André Maurois
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| French literature |
|---|
| By category |
| French literary history |
|
Medieval |
| French writers |
|
Chronological list |
| France portal |
| Literature portal |
André Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog, (July 26, 1885 – October 9, 1967) was a French author and man of letters. "André Maurois" was a pen name that became his legal name in 1947.
Contents |
[edit] Life
He was born in Elbeuf and educated in Rouen, both in Normandy.
During World War I he joined the French army and he served as an interpreter and later a liaison officer to the British army. His first novel Les silences du colonel Bramble was a witty but socially realistic account of that experience. It was an immediate success in France. It was translated and also became popular in the United Kingdom and other English speaking countries as The Silence of Colonel Bramble. Many of his other works have been translated in English, because they often dealt with British figures or topics, like his biographies of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, Lord Byron or Shelley.
He became a member of the Académie française in 1938.
When World War II broke out, he was appointed the French Official Observer attached to the British General Headquarters. In his official capacity he accompanied the British Army to Belgium. He personally knew the leaders of the French Government, and on 10 June 1940, he was sent on a mission to London. The Armistice put an end to that mission. Maurois was demobilised and travelled from England to Canada. He wrote of these experiences in his book Tragedy in France.[1]
During World War II he served in the French army and the Free French Forces.
He died in 1967 after a long career as an author of novels, biographies, histories, and children’s books. He is buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris.
[edit] Bibliography
- Climats
- Lelia, ou la vie de George Sand (Lelia, or the life of George Sand)
- Histoire d'Angleterre (History of England)
- Fattypuffs and Thinifers (1930)
- The Next Chapter: The War Against the Moon (1930)
- Ariel
- Byron (first published in hardback by Cape in 1930, and since translated from French into English by Hamish Miles and published in paperback by Constable in 1984)
- Captains and Kings
- Disraeli
- Mape
- Lyautey
- The Silence of Colonel Bramble
- General Bramble
- Dickens
- Prophets and Poets
- The Thought Reading Machine
- Ricochets
- The Miracle of England
- Chateaubriand
- The Art of Living
- Tragedy in France
- I Remember, I Remember
- The Miracle of America
- Les Origines de la Guerre de 1939
- Woman Without Love
- My American Journal
- Olympio: The Turbulent Life of Victor Hugo
- To an Unknown Lady
- Prometheus: The Life of Balzac
- The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming: Discoverer of Penicillin
- Adrienne, ou, La vie de Mme de La Fayette
- Ariel the Life of Shelley
- The World of Marcel Proust
- Titans: A Three-Generation Biography of the Dumas
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ Maurois, 1940, Foreword
[edit] General references
- Maurois, Andre (1940). Tragedy in France, Denver Lindley (translator), Harper & Brothers.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by René Doumic |
Seat 26 Académie française 1938-1967 |
Succeeded by Marcel Arland |
