David Bellos, the Meredith Howland Pyne Professor of French Literature, and professor of French and Italian and comparative literature, died on Oct. 26, 2025. He was 80.
David Bellos, the Meredith Howland Pyne Professor of French Literature, and professor of French and Italian and comparative literature, died on Oct. 26, 2025. He was 80.
I was so immensely saddened to hear of Professor Bellos’s passing and send my sincere condolences to his family. I had the great luck of working with him twice in my years as a French major at Princeton: once in a legendary two-person seminar on Georges Perec, where Professor Bellos held court, dispensing wisdom, insight, gentle but firm tips on how to improve my French (without, in his words, bruising my “amour-propre”), and sly anecdotes on politics, practical jokes he used to play on his colleagues, and his hatred of LinkedIn. We also worked together on my junior paper, in the spring of 2020 — a paper he advised me gamely on despite the fact that I was writing about ecology in the romans of Chrétien de Troyes, by no means his specialty. His affable, warm emails were a tonic during the dark days of COVID. After once explaining to him once what I’d discovered about medieval forests, cattle, and husbandry, Professor Bellos simply wrote back, with a smile audible through the screen, “I’m learning!” He was a model of that joyful learning, so devoid of amour-propre, that ought never to cease.
I had the great good fortune to share my morning coffee with David and others in our Klatch at Small World Coffee over the last fifteen years. I knew of his work and his reputation and accomplishments as a scholar and author, but more importantly to me was that he was a kind and considerate friend. His curiosity and intellect served him well as we surveyed the problems of the day.
I looked forward to his arrival each day on his bike, ready for a conversation and a great start to our day.
He is dearly missed. RIP my friend.
Professor Bellos was an inspiration and my mentor throughout my undergrad years at Princeton. It’s really hard to imagine campus—and Princeton—without him.
David taught me translation (English to French) in 1986/7 at University of Manchester. I loved his tutorials. So funny, endlessly fascinating and with such a joie de vivre. I always followed his career thereafter. Very sorry he has gone but what a legacy he leaves. Condolences to his family.
Professeur Bellos avait un humour sans égal. Merci pour tous les rires.
Professor Bellos was one of my favorite teachers when I studied at Princeton 20 years ago. I took two wonderful classes with him and was once invited to his home along with the other students. I bet he was an incredible thesis advisor, as in addition to his erudition, he was kind, warm, and funny. He introduced me to several authors I still love to this day. My sincere condolences to his family. I am very sad to hear of his passing.
I was stunned by the news of his death. A heavy sense of sadness settled in—one that resembles losing someone you had come to know closely, yet never had enough time with. How could I not, when I had spent many hours reading his book and then translating it, which required several email exchanges to clarify passages that were challenging. He always responded promptly and without the slightest reluctance, offering a level of cooperation for which I remain genuinely grateful.
In his final email, he asked me to send him a copy of the Arabic translation once it was published. Now, with the expected release in April 2026, I find myself wondering whom it should reach in his absence?