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'' (from 1933), and laureate of the
Nobel Prize in Literature (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 prefect ...
, France. He studied literature at the
University of Bordeaux
The University of Bordeaux (French: ''Université de Bordeaux'') is a Lists of universities in France, public university based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in Southern France, southwestern France.
It has several campuses in the cities and towns of Bor ...
, graduating in 1905, after which he moved to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...
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, Sav ...
.
On 1 June 1933 he was elected a member of the ''Académie française'', succeeding
Eugène Brieux
Eugène Brieux (; 19 January 18586 December 1932), French dramatist, was born in Paris of poor parents.
Biography
Works
A one-act play, ''Bernard Palissy'', written in collaboration with M. Gaston Salandri, was produced in 1879, but he h ...
.
A former
Action française
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
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
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
* Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...
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 to publish a Resistance text with the
Editions de Minuit
Edition may refer to:
* Edition (book), a bibliographical term for a substantially similar set of copies
* Edition (printmaking), a publishing term for a set print run
* Edition (textual criticism), a particular version of a text
* Edition Recor ...
.
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
The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance.
Nazi Germany inv ...
. At that time, Camus edited the Resistance paper ''
Combat'' (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
In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...
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 libera ...
he campaigned against his execution.
Mauriac also had a bitter public dispute with
Roger Peyrefitte
Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...
, who criticised the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
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
''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; french: Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur, ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical thea ...
, 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 "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
memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
s 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 ...
of
Charles de Gaulle.
Mauriac's complete works were published in twelve volumes between 1950 and 1956. He encouraged
Elie Wiesel to write about his experiences as a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
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 and grandfather of
Anne Wiazemsky
Anne Wiazemsky (14 May 1947 – 5 October 2017) was a French actress and novelist. She made her cinema debut at the age of 18, playing Marie, the lead character in Robert Bresson's ''Au Hasard Balthazar'' (1966), and went on to appear in several ...
, a French actress and author who worked with and married French director
Jean-Luc Godard.
François Mauriac died in Paris on 1 September 1970 and was interred in the Cimetière de Vemars,
Val d'Oise
Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674. , 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
Le Grand Prix du Roman is a French literary award, created in 1914, and given each year by the Académie française. Along with the Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French litera ...
'', 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,
*
Dudley Edwards, Owen (1982), review of ''Mauriac: The Politics of a Novelist'' by Malcolm Scott, in Murray, Glen (ed.), ''
Cencrastus
''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...
'' No. 8, Spring 1982, pp. 46 & 47,
See also
![Vémars - Cemetery - François Mauriac](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/V%C3%A9mars_-_Cemetery_-_Fran%C3%A7ois_Mauriac.jpg)
*
Georges Bernanos
Louis Émile Clément Georges Bernanos (; 20 February 1888 – 5 July 1948) was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. A Catholic with monarchist leanings, he was critical of elitist thought and was opposed to what he identified as defe ...
*
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