Jacques Chardonne birthplace in Barbezieux, Charente, France

Jacques Chardonne (born Jacques Boutelleau; 2 January 1884, in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, Charente – 29 May 1968, in La Frette-sur-Seine) is the pseudonym of French writer Jacques Boutelleau. He was a member of the so-called Groupe de Barbezieux.

Early life and career

Raised Protestant, his American Quaker mother was an heiress to the Haviland porcelain dynasty and his father was French. His brother-in-law was of the Delamain cognac dynasty. This informed his trilogy Les Destinées Sentimentales.[1] He was a leader of the Hussards and held in high regard for the award-winning Claire.

World War II

He supported collaboration with the Vichy and in 1940 produced "Private Chronicle 1940", which favored the submission of Europe to Adolf Hitler.[2] He was a member of the Groupe Collaboration, an initiative that encouraged close cultural ties between France and Germany.[3] In October 1941, Chardonne, with seven other French writers including Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, Marcel Jouhandeau et Robert Brasillach, accepted an invitation from Joseph Goebbels to visit Germany for a Congress of European Writers in Weimar. In his diary during the trip, Chardonne described how he wanted to "make [his] body a fraternal bridge between Germany and France".[4]After World War II he was denounced for Nazi collaboration[5] and spent time in prison.[6] In an article titled "Jacques Chardonne et Mein Kampf" the 'Frenchness' of his writing was also questioned.[7]

Death and rehabilitation

He died in 1968 after efforts to restore his image. By the 1980s anti-totalitarian journalists like Raymond Aron began to reappraise collaborationist authors like Chardonne.[8] In 1986 his award-winning Claire was made into a TV film[9] and in 2001 Olivier Assayas adapted Les Destinées Sentimentales to film.[10]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ A la mode bull in a china shop
  2. ↑ The New York Times November 2, 1944
  3. ↑ Karen Fiss, Grand Illusion: The Third Reich, the Paris Exposition, and the Cultural Seduction of France, University of Chicago Press, 2009, p. 204
  4. ↑ Jackson, Julian (2003). France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944. Oxford University Press. p. 206. ISBN 9780191622885.
  5. ↑ "Tally Ho!" article in the September 18. 1944 issue of Time magazine
  6. ↑ Allegories of the War by Philip Watts, pg 44
  7. ↑ Literature and the French Resistance by Margaret Atack, pg 40
  8. ↑ Neither right nor left By Zeev Sternhell, David Maisel; xxvi
  9. ↑ BFI
  10. ↑ Lim, Dennis (May 2009). "In Familial Bric-a-Brac, Finding Himself (Published 2009)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-11-08.
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