Jacques Chardonne
Jacques Chardonne (born Jacques Boutelleau; 2 January 1884, in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, Charente – 29 May 1968, in La Frette-sur-Seine) is the pseudonym of French writer Jacques Boutelleau. He was a member of the so-called Groupe de Barbezieux.
Early life and career[edit]
Raised Protestant, his American Quaker mother was an heiress to the Haviland porcelain dynasty and his father was French. His brother-in-law was of the Delamain cognac dynasty. This informed his trilogy Les Destinées Sentimentales.[1] He was a leader of the Hussards and held in high regard for the award-winning Claire.
World War II[edit]
He supported collaboration with the Vichy and in 1940 produced "Private Chronicle 1940", which favored the submission of Europe to Adolf Hitler.[2] He was a member of the Groupe Collaboration, an initiative that encouraged close cultural ties between France and Germany.[3] In October 1941, Chardonne, with seven other French writers including Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, Marcel Jouhandeau et Robert Brasillach, accepted an invitation from Joseph Goebbels to visit Germany for a Congress of European Writers in Weimar. In his diary during the trip, Chardonne described how he wanted to "make [his] body a fraternal bridge between Germany and France".[4] After World War II he was denounced for Nazi collaboration[5] and spent time in prison.[6] In an article titled "Jacques Chardonne et Mein Kampf" the 'Frenchness' of his writing was also questioned.[7]
Death and rehabilitation[edit]
He died in 1968 after efforts to restore his image. By the 1980s anti-totalitarian journalists like Raymond Aron began to reappraise collaborationist authors like Chardonne.[8] In 1986 his award-winning Claire was made into a TV film[9] and in 2001 Olivier Assayas adapted Les Destinées Sentimentales to film.[10]
Awards[edit]
- 1932 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, with Claire (Grasset)
- The Prix Jacques-Chardonne established in 1986 is named after him.
References[edit]
- ^ A la mode bull in a china shop[dead link]
- ^ The New York Times November 2, 1944
- ^ Karen Fiss, Grand Illusion: The Third Reich, the Paris Exposition, and the Cultural Seduction of France, University of Chicago Press, 2009, p. 204
- ^ Jackson, Julian (2003). France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944. Oxford University Press. p. 206. ISBN 9780191622885.
- ^ "Tally Ho!" article in the September 18. 1944 issue of Time magazine
- ^ Allegories of the War by Philip Watts, pg 44
- ^ Literature and the French Resistance by Margaret Atack, pg 40
- ^ Neither right nor left By Zeev Sternhell, David Maisel; xxvi
- ^ BFI
- ^ Lim, Dennis (May 2009). "In Familial Bric-a-Brac, Finding Himself (Published 2009)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-11-08.
- 1884 births
- 1968 deaths
- People from Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire
- French Calvinist and Reformed Christians
- Groupe Collaboration members
- French fascists
- French male novelists
- Writers from Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- 20th-century French novelists
- 20th-century French male writers
- Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française winners