Occupation Writer Name Georges Bernanos Genre Novel | Period 20th century Nationality French Role Author | |
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Born 20 February 1888Paris, France ( 1888-02-20 ) Movies Diary of a Country Priest, Mouchette, Under the Sun of Satan, Dialogue D'ombres Children Michel Bernanos, Yves Bernanos Books The Diary of a Country P, Under the Sun of Satan, Diary of a Country Priest, Les Grands Cimetieres sous la L, Monsieur Ouine Similar People Robert Bresson, Maurice Pialat, Michel Bernanos, Guy Gaucher, Claude Laydu | ||
Une vie, une œuvre : Georges Bernanos (1888-1948), la liberté imprenable [2008]
Georges Bernanos ([ʒɔʁʒ bɛʁnanɔs]; 20 February 1888 – 5 July 1948) was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. A Roman Catholic with monarchist leanings, he was critical of bourgeois 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. Most of his novels have been translated into English and frequently published in both Great Britain and the United States.
Contents
- Une vie une uvre Georges Bernanos 1888 1948 la libert imprenable 2008
- Une vie une uvre Georges Bernanos 1888 1948 le dernier tmoin de la piti sacre 1987
- Biography
- Adaptations of selected works
- Works in English translation
- References
Une vie, une œuvre : Georges Bernanos (1888-1948), le dernier témoin de la pitié sacrée [1987]
Biography
Bernanos was born in Paris, into a family of craftsmen. He spent much of his childhood in the 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).
Despite his anti-democratic leanings and his allegiance to the Action Française (he was a member of their youth organization, the Camelots du Roi), which he left in 1932, Bernanos saw the danger of Fascism and National Socialism (which he described as "disgustingly monstrous") before World War II broke out in Europe. He won the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française for The Diary of a Country Priest (Journal d'un curé de campagne), published in 1936.
He initially supported Francisco Franco and the Falange at the outset of the Spanish Civil War. However, after he observed part of the conflict in Majorca and saw 'a terrorized people,' he became disillusioned with the nacionales, whom he criticized 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." Most of his important fictional works were written between 1926 and 1937.
With political tensions rising in Europe, Bernanos emigrated to South America with his family in 1938, settling in Brazil. He stayed there until 1945, for most of the time 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.