Background
Mauriac was born at Bordeaux, France on October 11, 1885.
( François Mauriac's masterpiece and one of the greatest ...)
François Mauriac's masterpiece and one of the greatest Catholic novels, Thérèse Desqueyroux is the haunting story of an unhappily married young woman whose desperation drives her to thoughts of murder. Mauriac paints an unforgettable portrait of spiritual isolation and despair, but he also dramatizes the complex realities of forgiveness, grace, and redemption. Set in the countryside outside Bordeaux, in a region of overwhelming heat and sudden storms, the novel's landscape reflects the inner world of Thérèse, a figure who has captured the imaginations of readers for generations. Raymond N. MacKenzie's translation of Thérèse Desqueyroux , the first since 1947, captures the poetic lyricism of Mauriac's prose as well as the intensity of his stream-of-consciousness narrative. MacKenzie also provides notes and a biographical and interpretive introduction to help readers better appreciate the mastery of François Mauriac, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1952. This volume also includes a translation of "Conscience, The Divine Instinct," Mauriac's first draft of the story, never before available in English.
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Mauriac was born at Bordeaux, France on October 11, 1885.
Mauriac studied at the University of Bordeaux and at the École de Chartes in Paris.
His first novel, L'Enfant chargé de chaînes, was published in 1913. His literary reputation grew rapidly following publication of Le Baiser au lépreux (1922; A Kiss for the Leper, 1930), and thereafter he wrote Le Fleuve de feu (1923); Genitrix (1924); Le Désert de l'amour (1925; The Desert of Love, 1929), which was awarded a prize by the Académie Française; and Thérèse Desqueyroux (1926; Thérèse, 1928).
Among his other important novels are Le Nœudde vipères(1932; The Viper's Tangle, 1933), Le MystèreFontenac (1932), Les Anges noirs (1936; The Mask of Innocence, 1953), and L'Agneau (1954).
Mauriac wrote a literary biography, La Vie de Jean Racine (1928), and La Vie de Jésus (1936; Life of Jesus, 1937), which offers a new interpretation of the historical Jesus. In 1938 Mauriac's Asmodée (Asmodée, or the Intruder, 1939) was produced at the Comédie Française; Les Mal Aimés was produced in 1945. Mauriac made important contributions to literary criticism in Le Roman (1928) and Le Romancier et ses personnages (1933).
Large portions of his journal were published in 1934, 1937, 1940, 1950, and 1953. Mauriac's nonfiction works include Second Thoughts (1961), De Gaulle (1964), and Mémoires politiques (1967). In 1969 he published his first novel in 15 years, Un Adolescent d'autrefois (Maltaverne, 1970).
( François Mauriac's masterpiece and one of the greatest ...)
(Hard to find book)
Quotations:
No love, no friendship can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever.
To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others.
Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.
Human love is often but the encounter of two weaknesses.
On 1 June 1933 he was elected a member of the Académie française, succeeding Eugène Brieux.
He was the father of writer Claude Mauriac and grandfather of Anne Wiazemsky, a French actress and author who worked with and married French director Jean-Luc Godard.