At his familyâs encouragement, Jean de Brunhoff made illustrations of the story, which eventually grew into the first Babar book, LâHistoire de Babar, le petit Ă©lĂ©phant (1931; The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant). It describes how the young elephant runs away to town when his mother is shot by hunters; eventually he returns to the jungle and is crowned king.
The book was hugely popular and launched a series. Other installments include Le Roi Babar (1933; Babar the King), ABC de Babar (1934; Babarâs ABC), Le Voyage de Babar (1932; The Travels of Babar), and Babar et le PĂšre NoĂ«l (1941; Babar and Father Christmas), the last two published posthumously. Laurent de Brunhoff, who was 12 when his father died, later continued the Babar series, creating Babar et ce coquin dâArthur (1946; Babar and That Rascal Arthur), Babarâs Celesteville Games (2011), and numerous others.
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The Babar books became the subject of controversy when Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman (in The Empireâs Old Clothes, 1983) and others decried what they saw as French colonialism as the central allegory of the series. Still other critics found the books sexist and elitist. Nevertheless, the Babar books have been translated into many languages, and their characters and charming drawings have remained popular throughout the world.