Beginning in 1920, Mauriac published almost a novel a year for two decades (in all, he authored nearly 100 volumes). In 1914 he published La robe pr étexte (The Stuff of Youth) but did little other writing until well after World War I, in which he served in a medical unit. A second book of poetry followed two years later and then, in 1913, L'enfant charg é de chaines (Young Man in Chains), Mauriac's first novel, appeared. In November 1909 Mauriac privately published his first work, a collection of poems ( Les Mains jointes ), that gained favorable notice from influential critics. Upon leaving secondary school in the region of his birth, Mauriac went to Paris (1906) to study paleography and medieval archeology. As a child, Mauriac was frail and shy, admittedly guilt ridden, unhappy, and introverted. His father died when he was 18 months old and he was raised by his pious mother, who appears as Mme. Mauriac was the youngest of five children in what can be termed a landed, prosperous, middle-class family. Mauriac wrote two dozen works of fiction, and also achieved distinction as a political essayist, critic, biographer and writer of spiritual works.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |