Maurice Barrès
Maurice Barrès was a French author and politician born on August 19, 1862, in Charmes-sur-Moselle, Lorraine, France. His early experiences with illness, nationalism, and literature shaped his worldview, especially following his family’s struggles during the Franco-Prussian War. Barrès pursued law in Nancy before moving to Paris, where he began his literary career as a magazine writer and founded his own publication, Taches d'encre, in 1884. He later entered politics, representing Nancy and Paris in the Chamber of Deputies, aligning himself with nationalistic movements.
Barrès is perhaps best known for his literary works that explore themes of egoism and national identity, notably through his trilogies, "Le Culte du moi" and "Le Roman de l'énergie nationale." His writings are characterized by rich prose and a focus on personal emotions and the influence of one’s origins. While he gained acclaim for his contributions to literature, Barrès's views also included elements of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, particularly during the Dreyfus Affair. His legacy is complex, having influenced notable writers like André Gide and André Malraux, yet his ideas have also been critiqued as precursors to fascist ideology. Barrès passed away on December 5, 1923.
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Subject Terms
Maurice Barrès
Novelist
- Born: August 19, 1862
- Birthplace: Charmes-sur-Moselle, France
- Died: December 5, 1923
- Place of death: Paris, France
Biography
Born Auguste-Maurice Barrès on August 19, 1862, in Charmes-sur-Moselle in Lorraine, France, Maurice Barrès was the son of an engineer and chemistry professor father, Auguste Barrès, and a mother from a prominent family, Claire Luxer. His early life was marked by illness, nationalism, and literature. While recovering from typhoid fever in 1867, Barrès listened as his mother and sister read biographies and adventure novels to him. Barrès’s father and grandfather were imprisoned during the Franco-Prussian War (1870- 1871), parts of which were fought in in Lorraine, and he read French literature during his early education in the schools of Nancy.
After studying law in Nancy, he relocated to Paris and became a magazine writer. In 1884 he started his own magazine, Taches d’encre, which showcased his own writing and, although it survived for only four issues, helped him gain entry into literary circles. Five years later, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a representative for Nancy, and then as a representative for Paris, where he served until his death. He was elected with the Boulangists, a group dedicated to General Boulanger’s vow of revenge on Germany for defeating France during the Franco-Prussian war.
Barrès’s nationalism manifested itself in xenophobia and anti-Semitism when he spoke out against Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was convicted of treason during the Dreyfus Affair, which dominated headlines between 1897 and 1902. However, Barrès was not a stereotypical arch-conservative. He counted prominent dandies among his friends, and his essay on Joris-Karl Huysmans’s A rebours (1884; Against the Grain, 1922) put the decadence movement in a positive light.
In 1888, Barrès published Sous l’oeil des barbares (under the eye of the barbarian), the first volume of what became his trilogy Le Culte du moi. A favorable review by the critic Paul Bourget established Barrès’s literary reputation. Two more volumes, Un Homme libre and Le Jardin de Bérénice followed in the next three years, and Barrès became the founder of a new school of thought: the cult of egoism. These works draw heavily on the Decadence movement. The first two volumes present the intellectual development of a young man who feels stymied by social norms. The narration focuses more on the protagonist’s unformed opinions on various topics than the development of a plot or characters. The third volume presents a woman ruled by her emotions. The trilogy privileges emotions over reason in the development of the individual self.
Six years later, Barrès’s second trilogy, Le Roman de l’energie nationale (the romance of national energy), draws on his love of France and Lorraine. The books, Les Déracinés, L’Appel au soldat and Leurs figures, are unified through the use of the same main characters as well as the theme of drawing strength from one’s birthplace culminating in General Boulanger’s promise to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine from Germany. This trilogy has been discredited as a forerumer of fascist ideology of the 1930’s to 1940’s, but both series are notable for Barrès’s rich and descriptive prose. Among the writers he influenced are Andre Gide and Andre Malraux. Barrès died of a heart attack on December 5, 1923.