Georges Bernanos

"Bernanos" redirects here. For Georges Bernanos's son, a poet and fantasy writer, see Michel Bernanos.
George Bernanos
Born 20 February 1888
Paris, France
Died 5 July 1948 (aged 60)
Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
Occupation Writer
Nationality French
Period 20th century
Genre Novel

Georges Bernanos (French: [ʒɔʁʒ bɛʁnanɔs];[1] 20 February 1888 – 5 July 1948) was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. Of Roman Catholic and monarchist leanings,[2] he was critical of bourgeois thought and was opposed to what he identified as defeatism. He thought this led to France's eventual occupation by Germany in 1940 during World War II.[3] Most of his novels have been translated into English and frequently published in both Great Britain and the United States.

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 participated 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 in Fascism and National Socialism (which he described as "disgusting monstrousness") before World War II broke out in Europe. He won the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française for Journal d'un curé de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest), published in 1936.

He initially supported Francisco Franco and the Falange at the outset of the Spanish Civil War.[4] But Bernanos spent part of the conflict in Majorca, observed 'a terrorized population,' and became disillusioned with the nacionales, which he criticized in the book Diary of My Times (1938). He wrote, "My illusions on the enterprise of General Franco did not last long - two or three weeks - but while they lasted I conscientiously endeavoured to get over the disgust which some of the men and means inspired in me."[5] 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, where he tried his hand at managing a farm. His three sons returned to France to fight when 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 the liberation, de Gaulle invited Bernanos to return to France, offering him a post in the government. Bernanos did return but, disappointed that no signs of spiritual renewal were to be perceived, he did not participate actively in French political life.[6]

Adaptations

Works in English translation

References

  1. "Bernanos", Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
  2. Allen, W. Gore (1948). "George Bernanos: A Mystic in the World," The Irish Monthly, Vol. 76, No. 903, pp. 414-416.
  3. Tobin, Michael R. (2007). Georges Bernanos: The Theological Source of his Art. McGill-Queen's University Press.
  4. Hellman, John (1990). "Bernanos, Drumont, and the Rise of French Fascism," The Review of Politics, Vol. 52, No. 3, pp. 441-459.
  5. Georges Bernanos. A Diary of My Times, London: Boriswood, 1938, p. 85.
  6. Robert Bergan, "Claude Laydu obituary", The Guardian, 7 August 2011, accessed 15 June 2014
  7. Jpbox-office.com

Further reading

External links

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