Henry Bordeaux

Henry Bordeaux
Henry Bordeaux in 1919
Born	Henry Camille Bordeaux 25 January 1870 Thonon-les-Bains, Haute-Savoie, France
Died	29 March 1963 (1963-03-30) (aged 93) Paris, France
Occupation	Writer, lawyer

Henry Bordeaux (25 January 1870 – 29 March 1963) was a French writer and lawyer.

Biography

Bordeaux came from a family of lawyers of Savoy. He was born in Thonon-les-Bains, Haute-Savoie. His grandfather was a magistrate and his father served on the Chambéry bar. During his early life, he relocated between Savoy and Paris and the tensions between provincial and city life influenced his writings. In his professional life he observed closely the dissolution of numerous families and analysed the causes and consequences of these. From the age of seventeen he spent three years in Paris studying law. Then he returned to practice law in Savoy. He returned to Paris after the publication of his first book during 1894. When his father died in 1896 he returned to Savoy.

The writings of Bordeaux reflect the values of traditional provincial Catholic communities. One recurring theme is loyalty. Loyalty is pervasive, and it applies to family, country and God. This theme is particularly evidenced in the novels "La Peur de vivre" and "Les Roquevillard."

Bordeaux was elected to the Académie française on 22 May 1919. This elite group of writers, popularly known as the "immortals," are responsible for establishing and maintaining the grammar, usage and acceptance of vocabulary into standard French.

He was a contributor to Le Visage de l'Italie, a 1929 book about Italy prefaced by Benito Mussolini.

Bordeaux died in Paris in 1963.

Works

Novels

• Le Pays Natal (1900)
• La Peur de Vivre (1902)
• La Petite Mademoiselle (1905)
• Les Roquevillard (1906)
• Les Yeux qui s’ouvrent (1908)
• La Croisée des Chemins (1909)
• La Robe de laine (1910)
• La Neige sur les pas (1911)
• Amants de Genève (1912)
• La Nouvelle Croisade des enfants (1913)
• La Maison (1913)
• Les Derniers Jours du fort de Vaux (1916)
• La Jeunesse nouvelle: Deux héros de vingt ans (1915)
• La Résurrection de la chair (1920)
• Le Fantôme de la rue Michel-Ange (1922)
• Yamilé sous les cèdres (1923; its film adaptation directed by Charles d'Espinay was released in 1939)
• La Chartreuse du Reposoir (1924)
• Le Cœur et le Sang (1925)
• Paysages romanesques des Alpes (1925)
• Le Barrage (1927)
• Rap et Vega (1927)
• Le Calvaire de Cimiez (1928)
• Valombré (1928)
• L'illustration, 1928
• Adèle Kamm (1931)
• L'Écran brisé (1931)
• Les Amours de Xavier de Maistre à Aoste (1931)
• La Revenante (1932)
• Les Yeux qui s'ouvrent (1933)
• L'Intruse (1936)
• L'Affaire de la rue Lepic (1938)
• Le Gouffre (1938)
• Henry de Bournazel (1939)
• La Sonate au clair de lune (1940)
• Images du Maréchal Pétain (1941)
• La Marche à l'abîme (1948)
• La Vie d'Henri de Savoie (1950)
• Le Fil de la vierge (1951)
• Le Flambeau renversé (1961)

Poetry

• La Course à la Vie (1893)

Criticism

• Édouard Rod (1895)
• La Vie et l'Art (1895–97)

Miscellania

• Max Doumic (1863–1914) (1915)
• Le Chevalier de l’Air: Vie Héroïque de Guynemer (1918)
• Un Coin de France Pendant la Guerre: Le Plessis-de-Roye (1918)
• La Chanson de Vaux-Douaumont (1916; 2 vols.)
  • I — Les Derniers jours du Fort de Vaux
  • II — Les Captifs Délivrés
• Le Sphinx sans Visage: Notes d'un Voyage en Égypte (1939)
• Le Pays sans Ombre (1935)
• Le Collège Stanislas (1936)
• Histoire d’une Vie (1951–73; 13 vols.)
• Aventures en Montagne (1946)

Translated into English

• "The Consultation: A Study of a Busy Mind," The Living Age, Vol. CCCV (1920)

Further reading

• Halfants, Paul (1925). La littérature franc̜aise au dix-neuvième siècle. III. Romanciers (1850-1900). Bruxelles: Librairie de Lannoy.
• Keeler, Mary Jerome (1935). Catholic Literary France from Verlaine to the Present Time. Milwaukee: Bruce Pub. Co.
• Lecigne, Constantin (1908). Du Dilettantisme à l'action, Vol. 2. Paris: P. Lethielleux.

External links

• Works by Henry Bordeaux at Project Gutenberg