Julien Gracq (; 27 July 1910 – 22 December 2007; born Louis Poirier in

Saint-Florent-le-Vieil Saint-Florent-le-Vieil () is a former commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. On 15 December 2015, it was merged into the new commune Mauges-sur-Loire.Maine-et-Loire Maine-et-Loire () is a department in the Loire Valley in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France. It is named after the two rivers, Maine and the Loire. It borders Mayenne and Sarthe to the north, Loire-Atlantique to the west, Indr ...

) was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were noted for their dreamlike abstraction, elegant style and refined vocabulary. He was close to the surrealist movement, in particular its leader

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

Life

Gracq first studied in Paris at the '' Lycée Henri IV'', where he earned his

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

. He then entered the

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education sca ...

in 1930, later studying at the '' École libre des sciences politiques'' (Sciences Po.), both schools of the

University of Paris The University of Paris (french: link=no, Université de Paris), Metonymy, metonymically known as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, active from 1150 to 1970, with the exception between 1793 and 1806 under the French Revo ...

at the time. In 1932, he read

's ''Nadja'', which deeply influenced him. His first novel, '' The Castle of Argol'', is dedicated to that surrealist writer, to whom he devoted a whole book in 1948. In 1936, he joined the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...

but quit the party in 1939 after the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...

was signed. During the Second World War, he was a prisoner of war in Silesia with other officers of the French Army. One of the friendships he formed there was with author and literary critic Armand Hoog, who later described Gracq as a passionate individualist and ferociously anti-

Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of V ...

.Bernhild Boie, « Chronologie », in Julien Gracq, ''Œuvres I'', Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, p. LXI. In 1950, he published a fierce attack on contemporary literary culture and literary prizes in the review ''Empédocle'' titled '' La Littérature à l'estomac''. When he won the ''

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

'' for '' The Opposing Shore'' (''Le Rivage des Syrtes'') the following year, he remained consistent with his criticism and refused the prize. Gracq taught history and geography in secondary school (high school) until he retired in 1970. In 1979, he wrote the foreword to a re-edition of the ''Journal de l'analogiste'' (1954) by

Suzanne Lilar Baroness Suzanne Lilar (née ''Suzanne Verbist''; 21 May 1901 – 11 December 1992) was a Flemish Belgian essayist, novelist, and playwright writing in French. She was the wife of the Belgian Minister of Justice Albert Lilar and mother of the ...

, a work he called a "sumptuous initiation to poetry" (''"une initiation somptueuse à la poésie"''). In 1989, Gracq's work was published by the ''

Bibliothèque de la Pléiade The ''Bibliothèque de la Pléiade'' (, "Pleiades Library") is a French editorial collection which was created in 1931 by Jacques Schiffrin, an independent young editor. Schiffrin wanted to provide the public with reference editions of the co ...

''. He remained distant from major literary events and faithful to his first publisher,

José Corti José Corti is a bookshop and publishing house located in Paris, France, and was founded in 1925. It is named after its founder, José Corticchiato (14 January 1895 – 25 December 1984). José Corticchiato started his business by publishing the ...

. Gracq lived a quiet life in his native town of Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, on the banks of the river

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhôn ...

. On 22 December 2007, a couple of days after suffering a dizzy spell, he died at the age of 97 in a hospital in

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

''The Opposing Shore''

''The Opposing Shore'' (''Le Rivage des Syrtes'', 1951) is Julien Gracq's most famous novel. A novel of waiting, it is set in an old fortress close to a sea which defines the ancestral border between the stagnant principality of Orsenna and the territory of its archenemy, the mysterious Farghestan. Its lonely characters are caught in a no man's land, waiting for something to happen and wondering whether something should be done to bring about change, particularly when change may mean the death of civilisations.

Works

*''Au château d'Argol'', 1938 (novel) (English translation: '' The Castle of Argol'') *''Un beau ténébreux'', 1945 (novel) (English translation: '' A Dark Stranger'') *''Liberté grande'', 1946 (poetry) (English translation: ''Great Liberty'') *''Le Roi pêcheur'', 1948 (play) *''André Breton, quelques aspects de l'écrivain'', 1948 (critique) *''La Littérature à l'estomac'', 1949 *''Le Rivage des Syrtes'', 1951 (novel) (English translation: '' The Opposing Shore'') *''Prose pour l'Étrangère'', 1952 *''Penthésilée'', 1954 (play; translation of Kleist's ''Penthesilea'') *''Un balcon en forêt'', 1958 (novel) (English translation: '' Balcony in the Forest'') *''Préférences'', 1961 *''Lettrines'', 1967 *'' La Presqu'île'', 1970 *''Le Roi Cophetua'', 1970 (novel) (English translation: ''King Cophetua''); it inspired the film ''

Rendezvous at Bray ''Rendezvous at Bray'' (french: Rendez-vous à Bray) is a 1971 French-Belgian drama film directed by André Delvaux and starring Anna Karina. It was entered into the 21st Berlin International Film Festival. Much of the film may be imagined b ...

'', directed by

André Delvaux André Albert Auguste Delvaux (; 21 March 1926 – 4 October 2002) was a Belgian film director. He co-founded the film school INSAS in 1962 and is regarded as the founder of the Belgian national cinema. Adapting works by writers such as Joh ...

*''Lettrines II'', 1974 *''Les Eaux Étroites'', 1976 (Allusions, allegories and metaphors on a French river, l' Èvre.) (English title: '' The Narrow Waters'') *''En lisant en écrivant'', 1980 (English translation: '' Reading Writing'') *''La Forme d'une ville'', 1985 (English translation: '' The Shape of a City'') *''Autour des sept collines'', 1988 *''Carnets du grand chemin'', 1992 *''Entretiens'', 2002
''La letteratura da voltastomaco''
Milano, De Piante Editore, 2022, ISBN 979-12-803-6224-7

References

* Jean-Louis de Rambures, "Comment travaillent les écrivains", Paris 1978 (interview with J. Gracq)
Encounters with Julien Gracq"
by Gérard Bertrand * Dominique Perrin, "De Louis Poirier à Julien Gracq", Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2009, 759 p.

External links

Obituary in ''The Times'', 31 December 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gracq, Julien 1910 births 2007 deaths People from Maine-et-Loire 20th-century French novelists 21st-century French novelists French fantasy writers Writers from Pays de la Loire Sciences Po alumni École Normale Supérieure alumni Lycée Henri-IV alumni Prix Goncourt winners French male novelists 20th-century French male writers 21st-century French male writers

Life

''The Opposing Shore''

Works

See also

References

External links