François Mauriac
François Mauriac was a prominent French writer and Nobel Prize laureate born in Bordeaux in 1885 to an upper-middle-class family. His early life was marked by the death of his father and the strong influence of his devout Roman Catholic upbringing, which deeply shaped his literary themes. Mauriac's literary career began in earnest with poetry, though he soon shifted his focus to novels, producing significant works that explored the complexities of human nature, morality, and the interplay of good and evil. His most acclaimed novels, such as "Thérèse Desqueyroux" and "Le Noeud de vipères," reflect his concern with Catholic doctrine and portray characters struggling with their flaws and societal constraints.
During his lifetime, Mauriac was not only a prolific novelist but also engaged in political discourse, opposing fascism and colonialism, and serving as an intellectual voice during World War II. His writing encompassed various genres, including plays and critical essays, and he maintained a column in the newspaper Le Figaro for decades. Mauriac's reputation as a literary figure is enhanced by his insights into the cultural landscape of early 20th-century France, particularly through his depictions of life in the Bordeaux region. He passed away in 1970, leaving behind a legacy that intertwines literary craftsmanship with deep moral and religious inquiry.
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Subject Terms
François Mauriac
French novelist and poet
- Born: October 11, 1885
- Birthplace: Bordeaux, France
- Died: September 1, 1970
- Place of death: Paris, France
Mauriac’s novels and poems reflect his deep-seated belief in the power of Roman Catholic doctrine and philosophy. His fiction depicts individuals beset by their imperfections, propensity to sin, and inability to escape from the evil they do in a world that is both good and evil. His work, however, also speaks of the possibilities of redemption.
Early Life
François Mauriac (frah-swah mawr-yawk) was born in Bordeaux, France, into an upper-middle-class family. His mother was a devout Roman Catholic and follower of Jansenist doctrine, and his father was a banker and businessman. Mauriac was not yet two years old when his father died, and his family moved in with grandparents. At age seven Mauriac began attending a school administered by the Marianite Order. However, he was less than happy at the school but later emphasized the importance of his education there. Mauriac went to the University of Bordeaux to study literature and received his license in 1905. He moved to Paris, where he was accepted to the École des Chartes in 1908. After a few months of study, he left school after deciding to concentrate upon writing.
Mauriac published his first work, the book of poems Les Mains jointes (joined hands), in 1909. In 1911, he published a second book of poetry, L’Adieu à l’adolescence (good-bye to youth). Although Mauriac believed that poetry was the supreme art, he also believed that its elements could be contained within other genres. For him a great novelist must first be a great poet. In 1913 and 1914, he wrote his first two novels, L’Enfant chargé de chaines (Young Man in Chains , 1961) and La Robe prétexte (The Stuff of Youth , 1960), in which he dealt with the problems of youth and recalled his own experiences in Bordeaux and Paris. In these early works, Mauriac revealed the influence of his early Roman Catholic upbringing on his thought and his preoccupation with the Catholic ascetic ideal and the problems resulting from the existence of good and evil in human nature. These novels, and others, were set in Bordeaux and Les Landes, the region of marshes, lagoons, and pine forests near the city.
Mauriac married and had several children. His eldest son, Claude, was born in 1914. Growing up in a household frequented by writers, Claude also became a novelist as well as a film and literary critic. During World War I, Mauriac was a Red Cross hospital orderly serving in the Balkans.
Life’s Work
After the war, Mauriac resumed his writing career. In 1922, he published Le Baiser au lépreux (A Kiss for the Leper , 1923, 1950). The novel, which recounted the ruin of a wealthy but extremely ugly young man by his arranged marriage to a beautiful peasant girl, was a great success and launched Mauriac’s career as a novelist. An extremely prolific writer, Mauriac composed novel after novel. Thérèse Desqueyroux (1927; Thérèse , 1928) was heralded as one of the best French novels of the time, and others of the time included Le Fleuve de feu (1923; The River of Fire, 1954), Génitrix (1923; English translation, 1950), Le Désert de l’amour (1925; The Desert of Love, 1929), Le Noeud de vipères (1932; Vipers’ Tangle, 1933), and Le Mystère Frontenac (1933; The Frontenac Mystery, 1952).
Mauriac’s novels are dominated by his strong religious faith. The characters in his novels are trapped in a tortuous fictional world. Humans, he believed, had an innate propensity for sin, and because of the futility of love, the inherent evil of nature, the temptations of the flesh, and the oppressive nature of French provincial life, his characters suffer through life. They are beset with small-mindedness, greed, and intolerance. The Landes region adds a savage and dangerous beauty to his novels, and the marshes and pine forests that are often swept by devastating fires add an element of hardship to the characters’ lives.
Mauriac published novels on, as well as studies of, Marcel Proust, Jean Racine, Blaise Pascal, and other French writers. The influence of Jansenist writers Racine and, especially, Pascal is apparent in his work. Mauriac also wrote several volumes about religion and the Christian life, books that include Dieu et mammon (1929; God and Mammon, 1936), Souffrances du chrétien (1928) and Bonheur du chrétien (1929; both translated in Anguish and Joy of the Christian Life, 1964), and Paroles catholiques (1954; Words of Faith , 1955). In addition, he published several works about the craft of novel writing, including Le Roman (1928; the novel), Le Romancier et ses personnages (1933; the novelist and his characters), and Lettres ouvertes (1952; Letters on Art and Literature, 1953). In the 1930’s, Mauriac wrote several plays. Asmodée (1937; Asmodée: Or, The Intruder, 1939), his most successful play, was performed one hundred times by the Comédie Française in 1937 and 1938. However, his plays never enjoyed the success of his novels.
In 1926, Mauriac received the French Prix de Roman from the Académie Française (French Academy) for his two early novels Young Man in Chains and The Stuff of Youth. In 1932, he was elected president of the Société des Gens de Lettres. On June 1, 1933, Mauriac became a member of the French Academy.
In the 1930’s, Mauriac became politically engaged. He began writing articles for the French newspaper Le Figaro. He spoke out against fascism and opposed Francisco Franco’s regime in Spain. During World War II, Mauriac participated in the intellectual resistance to the German Occupation. He wrote for the first issue of the Lettres française clandestines (secret French letters) in 1942. Using the pseudonym Forez, he published Le Cahier noir (1943; The Black Notebook , 1944), a scathing attack on German tyranny. The politics of the Vichy government forced him into hiding for some time.
After the war, Mauriac continued to write for Le Figaro and also for L’Express. His column “Bloc-Notes” critiqued both people and events. The column ran from 1952 to the time of his death in 1970. Mauriac condemned colonialism, repression in Morocco, the French regime in Vietnam, and the use of torture in Algeria, and he favored decolonization. He became a staunch supporter of General Charles de Gaulle.
Mauriac continued to receive awards for his literary work and for his engagement in moral and political issues regarding human rights. In 1952, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and in 1958, de Gaulle awarded him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. Mauriac died in Paris on September 1, 1970. He was buried in the Cimetière de Vemars, Val d’Oise, France.
Significance
Mauriac presented human experience from the viewpoint of Catholic doctrine. His fictional portrayals of individuals beset by their imperfections, their propensity to sin, and their inability to escape from the evil they do in a world that is the battleground of good and evil poignantly elucidate Catholic thought. His works, which tend to concentrate more on the lost condition of humanity, are also filled with redemption, as in the case of character Brigitte Pian in La Pharisienne (1941; Woman of the Pharisees, 1946). In this work Mauriac makes a strong statement for the mystery and power of redemption promised by his faith.
Mauriac’s novels also are important from a cultural standpoint. His depiction of French provincial society in and around Bordeaux and the importance of the physical terrain of the Landes during the late 1800’s and the 1900’s preserves a record of a historical period in France before globalization and international cooperation had begun to erode the uniqueness of the regions.
Bibliography
Bracher, Nathan. Through the Past Darkly: History and Memory in François Mauriac’s Bloc-Notes. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2004. Discusses Mauriac’s thought as a Christian humanist on subjects of social justice, war, and human rights as he expressed them in his editorials of the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Jarrett-Kerr, Martin. François Mauriac. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954. Discusses the deep influence of Mauriac’s religious upbringing on his writing.
O’Connell, David. François Mauriac Revisited. Boston: Twayne, 1995. One of the Twayne World Authors series, this is a solid general introduction to Mauriac as a writer.
Turnell, Martin. The Art of French Fiction: Prévost, Stendhal, Zola, Maupassant, Gide, Mauriac, Proust. New York: New Directions, 1959. One of the best critics on nineteenth and twentieth century novelists. Examines Mauriac as a top-rate French Catholic novelist.