Pierre Benoit (novelist)
Pierre Benoit (16 July 1886 – 3 March 1962) was a French novelist and member of the Académie française.[1]
Pierre Benoit, born in Albi (southern France) was the son of a French soldier. Benoit spent his early years and military service in Northern Africa, before becoming a civil servant.[2] His first novel, Koenigsmark, was published in 1918; L'Atlantide was published the next year and was awarded the Grand Prize of the Académie française.[2] Benoit became a member of the Académie in 1931.[2]
A political right-winger, Benoit was an admirer of the French fascist Charles Maurras.[2] During the Nazi Occupation of France, Benoît joined the "Groupe Collaboration", a pro-Nazi arts group whose other members included Abel Bonnard, Georges Claude and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle.[3] This led him to be arrested in September 1944; he was eventually released after six months, but his work remained on the "blacklist" of French Nazi collaborators for several years afterwards.[2]
Late in his life, Benoit gave a series of interviews with the French writer Paul Guimard.[2]
He died in March 1962 in Ciboure.
Bibliography
- Koenigsmark (1918)
- L'Atlantide (1919; transl. as The Queen Of Atlantis, 1920)
- La Chaussée des Géants (The Giant's Causeway) (1922)
- L'Oublié (The Forgotten Man) (1922)
- Le Puits de Jacob (Jacob's Well) (1925)
- Le Roi Lépreux (The Leper King) (1927)
- Axelle (1928)
- Le Soleil de Minuit (The Midnight Sun) (1930)
- L'Homme qui était trop grand (The Man Who Was Too Tall) (1936)
- Bethsabée (1938)
- Lunegarde (Moonkeep) (1942)
- L'Oiseau des Ruines (Bird of the Ruins) (1947)
- Aïno (1948)
- Les Agriates (1950)
- La Sainte Vehme (The Holy Vehme) (1954), illustrated by Jean Dries
- Villeperdue (Lost City) (1954)
- Montsalvat (1957)
References
- ^ French Twentieth Bibliography: Critical and Bibliographical William J. Thompson - 2001... - Page 17210 "Maltère, Stéphane: "Le monde littéraire antique dans L'Atlantide de Pierre Benoit, " Cahiers des Amis de Pierre Benoit, no. 10 (1999), 21-30. [BNF] X1361. Monestier, Louis: "Histoire de l'association des 'Amis de Pierre Benoit'. Première partie ..."
- ^ a b c d e f Hugo Frey, "Afterword" to The Queen of Atlantis, Bison Books, ISBN 0803269161, (p.289-312)
- ^ Karen Fiss, Grand Illusion: The Third Reich, the Paris Exposition, and the Cultural Seduction of France. University of Chicago Press, 2009 ISBN 0226252019, (p.201)
External links
- Works by Pierre Benoît at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Pierre Benoit at the Internet Archive
- Atlantida at Project Gutenberg