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In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Roger Martin du Gard was one of
the most famous writers in the Western world. He won the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1937, and his works, especially Les
Thibault, a multivolume novel, were translated into English and
read widely. Today, this close friend of André Gide, Albert Camus,
and André Malraux is almost unknown, largely because he left
unfinished the long project he began in the 1940s, Lieutenant
Colonel de Maumort. Initially, the novel is an account of the
French experience during World War II and the German occupation as
seen through the eyes of a retired army officer. Yet, through
Maumort's series of recollections, it becomes a morality tale that
questions the values of late nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century European civilization. A fragmentary version of
the novel was published in 1983, twenty-five years after its
author's death, and an English translation appeared in 1999. Even
incomplete, it is a work of haunting brilliance. In this
groundbreaking study, Benjamin Franklin Martin recovers the life
and times of Roger Martin du Gard and those closest to him. He
describes the genius of Martin du Gard's literature and the causes
of his decline by analyzing thousands of pages from journals and
correspondence. To the outside world, the writer and his family
were staid representatives of the French bourgeoisie. Behind this
veil of secrecy, however, they were passionate and combative,
tearing each other apart through words and deeds in clashes over
life, love, and faith. Martin interweaves their accounts with the
expert narration that distinguishes all of his books, creating a
blend of intellectual history, family drama, and biography that
will appeal to scholars, students, and general readers alike.
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The Great War that engulfed Europe between 1914 and 1918 was a
catastrophe for France. French soil was the site of most of the
fighting on the Western Front. French dead were more than 1.3
million, the permanently disabled another 1.1 million,
overwhelmingly men in their twenties and thirties. The decade and a
half before the war had been years of plenty, a time of increasing
prosperity and confidence remembered as the Belle Epoque or the
good old days. The two decades that followed its end were years of
want, loss, misery, and fear. In 1914, France went to war convinced
of victory. In 1939, France went to war dreading defeat. To explain
the burden of winning the Great War and embracing the collapse that
followed, Benjamin Martin examines the national mood and daily life
of France in July 1914 and August 1939, the months that preceded
the two world wars. He presents two titans: Georges Clemenceau,
defiant and steadfast, who rallied a dejected nation in 1918, and
Edouard Daladier,hesitant and irresolute, who espoused appeasement
in 1938 though comprehending its implications. He explores novels
by a constellation of celebrated French writers who treated the
Great War and its social impact, from Colette to Irene Nemirovsky,
from Francois Mauriac to Antoine de Saint-Exupery. And he devotes
special attention to Roger Martin du Gard, the1937 Nobel Laureate,
whose roman-fleuve The Thibaults is an unrivaled depiction of
social unraveling and disillusionment. For many in France, the
legacy of the Great War was the vow to avoid any future war no
matter what the cost. They cowered behind the Maginot Line, the
fortifications along the eastern border designed to halt any future
German invasion. Others knew that cost would be too great and
defended the "Descartes Line": liberty and truth, the declared
values of French civilization. In his distinctive and vividly
compelling prose, Martin recounts this struggle for the soul of
France.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Roger Martin du Gard was one of
the most famous writers in the Western world. He won the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1937, and his works, especially Les
Thibault, a multivolume novel, were translated into English and
read widely. Today, this close friend of André Gide, Albert Camus,
and André Malraux is almost unknown, largely because he left
unfinished the long project he began in the 1940s, Lieutenant
Colonel de Maumort. Initially, the novel is an account of the
French experience during World War II and the German occupation as
seen through the eyes of a retired army officer. Yet, through
Maumort's series of recollections, it becomes a morality tale that
questions the values of late nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century European civilization. A fragmentary version of
the novel was published in 1983, twenty-five years after its
author's death, and an English translation appeared in 1999. Even
incomplete, it is a work of haunting brilliance. In this
groundbreaking study, Benjamin Franklin Martin recovers the life
and times of Roger Martin du Gard and those closest to him. He
describes the genius of Martin du Gard's literature and the causes
of his decline by analyzing thousands of pages from journals and
correspondence. To the outside world, the writer and his family
were staid representatives of the French bourgeoisie. Behind this
veil of secrecy, however, they were passionate and combative,
tearing each other apart through words and deeds in clashes over
life, love, and faith. Martin interweaves their accounts with the
expert narration that distinguishes all of his books, creating a
blend of intellectual history, family drama, and biography that
will appeal to scholars, students, and general readers alike.
Â
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