| René Bazin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 December 1853 Angers, France |
| Died | 20 July 1932 (aged 78) Paris, France |
René François Nicolas Marie Bazin (26 December 1853 – 20 July 1932) was a French novelist.
Born at Angers, he studied law in Paris, and on his return to Angers became Professor of Law in the Catholic university. He contributed to Parisian journals a series of sketches of provincial life and descriptions of travel, and wrote Stephanette (1884), but he made his reputation with Une tache d'encre (A spot of ink) (1888), which received a prize from the Academy.
Other novels followed:
La Terre qui meurt, a picture of the decay of peasant farming and a story of La Vendée, was an indirect plea for the development of provincial France. A volume of Questions littéraires et sociales appeared in 1906. He also wrote books of travel, including a l'aventure (1891), Sicile (1892), Terre d'Espagne (1896), and Croquis de France et d'Orient (1901). Bazin is known to English and American readers for rendering the Italy of his time, The Italians of To-Day (1904). After 1914 he produced a half dozen novels besides miscellaneous writings.New International Encyclopedia Les Nouveaux Oberlé (1919) is regarded as a masterpiece.
René Bazin was admitted to the Académie française on 28 April 1904.
| Cultural offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Ernest Legouvé |
Seat 30 Académie française 1903-1932 |
Succeeded by Théodore Gosselin |