Georges Bernanos  

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Louis Émile Clément Georges Bernanos (20 February 1888 – 5 July 1948) was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. A Roman Catholic with monarchist leanings, he was critical of bourgeois thought and was opposed to what he identified as defeatism. He believed this had led to France's defeat and eventual occupation by Germany in 1940 during World War II. Most of his novels have been translated into English and frequently published in both Great Britain and the United States.

He is the author of Under the Sun of Satan (1926).

Life and career

Bernanos was born in Paris, into a family of craftsmen. He spent much of his childhood in the village of Fressin, Pas de Calais region, which became a frequent setting for his novels. He served in the First World War as a soldier, where he fought in the battles of the Somme and Verdun. He was wounded several times.

After the war, he worked in insurance before writing Sous le soleil de Satan (1926, Under the Sun of Satan).

Despite his Royalist leanings and his membership in Action Française's youth organization), until 1932, Bernanos despised Fascism, which he described as "disgustingly monstrous" well before World War II broke out in Europe. He won the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française for The Diary of a Country Priest (Journal d'un curé de campagne), published in 1936.

He initially supported Francisco Franco and the Falange at the outset of the Spanish Civil War. However, after he observed the conflict in Majorca and saw 'a terrorized people,' he became disgusted with the nacionales and criticized them in the book Diary of My Times (1938). He wrote, "My illusions regarding the enterprise of General Franco did not last long - two or three weeks - but while they lasted I conscientiously endeavoured to overcome the disgust which some of his men and means caused me." Most of his important fictional works were written between 1926 and 1937.

With political tensions rising in Europe, Bernanos emigrated to South America with his family in 1938, settling in Brazil. He remained until 1945 in Barbacena, State of Minas Gerais, where he tried his hand at managing a farm. His three sons returned to France to fight after World War II broke out, while he fulminated at his country's 'spiritual exhaustion,' which he saw as the root of its collapse in 1940. From exile he mocked the 'ridiculous' Vichy regime and became a strong supporter of the nationalist Free French Forces led by the conservative Charles De Gaulle.

After France's Liberation, De Gaulle invited Bernanos to return to his homeland, offering him a post in the government. Bernanos did return but, disappointed to perceive no signs of spiritual renewal, he declined to play an active role in French political life.

Adaptations of selected works

• The Diary of a Country Priest: this was the first novel by Bernanos to be adapted as a film, called Diary of a Country Priest (1951); it was directed by Robert Bresson, and starred Claude Laydu in his debut role, called one of the greatest performances in the history of film.
• Mouchette was adapted into a film of the same name by Robert Bresson, released in 1967.
• Under the Sun of Satan: his novel was adapted as a film of the same name, produced in 1987 in France. The film won the Palme d'Or prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.
• Dialogues des Carmélites: in 1947, Bernanos had been hired to write the dialogue for a film screenplay, through Raymond-Léopold Bruckberger and the scenario writer Philippe Agostini, based on the novella Die Letzte am Schafott by German novelist Gertrud von Le Fort, about the 1794 execution of the Carmelite Nuns of Compiègne. The screenplay was judged unsatisfactory at the time. Following Bernanos' death his literary executor, Albert Béguin, discovered the manuscript. To assist Bernanos' heirs, Béguin sought to have the work published, requesting permission from Baroness von Le Fort for publication. In January 1949 she agreed, gifting her portion of the royalties over to Bernanos' widow and children. However, the Baroness requested that Bernanos' play be given a different title from her novella. Béguin chose Dialogues des Carmélites, and the work was published in 1949. It was translated into German, published there in 1951 as Die begnadete Angst (The Blessed Fear) and first staged in Zurich and Munich that year. The French stage première took place in May 1952 at the Théâtre Hébertot. The composer Francis Poulenc adapted Bernanos' work into an opera of the same name,which was first performed at La Scala Milan in 1957. A film based on Bernanos' play and starring Jeanne Moreau was released in 1960.

Works in English translation

• The Star of Satan. London: The Bodley Head, 1927 [New York: Macmillan, 1940; H. Fertig, 1975].
  • Under the Sun of Satan. New York: Pantheon, 1949 [University of Nebraska Press, 2001].
• The Crime. London: Hale, 1936 [New York: E.P. Dutton, 1936].
• The Diary of a Country Priest. 1936 in Paris, France; London: The Bodley Head, 1937 [New York: Macmillan, 1948, 1962; Carroll & Graf, 1983, 2002].
• A Diary of My Times. New York: Macmillan, 1938 [London: The Bodley Head, 1945].
• Plea for Liberty. New York: Pantheon, 1944 [London: Dobson, 1946].
• The Open Mind. London: The Bodley Head, 1945.
  • Monsieur Ouine. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
• Sanctity Will Out. London and New York: Sheed & Ward, 1947.
• Joy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1946 [London: The Bodley Head, 1948; Toronto: Thomas Nelson, 1948].
• Tradition of Freedom. London: Dobson, 1950 [New York: Roy, 1951].
• The Fearless Heart. Toronto: Thomas Nelson, 1952 [London: The Bodley Head, 1952].
• Night Is Darkest. London: The Bodley Head, 1953.
• Mouchette. London: The Bodley Head, 1966 [New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966; New York Review Books, 2006].
• The Last Essays of Georges Bernanos. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1955 [Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1968].
• The Impostor. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.

Further reading

• Blumenthal, Gerda (1965). The Poetic Imagination of Georges Bernanos: An Essay in Interpretation. The Johns Hopkins Press.
• Braybrooke, Neville (1954). "Georges Bernanos," The Irish Monthly, Vol. 83, No. 969, pp. 174–179.
• Bush, William (1969). Georges Bernanos. Twayne Publishers.
• Field, Frank (1975). Three French Writers: Studies in the Rise of Communism and Fascism.
• Hebblethwaite, Peter (1965). Bernanos, an Introduction. London: Bowes and Bowes.
• Molnar, Thomas (1960). Bernanos: His Political Thought and Prophecy. New York: Sheed and Ward.
• Molnar, Thomas (1995). "The Case of Georges Bernanos," Modern Age 38 (1), pp. 61–68.
• Noth, Ernst Erich (1949). "The Prophetism of Georges Bernanos," Yale French Studies, No. 4, Literature and Ideas, pp. 105–119.
• O'Malley, Frank (1944). "The Evangelism of Georges Bernanos," The Review of Politics, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 403–421.
• Reck, Rima Drell (1965). "George Bernanos: A Novelist and His Art," The French Review, Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 619–629.
• Speaight, Robert (1973). Georges Bernanos: A Study of the Man and the Writer. London: Collins & Harvill Press [New York: Liveright, 1974].