French writer (1888?1948)
"Bernanos" redirects here. For Georges Bernanos's son, a poet and fantasy writer, see
Michel Bernanos
.
Louis Emile Clement Georges Bernanos
(
French:
[????
b??nan?s]
;
[1]
20 February 1888 ? 5 July 1948) was a French author, and a soldier in
World War I
. A
Catholic
with
monarchist
leanings,
[2]
he was critical of
elitist
thought and was opposed to what he identified as
defeatism
. He believed this had led to
France's defeat and eventual occupation by Germany
in 1940 during
World War II
.
[3]
His two best-known novels
Sous le soleil de Satan
(1926) and the
Journal d'un cure de campagne
(1936) both revolve around a parish priest who combats evil and despair in the world.
[4]
Most of his novels have been translated into English and frequently published in both Great Britain and the United States.
Life and career
[
edit
]
Bernanos was born in
Paris
, into a family of craftsmen. He spent much of his childhood in the village of
Fressin
,
Pas-de-Calais
region, which became a frequent setting for his novels. He served in the
First World War
as a soldier, where he fought in the battles of the
Somme
and
Verdun
. He was wounded several times.
After the war, he worked in insurance before writing
Sous le soleil de Satan
(1926,
Under the Sun of Satan
). He won the
Grand Prix du roman de l'Academie francaise
for
The Diary of a Country Priest
(
Journal d'un cure de campagne
), published in 1936.
A man of
Royalist
leanings and a member of the
Camelots du Roi
(
Action Francaise
's youth organization) when he was younger, Bernanos broke with
Charles Maurras
and the Action Francaise in 1932. He initially supported
Franco's coup
at the outset of the
Spanish Civil War
.
[5]
However, after he observed the conflict in
Majorca
and saw 'a terrorized people,' he became disgusted with the
nacionales
and criticized them in the book
Diary of My Times
(1938). He wrote, "My illusions regarding the enterprise of
General Franco
did not last long?two or three weeks?but while they lasted I conscientiously endeavoured to overcome the disgust which some of his men and means caused me."
[6]
With political tensions rising in Europe, Bernanos emigrated to South America with his family in 1938, settling in
Brazil
. He remained until 1945 in
Barbacena
, State of Minas Gerais, where he tried his hand at managing a farm. His three sons returned to France to fight after
World War II
broke out, while he fulminated at his country's 'spiritual exhaustion,' which he saw as the root of its collapse in 1940. From exile he mocked the 'ridiculous'
Vichy regime
and became a strong supporter of the
nationalist
Free French Forces
led by the
conservative
Charles De Gaulle
. After France's Liberation, De Gaulle invited Bernanos to return to his homeland, offering him a post in the government. Bernanos did return but, disappointed to perceive no signs of spiritual renewal, he declined to play an active role in French political life.
[7]
Works and English translations
[
edit
]
- Sous le soleil de Satan
1926.
- The Star of Satan
. London: The Bodley Head, 1927 [New York: Macmillan, 1940; H. Fertig, 1975].
- Under the Sun of Satan
. New York: Pantheon, 1949 [University of Nebraska Press, 2001].
- Under the Sun of Satan
. Providence, RI: Cluny Media, 2017.
- Les Tenebres
(diptyque):
L'Imposture
(1927) &
La Joie
(1928)
- Joy
. New York: Pantheon Books, 1946 [London: The Bodley Head, 1948; Toronto: Thomas Nelson, 1948].
- The Impostor
. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
- Joy
. Providence, RI: Cluny Media, 2020.
- Un crime
1935.
- The Crime
. London: Hale, 1936 [New York: E.P. Dutton, 1936].
- A Crime
. Providence, RI: Cluny Media, 2021.
- Journal d'un cure de campagne
1936 (also issued serially 1935?36)
- The Diary of a Country Priest
1936 in Paris, France; London: The Bodley Head, 1937 [New York: Macmillan, 1948, 1962; Carroll & Graf, 1983, 2002].
- Nouvelle histoire de Mouchette
1937
- Mouchette
. London: The Bodley Head, 1966 [New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966; New York Review Books, 2006].
- Les grands cimetieres sous la lune
1938
- A Diary of My Times
. New York: Macmillan, 1938 [London: The Bodley Head, 1945].
- The Great Cemeteries under the Moon
. Providence, RI: Cluny Media, 2018.
- Monsieur Ouine
1943
- The Open Mind
. London: The Bodley Head, 1945.
- Monsieur Ouine
. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
- Dialogues des carmelites
1949.
- Un mauvais reve
(posthumously 1950)
- Night Is Darkest
. London: The Bodley Head, 1953.
- A Bad Dream
. Providence, RI: Cluny Media, 2020.
- Plea for Liberty
. New York: Pantheon, 1944 [London: Dobson, 1946].
- Sanctity Will Out
. London and New York:
Sheed & Ward
, 1947.
- Tradition of Freedom
. London: Dobson, 1950 [New York: Roy, 1951].
- The Last Essays of Georges Bernanos
. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1955 [Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1968].
- Liberty: The Last Essays
. Providence, RI: Cluny Media, 2019.
Adaptations of selected works
[
edit
]
- The Diary of a Country Priest
: this was the first novel by Bernanos to be adapted as a film, called
Diary of a Country Priest
(1951); it was directed by
Robert Bresson
, and starred
Claude Laydu
in his debut role.
[8]
- Mouchette
was adapted into a
film of the same name
by
Robert Bresson
, released in 1967.
- Under the Sun of Satan
: his novel was adapted as a
film of the same name
, produced in 1987 in France. The film won the
Palme d'Or
prize at the
1987 Cannes Film Festival
.
- Dialogues des Carmelites
: in 1947, Bernanos had been hired to write the dialogue for a film screenplay, through Raymond-Leopold Bruckberger and the scenario writer Philippe Agostini, based on the
novella
Die Letzte am Schafott
by German novelist
Gertrud von Le Fort
, about the 1794 execution of the
Carmelite Nuns of Compiegne
. The screenplay was judged unsatisfactory at the time. Following Bernanos' death his literary executor, Albert Beguin, discovered the manuscript. To assist Bernanos' heirs, Beguin sought to have the work published, requesting permission from Baroness von Le Fort for publication. In January 1949 she agreed, gifting her portion of the royalties over to Bernanos' widow and children. However, the Baroness requested that Bernanos' play be given a different title from her novella.
[9]
Beguin chose
Dialogues des Carmelites
, and the work was published in 1949. It was translated into German, published there in 1951 as
Die begnadete Angst
(
The Blessed Fear
) and first staged in
Zurich
and
Munich
that year.
[10]
The French stage premiere took place in May 1952 at the
Theatre Hebertot
. The composer
Francis Poulenc
adapted Bernanos' work into an
opera of the same name
, which was first performed at
La Scala Milan
in 1957. A
film based on Bernanos' play
and starring
Jeanne Moreau
was released in 1960.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Bernanos",
Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
- ^
Allen, W. Gore (1948). "George Bernanos: A Mystic in the World,"
The Irish Monthly
, Vol. 76, No. 903, pp. 414-416.
- ^
Tobin, Michael R. (2007).
Georges Bernanos: The Theological Source of his Art
. McGill-Queen's University Press.
- ^
Norwich, John Julius (1985?1993).
Oxford illustrated encyclopedia
. Judge, Harry George., Toyne, Anthony. Oxford [England]: Oxford University Press. p. 45.
ISBN
0-19-869129-7
.
OCLC
11814265
.
- ^
Hellman, John (1990). "Bernanos, Drumont, and the Rise of French Fascism,"
The Review of Politics
, Vol. 52, No. 3, pp. 441-459.
- ^
Georges Bernanos.
A Diary of My Times
, London: Boriswood, 1938, p. 85.
- ^
Liukkonen, Petri.
"Georges Bernanos"
.
Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi)
. Finland:
Kuusankoski
Public Library. Archived from
the original
on 3 October 2013.
- ^
Robert Bergan (2011-08-07).
"Claude Laydu obituary"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
2014-06-15
.
- ^
Gendre, Claude, 'The Literary Destiny of the Sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne and the Role of Emmet Lavery'.
Renascence
,
48.1
, pp. 37?60 (Fall 1995).
- ^
Gendre, Claude, 'Dialogues des Carmelites: the historical background, literary destiny and genesis of the opera', from
Francis Poulenc: Music, Art and Literature
(Sidney Buckland and Myriam Chimenes, editors). Ashgate (Aldershot, UK),
ISBN
1859284078
, p 287 (1999).
Further reading
[
edit
]
- von Balthasar, Hans Urs (2011).
Bernanos: An Ecclesial Existence
. Ignatius Press.
- Blumenthal, Gerda (1965).
The Poetic Imagination of Georges Bernanos: An Essay in Interpretation
. The Johns Hopkins Press.
- Braybrooke, Neville (1954). "Georges Bernanos,"
The Irish Monthly
, Vol. 83, No. 969, pp. 174?179.
- Bush, William (1969).
Georges Bernanos
. Twayne Publishers.
- Field, Frank (1975).
Three French Writers: Studies in the Rise of Communism and Fascism.
- Hebblethwaite, Peter (1965).
Bernanos, an Introduction
. London: Bowes and Bowes.
- Molnar, Thomas (1960).
Bernanos: His Political Thought and Prophecy
. New York:
Sheed and Ward
.
- Molnar, Thomas (1995).
"The Case of Georges Bernanos,"
Modern Age
38
(1), pp. 61?68.
- Noth, Ernst Erich (1949). "The Prophetism of Georges Bernanos,"
Yale French Studies
, No. 4, Literature and Ideas, pp. 105?119.
- O'Malley, Frank (1944). "The Evangelism of Georges Bernanos,"
The Review of Politics
, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 403?421.
- Reck, Rima Drell (1965). "George Bernanos: A Novelist and His Art,"
The French Review
, Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 619?629.
- Speaight, Robert (1973).
Georges Bernanos: A Study of the Man and the Writer
. London: Collins & Harvill Press [New York: Liveright, 1974].
External links
[
edit
]
French
Wikisource
has original text related to this article:
|
---|
1904?1925
| |
---|
1926?1950
| |
---|
1951?1975
| |
---|
1976?2000
| |
---|
2001?present
| |
---|
|
---|
1915?1925
| |
---|
1926?1950
| |
---|
1951?1975
| |
---|
1976?2000
| |
---|
2001?present
| |
---|
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Academics
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|