Jules Romains (born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule; 26 August 1885 – 14 August 1972) was a French poet and writer and the founder of the

Unanimism Unanimism (French: ''Unanimisme'') is a movement in French literature begun by Jules Romains in the early 1900s, with his first book, ''La vie unanime'', published in 1904. It can be dated to a sudden conception Romains had in October 1903 of a 'com ...

literary movement. His works include the play '' Knock ou le Triomphe de la médecine'', and a cycle of works called ''

Les Hommes de bonne volonté ''Les Hommes de bonne volonté'' () is an Epic (genre), epic roman-fleuve by France, French writer Jules Romains, published in 27 Volume (bibliography), volumes between 1932 and 1946. It has been classified both as a novel cycle and a novel and, at ...

(Men of Good Will)''.

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...

called him one of the six best novelists in the world. He was nominated for 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 , ...

sixteen times.

Life

Jules Romains was born in Saint-Julien-Chapteuil in the

Haute-Loire Haute-Loire (; oc, Naut Léger or ''Naut Leir''; English: Upper Loire) is a landlocked department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France. Named after the Loire River, it is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Ardèche ...

but went 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. S ...

to attend first the

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. It is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inception, var ...

and then the prestigious

École Normale Supérieure 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, Savoi ...

. He was close to the

Abbaye de Créteil L'Abbaye de Créteil or Abbaye group (french: Le Groupe de l'Abbaye) was a utopian artistic and literary community founded during the month of October, 1906. It was named after the Créteil Abbey, as most gatherings took place in that suburb of P ...

, a utopian group founded in 1906 by

Charles Vildrac Charles Vildrac (November 22, 1882 – June 25, 1971), born "Charles Messager",''1971 Britannica Book of the Year'' (for events of 1971), "Obituaries 1971" article, page 532, "Vildrac, Charles" item was a French libertarian playwright, poet a ...

and René Arcos, which brought together, among others, the writer

Georges Duhamel Georges Duhamel (; ; 30 June 1884 – 13 April 1966) was a French author, born in Paris. Duhamel trained as a doctor, and during World War I was attached to the French Army. In 1920, he published '' Confession de minuit'', the first of a serie ...

, the painter

Albert Gleizes Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on ...

and the musician Albert Doyen. He received his

agrégation In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''professe ...

in philosophy in 1909. In the interwar years, he pleaded the cause of pacifism and a united Europe against incipient fascism and despotism. In 1927, he signed a petition (that appeared in the magazine ''Europe'' on 15 April) against the law on the general organization of the nation in time of war, abrogating all intellectual independence and all freedom of expression. His name on the petition appeared with those of

Lucien Descaves Lucien Descaves (16 March 1861– 6 September 1949) was a French novelist. Selected works * ''Le Calvaire de Héloïse Pajadou'' (1883) 'Héloïse Pajadou's Calvary.'' Sunny Lou Publishing , 2021 Further reading * * External links * ...

Louis Guilloux Louis Guilloux (15 January 1899 – 14 October 1980) was a French writer born in Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, where he lived throughout his life. He is known for his Social Realist novels describing working class life and political struggles in the mi ...

Henry Poulaille Henry Poulaille (5 December 1896, Paris – 30 March 1980, Cachan) was a French writer and a pioneer of proletarian literature. Biography Early life and World War I He was the son of Henri, an anarchist carpenter from Nantes, and Hortens ...

, Séverine... and those of the young

Raymond Aron Raymond Claude Ferdinand Aron (; 14 March 1905 – 17 October 1983) was a French philosopher, sociologist, political scientist, historian and journalist, one of France's most prominent thinkers of the 20th century. Aron is best known for his 19 ...

and

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

from the École normale supérieure. His novel ''The Boys in the Back Room'' (''Les Copains'', literally "the pals") appeared in English in 1937. During World War II he went into exile first to the United States where he spoke on the radio through the

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

and then, beginning in 1941, to Mexico where he participated with other French refugees in founding the Institut Français d'Amérique Latine (IFAL). A writer on many varied topics, Jules Romain was elected to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

on 4 April 1946, occupying chair 12 (of 40). He served as President of

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

, the worldwide association of writers from 1936 to 1941. In 1964, Jules Romains was named citizen of honor of Saint-Avertin. Following his death in

in 1972, his place in the Académie française was taken by

Jean d'Ormesson Count Jean Bruno Wladimir François de Paule Le Fèvre d'Ormesson (16 June 1925 – 5 December 2017) was a French novelist. He was the author of forty books, the director of '' Le Figaro'' from 1974 to 1979, and the Dean of the Académie français ...

. Jules Romains is remembered today, among other things, for his concept of Unanimism and his cycle of novels in ''

(The Men of Good Will)'', a remarkable literary fresco depicting the odyssey over a quarter century of two friends, the writer Jallez and politician Jerphanion, who provide an example in literature of Unanimism. He has been criticized by writer and politician

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He founded the Par ...

in his 1950 essay ''

Discourse on Colonialism ''Discourse on Colonialism'' (french: Discours sur le colonialisme) is an essay by Aimé Césaire, a poet and politician from Martinique who helped found the '' négritude'' movement in Francophone literature. Césaire first published the essay i ...

'' for his racist statements: "'' ..I will not even censure our Negroes and Negresses for chewing gum. I will only note...that this movement has the effect of emphasizing the jaws, and that the associations which come to mind evoke the equatorial forest rather than the procession of the

Panathenaea The Panathenaea (or Panathenaia) was a multi-day ancient Greek festival held annually in Athens that would always conclude on 28 Hekatombaion, the first month of the Attic calendar.Shear, Julia L. “Hadrian, the Panathenaia, and the Athenian Cal ...

....The black race has not yet produced, will never produce, an

Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

, a

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

, a Gershwin.''"

Unanimism

Romains originally considered unanimism to mean an opposition to individualism or to the exaltation of individual particularities; universal sympathy with life, existence and humanity. In later years, Romains defined it as connected with the end of literature within "representation of the world without judgment", where his social ideals comprise the highest conception of solidarity as a defense of individual rights. His first book was ''La vie unanime'', published in 1904, and in the preface to ''Men of Goodwill'' he identified the ideas in it as essentially the same as those of that later work. The Red Envelope catalog company, in their 2007 Holiday catalog, surprisingly featured ''Les Createurs'' on the cover in a photograph, showing a female model playfully frustrated with her husband, a male model posing as a detached intellectual, half-heartedly helping her to decorate the Christmas tree, while his attention is focused on reading '' Les Createurs''.

Works

* ''Men of Goodwill'' (''Les Hommes de bonne volonté'', 1932-1946; 27 volumes Paris: Calmann Lévy) * ''The body's rapture'' (''Psyche''), London: John Lane, 1933 * ''Tussles with time'' (''Violation de Frontières'', 1951), London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1952 * ''The Death of a Nobody'' (''Mort de quelqu'un'', 1911)

Filmography

* ', directed by

René Hervil René Hervil (1881–1960) was a French actor, screenwriter and film director.Goble p.322 Most of his films were made during the silent era. He directed the ''Maud'' series of films between 1912 and 1915 starring the Anglo-French actress Aimé ...

(1925, based on the play '' Knock'') * ', directed by

Roger Goupillières Roger Goupillières (22 September 1896 - 20 December 1988) was a French film director and screenwriter.Louis Jouvet (1933, based on the play '' Knock'') * ''

Donogoo Tonka ''Donogoo Tonka'' is a 1936 German comedy film directed by Reinhold Schünzel and starring Anny Ondra, Viktor Staal and Will Dohm.Kreimeier p. 284 It is based on a play of the same name by Jules Romains. A separate French-language version '' Do ...

'', directed by

Reinhold Schünzel Reinhold Schünzel (7 November 1888 – 11 November 1954) was a German actor and director, active in both Germany and the United States. The son of a German father and a Jewish mother, he was born in St. Pauli, the poorest part of Hamburg. Despite ...

(1936, based on the play ''Donogoo'') ** '' Donogoo'', directed by

and Henri Chomette (1936, based on the play ''Donogoo'') * '' Dr. Knock'', directed by

Guy Lefranc Guy Lefranc (21 October 1919 - 1 February 1994) was a French director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 ...

(1951, based on the play '' Knock'') * ', directed by

Yves Robert Yves Robert (19 June 1920 – 10 May 2002) was a French actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. Life and career Robert was born in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France. In his teens, he went to Paris to pursue a career in acting, starting with ...

(1965, based on the novel ') * '' Knock'', directed by

Lorraine Lévy Lorraine Lévy (born 29 January 1964) is a French screenwriter, film and stage director, and playwright. She is the sister of writer Marc Levy. Life and career After studying literature and law, Lévy became a screenwriter for Jean-Loup Dabadie ...

(2017, based on the play '' Knock'')

Screenwriter

* '' The Portrait'' (1923), directed by

Jacques Feyder Jacques Feyder (; 21 July 1885 – 24 May 1948) was a Belgian actor, screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the US, Britain and Germany. He was a director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930 ...

(1923) * ', directed by Maurice Tourneur (1941)

References

Bibliography

* Mauthner, Martin, ''Otto Abetz and His Paris Acolytes - French Writers Who Flirted with Fascism, 1930–1945''. Sussex Academic Press, 2016, () * Jules-Romains, Lise, ''Les vie inimitables, Souvenirs'', Paris: Flammarion, 1985.

External links

Poems by Jules Romains

PEN International
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Romains, Jules 1885 births 1972 deaths People from Haute-Loire Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Members of the Académie Française Lycée Condorcet alumni French male novelists French pacifists 20th-century French novelists 20th-century French male writers