Jacques Chardonne
Jacques Chardonne (born Jacques Boutelleau in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, Charente on 2 January 1884; died in La Frette-sur-Seine on 29 May 1968) is the pseudonym of French writer Jacques Boutelleau. He was a member of the so-called Groupe de Barbezieux.
Early life and career
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
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] After World War II he was denounced for Nazi collaboration[4] and spent time in prison.[5] In an article titled "Jacques Chardonne et Mein Kampf" the 'Frenchness' of his writing was also questioned.[6]
Death and rehabilitation
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.[7] In 1986 his award-winning Claire was made into a TV film[8] and in 2001 Olivier Assayas adapted Les Destinées Sentimentales to film.[9]
Awards
- 1932 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, with Claire (Grasset)
References
- ↑ A la mode bull in a china shop
- ↑ 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
- ↑ "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
- ↑ The New York Times