Julien Gracq

Julien Gracq
Gracq in 1951
Born	27 July 1910(1910-07-27) Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, Maine-et-Loire, France
Died	22 December 2007(2007-12-22) (aged 97) Angers, France
Occupation	Novelist, critic, playwright, poet
Nationality	French
Period	1938 – 2002
Signature

Julien Gracq (27 July 1910 – 22 December 2007), born Louis Poirier in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, in the French département of Maine-et-Loire, was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were noted for their Surrealism.

Gracq first studied in Paris at the Lycée Henri IV, where he earned his baccalauréat. He then entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1930, later studying at the École libre des sciences politiques.

In 1932, he read André Breton'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.

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.

In 1950, he published in the review "Empédocle" a fierce attack on contemporary literary culture and literary prizes (La Littérature à l'estomac). When he won the Prix Goncourt for The Opposing Shore (Le Rivage des Syrtes) the following year, he remained consistent with his criticism and refused the prize.

In 1979, he wrote the foreword re-edition of the Journal de l'analogiste (1954) by Suzanne Lilar; he viewed that work as "Une initiation somptueuse à la poésie".

In 1989, Gracq's work was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. He remained distant from major literary events and faithful to his first publisher, José Corti. Gracq taught history and geography in secondary school (high school) until he retired in 1970.

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

Works

• Au château d’Argol, 1938 (novel) (English translation: The Castle of Argol or château d'Argol)
• Un beau ténébreux, 1945 (novel)
• Liberté grande, 1947 (poetry)
• 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)

The Opposing Shore (Le Rivage des Syrtes, 1951) is Julien Gracq's most famous novel, a novel of waiting.
Set in a closed place (a fortress) close to a frontier (the sea) which defines the threshold between the here (the stagnant principality of Orsenna) and there (mysterious Farghestan), its lonely characters are in-betweens waiting for something to happen, wondering whether something must get done to bring about change, particularly when this may mean the death of men and states.

• Prose pour l’Etrangère, 1952
• Penthésilée, 1954
• Un balcon en forêt, 1958 (novel) (English translation: A 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, directed by André Delvaux
• Lettrines II, 1974
• Les Eaux Etroites, 1976 (Allusions, allegories and metaphors on a french river, l'Èvre.)
• En lisant en écrivant, 1980
• La Forme d’une ville, 1985
• Autour des sept collines, 1988
• Carnets du grand chemin, 1992
• Entretiens, 2002

See also

• Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century, a list which includes The Opposing Shore

References

• Jean-Louis de Rambures, "Comment travaillent les écrivains", Paris 1978 (interview with J. Gracq)

External links

• Obituary in The Times, 31 December 2007