Martin du Gard (Martin du Gard), Roger

March 23, 1881, Mr.. - August 23, 1958
French novelist and playwright Roger Martin du Gard was born in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, a wealthy family, which owes its origins from Burgundy and Lorraine. Roger was the elder of two children. His father, Paul Emile Martin du Gard, and grandfather were lawyers and his mother, nee Madeleine Jeanne Vimy, came from a family stockbroker. When Roger was about 10 years, he made friends with a boy at school, writing plays, and since that time himself, as he later recalled, burning with a desire to become a writer.
In 11 years of age M.d.G. sent to a Catholic school, the Ecole Fenelon, . where the boy falls under the influence of Abbot Marcel Hebert, . one of the leaders of the French neo-Thomism (movement within the Catholic Church, . which sought to revise the church dogmas in the light of modern science and philosophy, and because it was considered heretical at the beginning of XX century.),
. Eventually M.d.G. away from Catholicism, but Hebert had established close, friendly relations, which remained until the death of a priest in 1916
M.d.G. was negligent student and studying does not matter, so his father sent him to Professor Louis Muller, who gave the boy a few months of private lessons. Once in the intellectual milieu in which it was required to read a lot and take nothing for granted, he developed the habit of regular work and got what he later called 'research vein'.
. At the age of 17 on the advice Hebert M.d.G
. read 'War and Peace'. Tolstoy made the young man left an indelible impression, the desire to write himself after this has been strengthened even more.
. Soon, Roger goes to the Sorbonne, however, flunk, leaving the university and in the same year entered the Ecole de Shart, university archives and historical institution
. Although later M.d.G. said he did not know why he chose this profession, she played a huge role in the development of his writing technique, which was based on pedantic scientific methodology had been planted by Professor Muller.
In 1905, Mr.. M.d.G. graduated palaeographer-archivist for the work of the abbey at Rouen Zhyumezh. A year later the young man marries Ellen Foucault, the daughter of a Parisian lawyer.
Settling in Paris, M.d.G. planned a long, in the spirit of Tolstoy's novel about a village priest, whose prototype may have been his mentor Hebert. However, after one and a half years of an aspiring novelist who understands that a novel this size too much for him. Deeply depressed, M.d.G. tormented by severe doubts about his vocation, in 1907. had a daughter, Christina, whose future he must provide, and the spring of 1908, just a few weeks, as they say - in one breath, M.d.G. wrote 'Becoming' ( 'Devenir!'). story of a man who wants to become a writer, but all his attempts to compose something, and find personal happiness end crash. The writer publishes the novel at his own expense - and has since become a professional writer.
Began work on the next piece, but he was going to call 'Maryse' ( 'Marise'), M.d.G. again feels that his capabilities are not consistent with its ambitions, and begins to search for topics which are closer to life experience. General strictness was the hallmark of M.d.G., which is often burned his manuscripts, if they are found unsatisfactory. Rejecting the 'Maryse' M.d.G. wrote the novel 'Jean Barua' ( 'Jean Barois', 1913), the first significant work of the writer who brought him success. Using innovative for that time, the technique of combining dialogue and historical document, M.d.G. depicts a young man, restless between rationalism and faith. The novel gives a vivid picture of the political scandal which broke out around the French army officer Alfred Dreyfus - the scandal, which has had a devastating effect on the whole structure of French society of the late XIX - early XX centuries. 'Jean Barua' was issued on the advice of Andre Gide, who became a close friend M.d.G. and with whom he corresponded for many years.
During the First World War M.d.G. served in the French army on the Western Front. Discharged in 1919, he worked briefly in a Paris theater, and in 1920,. parents moved to the estate in central France, where he began to write his famous novel 'Family Thibaut' ( 'Les Thibault'), 8 volumes which came out from 1922 to 1940. In the novel, which was set in the first two decades of XX century., Depicts two bourgeois families, one - the Catholic, the other - Protestant. Narrating the life of the two main characters, brothers, Theobald - Jacques.
socialist and revolutionary, and Antoine, a doctor, took a more conservative views - the author shows the decline of pre-war society. 'Family Thiebaud', as well as other books M.d.G., written in the genre of roman fleuve (literally - a multi-volume novel) - a detailed, based on historical documents and narratives. In 1931, Mr.. the writer gets in a car accident and had two months in hospital. During this time he revised the plan of the remaining parts of the novel, reworked the final, and most importantly, changed the focus turned again, as in 'Janet Barua', the technique of the historical document. According to the British critic Martin Seymour-Smith, 'Family Thibault' 'impressive detail, vividness, the main characters, their honesty, the major novels of our century' Family Thibault '- the most tragic'.
In 1937, Mr.. M.d.G. awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 'for the artistic power and truth to the image rights, as well as the most important aspects of modern life'. Focusing more on the novel 'Family Thiebaud', a member of the Swedish Academy Per Halstrem notes that, 'by exposing the human soul scrupulous and skeptical analysis, M.d.G. eventually championed the idealism of the human spirit '. In reply M.d.G. spoke against dogmatism, which, in his view, is characterized by life and thinking of people in the XX. He welcomed the "independent personality, which avoids the temptation of fanatical ideologies and focuses on self-knowledge '. At a time when Adolf Hitler threatened Europe with a new war, M.d.G. expressed the hope that his work 'may serve not only as literature, but also the cause of peace'.
During the creation of 'Families Thibault' M.d.G. also wrote 'African acceptance' ( 'Confidence africaine', . 1931) - a very candid story of incest, . 'Silent' ( 'Un Taciturne', . 1932) - a psychological play, . which affected the interest of the writer homosexuality, . as well as 'old France' ( 'Vieille France', . 1933) - a cynical and sarcastic description of the French peasantry, . story, . Unusually for his creativity and intonation, . and on,
. After 1940. writer for 17 years working on a novel-epic 'Diaries of Colonel Momora' ( 'Les Souvenirs du colonel Maumort'), and an unfinished. M.d.G. died of a heart attack at his house in Normandy at the age of 77 years.
Throughout his life M.d.G. was a man of clam, very closed, believed that the writer must speak of his book. A few months before his death, he put in order his papers in t.ch. huge correspondence and diary, which he led from 1919 to 1949, and letters and a diary of his orders were transferred to the National Library in Paris, where he kept unopened for 25 years. However, despite the modesty and reluctance to be seen, M.d.G., writes his biographer, Catherine Savage, 'enjoyed great respect from his contemporaries'. According to Savage, 'exploring contemporary social issues in a realistic manner, M.d.G. remained faithful to the traditions of the XIX century. and at the same time pointed out the further development of the novel '.