François Charles Mauriac (, oc, Francés Carles Mauriac; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the''
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
'' (from 1933), and laureate of the
Nobel Prize in Literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
(1952). He was awarded the Grand Cross of the ''
Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
'' in 1958. He was a lifelong
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
Biography
François Charles Mauriac was born in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectu ...
, France. He studied literature at the
University of Bordeaux, graduating in 1905, after which he moved to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
to prepare for postgraduate study at the
École des Chartes
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, S ...
.
On 1 June 1933 he was elected a member of the ''Académie française'', succeeding
Eugène Brieux.
A former
Action française supporter, he turned to the left during the Spanish Civil War, criticizing the Catholic Church for its support of Franco. After the fall of France to the
Axis during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, he briefly supported the collaborationist régime of Marshal
Pétain, but joined the
Resistance as early as December 1941. He was the only member of the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
to publish a Resistance text with the
Editions de Minuit.
Mauriac had a bitter dispute with
Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
immediately following the
Liberation of France. At that time, Camus edited the Resistance paper ''
Combat
Combat (French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...
'' (thereafter an overt daily, until 1947), while Mauriac wrote a column for ''
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...
''. Camus said newly liberated France should
purge all
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
collaborator elements, but Mauriac warned that such disputes should be set aside in the interests of national reconciliation. Mauriac also doubted that justice would be impartial or dispassionate given the emotional turmoil of the Liberation. Despite having been viciously criticised by
Robert Brasillach
Robert Brasillach (; 31 March 1909 – 6 February 1945) was a French author and journalist. Brasillach was the editor of ''Je suis partout'', a nationalist newspaper which advocated fascist movements and supported Jacques Doriot. After the liberat ...
he campaigned against his execution.
Mauriac also had a bitter public dispute with
Roger Peyrefitte, who criticised the
Vatican in books such as ''Les Clés de saint Pierre'' (1953). Mauriac threatened to resign from the paper he was working with at the time (''L'Express'') if they did not stop carrying advertisements for Peyrefitte's books. The quarrel was exacerbated by the release of the film adaptation of Peyrefitte's ''Les Amitiés Particulières'' and culminated in a virulent open letter by Peyrefitte in which he accused Mauriac of homosexual tendencies and called him a
Tartuffe, hypocrite.
Mauriac was opposed to
French rule in Vietnam, and strongly condemned the use of torture by the French army in Algeria.
In 1952 he won the
Nobel Prize in Literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
"for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life". He was awarded the Grand Cross of the ''
Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
'' in 1958.
[Cf]
Académie française, ''Les immortels'': ''François Mauriac (1885–1970)''
He published a series of personal
memoirs and a
biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
of
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...
.
Mauriac's complete works were published in twelve volumes between 1950 and 1956. He encouraged
Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel (, born Eliezer Wiesel ''Eliezer Vizel''; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in F ...
to write about his experiences as a
Jew during the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
, and wrote the foreword to Elie Wiesel's book ''
Night
Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends ...
''.
He was the father of writer
Claude Mauriac
Claude Mauriac (25 April 1914 – 22 March 1996) was a French author and journalist. He was born in Paris, the eldest son of the author François Mauriac.
Mauriac was the personal secretary of Charles de Gaulle from 1944 to 1949, before becoming ...
and grandfather of
Anne Wiazemsky, a French actress and author who worked with and married French director
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...
.
François Mauriac died in Paris on 1 September 1970 and was interred in the Cimetière de Vemars,
Val d'Oise, France.
Awards and honours
* 1926 — ''Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française''
* 1933 — Member of the ''Académie française''
* 1952 — Nobel Prize in Literature
* 1958 — Grand Cross of the ''Légion d'honneur''
Works
Novels, novellas and short stories
* 1913 – ''L'Enfant chargé de chaînes'' («Young Man in Chains», tr. 1961)
* 1914 – ''La Robe prétexte'' («The Stuff of Youth», tr. 1960)
* 1920 – ''La Chair et le Sang'' («Flesh and Blood», tr. 1954)
* 1921 – ''Préséances'' («Questions of Precedence», tr. 1958)
* 1922 – ''Le Baiser au lépreux'' («The Kiss to the Leper», tr. 1923 / «A Kiss to the Leper», tr. 1950)
* 1923 – ''Le Fleuve de feu'' («The River of Fire», tr. 1954)
* 1923 – ''Génitrix'' («Genetrix», tr. 1950)
* 1923 – ''Le Mal'' («The Enemy», tr. 1949)
* 1925 – ''Le Désert de l'amour'' («The Desert of Love», tr. 1949) (Awarded the ''
Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française'', 1926.)
* 1927 – ''
Thérèse Desqueyroux'' («Thérèse», tr. 1928 / «Thérèse Desqueyroux», tr. 1947 and 2005)
* 1928 – ''Destins'' («Destinies», tr. 1929 / «Lines of Life», tr. 1957)
* 1929 – ''Trois Récits'' A volume of three stories: ''Coups de couteau'', 1926; ''Un homme de lettres'', 1926; ''Le Démon de la connaissance'', 1928
* 1930 – ''Ce qui était perdu'' («Suspicion», tr. 1931 / «That Which Was Lost», tr. 1951)
* 1932 – ''
Le Nœud de vipères'' («Vipers' Tangle», tr. 1933 / «The Knot of Vipers», tr. 1951)
* 1933 – ''Le Mystère Frontenac'' («The Frontenac Mystery», tr. 1951 / «The Frontenacs», tr. 1961)
* 1935 – ''La Fin de la nuit'' («The End of the Night», tr. 1947)
* 1936 – ''Les Anges noirs'' («The Dark Angels», tr. 1951 / «The Mask of Innocence», tr. 1953)
* 1938 – ''Plongées'' A volume of five stories: ''Thérèse chez le docteur'', 1933 («Thérèse and the Doctor», tr. 1947); ''Thérèse à l'hôtel'', 1933 («Thérèse at the Hotel», tr. 1947); ''Le Rang''; ''Insomnie''; ''Conte de Noël''.
* 1939 – ''Les Chemins de la mer'' («The Unknown Sea», tr. 1948)
* 1941 – ''La Pharisienne'' («A Woman of Pharisees», tr. 1946)
* 1951 – ''Le Sagouin'' («The Weakling», tr. 1952 / «The Little Misery», tr. 1952) (A novella)
* 1952 – ''Galigaï'' («The Loved and the Unloved», tr. 1953)
* 1954 – ''L'Agneau'' («The Lamb», tr. 1955)
* 1969 – ''Un adolescent d'autrefois'' («Maltaverne», tr. 1970)
* 1972 – ''Maltaverne'' (the
unfinished sequel to the previous novel;
posthumously published)
Plays
* 1938 – ''Asmodée'' («Asmodée; or, The Intruder», tr. 1939 / «Asmodée: A Drama in Three Acts», tr. 1957)
* 1945 – ''Les Mal Aimés''
* 1948 – ''Passage du malin''
* 1951 – ''Le Feu sur terre''
Poetry
* 1909 – ''Les Mains jointes''
* 1911 – ''L'Adieu à l'Adolescence''
* 1925 – ''Orages''
* 1940 – ''Le Sang d'Atys''
Memoirs
* 1931 – ''Holy Thursday: an Intimate Remembrance''
* 1960 – ''Mémoires intérieurs''
* 1962 – ''Ce Que Je Crois''
* 1964 – ''Soirée Tu Danse''
Biography
* 1937 – ''Life of Jesus''
* 1964 - ''De Gaulle de François Mauriac'' (French edition), 1966 English -(Doubleday)
Essays and criticism
* 1919 – ''Petits Essais de Psychologie Religieuse'': ''De quelques coeurs inquiets.'' Paris: Societe litteraire de France. 1919.
* 1936 - “God and Mammon” in ‘Essays in Order: New Series, No. 1’. Edited by Christopher Dawson and Bernard Wall. Published in London by Sheed & Ward
* 1961 – ''Second Thoughts: Reflections on literature and on Life'' (tr. by Adrienne Foulke). Darwen Finlayson
* Edited and translated by Nathan Bracher.
Further reading
* Scott, Malcolm (1980), ''Mauriac: The Politics of a Novelist'',
Scottish Academic Press
Scottish Academic Press is an old Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
...
,
*
Dudley Edwards, Owen (1982), review of ''Mauriac: The Politics of a Novelist'' by Malcolm Scott, in Murray, Glen (ed.), ''
Cencrastus'' No. 8, Spring 1982, pp. 46 & 47,
See also
*
Georges Bernanos
*
Julien Green
Julien Green (September 6, 1900 – August 13, 1998) was an American writer who authored several novels (''The Dark Journey'', ''The Closed Garden'', ''Moira'', ''Each Man in His Darkness'', the ''Dixie'' trilogy, etc.), a four-volume autobiog ...
References
External links
*
Le site littéraire François Mauriac
The François Mauriac Centre at Malagar (Saint-Maixant, Gironde)
*
Université McGill: le roman selon les romanciers Inventory and analysis of François Mauriac's non-noveltistic writing
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mauriac, Francois
1885 births
1970 deaths
Writers from Bordeaux
French Roman Catholic writers
20th-century French novelists
20th-century French dramatists and playwrights
French literary critics
French male novelists
Members of the Académie Française
Nobel laureates in Literature
French Nobel laureates
Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur
Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française winners
20th-century French journalists
Christian novelists
Le Figaro people