Paul Bourget ( French Paul Bourget ; September 2, 1852 - December 25, 1935 ) is a French critic and novelist who, from the conservative positions of Catholicism and monarchism, led, in the words of Chekhov , "a pretentious campaign against the materialistic direction." The greatest success in France and beyond was enjoyed by the biased novel of 1889, The Apprentice .
| Paul Bourget | |
|---|---|
| fr. Paul bourget | |
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| Date of Birth | September 2, 1852 |
| Place of Birth | Amiens , France |
| Date of death | December 25, 1935 (83 years old) |
| Place of death | Paris , France |
| Citizenship |  France |
| Occupation | , , , , , |
| Language of Works | French |
| Awards | [d] |
| Autograph | |
Biography
Paul Bourget was born in Amiens on September 2, 1852. Having received a philosophical education, Bourget began literary activity as a poet.
Several of his poems were put to music by Claude Debussy . On the advice of his idol, Ten wrote a series of essays in which he traced the origins of the pessimism of modern literature to the work of Flaubert and Baudelaire , and also called for the revival of Stendalev traditions.
Beginning with the novel The Painful Mystery (1885), he dealt with a sophisticated psychological analysis of the actions and motivations of refined representatives of high society - Catholics or skeptics. These books were a resounding success both in France and abroad, almost all were translated into Russian.
In his most famous novel The Disciple (1889), and especially in the preface to it, Bourget equates the positivist worldview with destructive cynicism and didactically illustrates the need for young people to return to traditional Catholic morality. The protagonist of the novel plays with the feelings of people, and these " dangerous connections " inexorably lead him to tragedy. Usually he is seen as a representative of the psychological prose of the end of the century, a psychological novel of ideas. In his articles and essays he popularized certain topics that indirectly interested the generation of the 1880-1890s. According to Michel Mansuy (“Paul Bourget: a man of the Art Nouveau era”, 1960), he gave an expressive portrait of intellectuals and creative youth of the end of the century: “His works (primarily“ Essays ”) had a special effect on the emergence of a decadent movement somewhere around 1884. "
In 1901, Bourget finally transferred to the position of Catholicism . The subsequent novels are sketchy speeches in support of patriotism , clericalism and other traditional values up to the restoration of the monarchy. At the beginning of the XX century, the work of Bourget went out of fashion.
In 1899 he was among the organizers of the French Fatherland League .
Sources
- Jean Cassoux. Encyclopedia of Symbolism: Painting, Graphics and Sculpture. Literature. Music. (with the participation of Pierre Brunel, Francis Claudon, Georges Piyemann, Lionel Richard). Translation from French N.V. Kislova, N.T. Pakhsaryan. Publisher: Republic. 1999. ISBN 5-250-02668-0 C: 432.
- Paul Bourget in the British Encyclopedia
- Goldman M.A. Bourget // Brief Literary Encyclopedia / Ch. ed. A.A. Surkov. - M .: Owls. Encycl., 1962-1978. T. 1: Aarne - Gavrilov. - 1962. - St. 777.
Literature
- Vengerova Z. A. Bourget, Paul // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.