Paul Bourget facts for kids

Not to be confused with Ernest Bourget.

Quick facts for kids Paul Charles Joseph Bourget
Paul Bourget in 1899
Born	(1852-09-02)2 September 1852 Amiens
Died	25 December 1935(1935-12-25) (aged 83) Paris
Resting place	Montparnasse Cemetery
Occupation	Novelist, critic
Nationality	French
Alma mater	Lycée Louis-le-Grand, École des Hautes Études
Notable works	Le Disciple
Signature

Paul Charles Joseph Bourget (born September 2, 1852 – died December 25, 1935) was a French writer. He was a poet, a novelist, and a critic. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times.

Paul Bourget was born in Amiens, France. He grew up Catholic but later stopped practicing his faith. He returned to Catholicism in the late 1800s. Bourget is known for his novels that explore people's thoughts and feelings. His stories often showed the complex emotions of women. They also looked at the ideas and challenges faced by young men in France.

Some of his famous books include Le Disciple (1889). This book was a bestseller. It explored what happens when people only care about money and scientific facts. Other important novels were Cruelle Enigme (1885), André Cornelis (1886), and Mensonges (1887). He became a member of the Académie française in 1894. This is a very important French group that protects the French language. In 1895, he received a high honor called the Légion d'honneur.

Bourget started his career writing poetry. Later, he became very successful in literary journalism. His critical writings, like Sensations d'Italie (1891), are still highly respected. Even though his novels were very popular when he was alive, most people don't read them much today. However, Bourget is still an important figure in French literature. This is because of his unique way of looking at human thoughts and morals in his stories. His work even inspired musicians. For example, Claude Debussy used some of Bourget's poems for his songs.

Paul Bourget's Life Story
Paul Bourget's Importance in Literature
Works in English
Images for kids
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Paul Bourget's Life Story

Paul Bourget was born in Amiens, a city in the Somme region of France. His father was a mathematics professor. He later got a job at a college in Clermont-Ferrand. This is where Paul Bourget went to school when he was young. After that, he studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the École des Hautes Études.

Early Writings and Success

Between 1872 and 1873, Paul Bourget wrote a book of poems called Au Bord de la Mer. He wrote more poetry books later, with the last one, Les Aveux, coming out in 1882. At the same time, he started to become known for his writing in newspapers and magazines. In 1883, he published Essais de Psychologie Contemporaine. This book was a collection of his studies on famous writers. He had first published these studies in a magazine called Nouvelle Revue.

In 1884, Bourget visited Britain for a long time. There, he wrote his first published story, L'Irréparable. After that, he wrote more successful novels. These included Cruelle Enigme (1885), André Cornelis (1886), and Mensonges (1887). People really liked these books.

His Return to Faith

Bourget had stopped being Catholic in 1867. But starting in 1889, he slowly began to return to his faith. He fully became Catholic again in 1901. In 1893, he talked about his changed beliefs in an interview in America. He said that for many years, he had simply said, "I don't know," about faith. He felt that living a life just doing what pleased him was empty and led to sadness. He also believed it had a bad effect on others.

On the other hand, he saw that people who followed the church's teachings were often protected from moral problems. He felt these problems usually happened when people let their feelings and weaknesses guide them.

Le Disciple and Its Impact

These ideas were central to his novel Le Disciple (1889). He wrote this book right after he stopped being an agnostic. The story is about a philosopher named Adrien Sixte. He believes that only material things and scientific facts matter. His ideas have a terrible effect on a student named Robert Geslon. Robert is unstable, and his actions lead to a young woman's sad death. Le Disciple caused a big stir in France and became a bestseller. It showed Bourget's more serious side.

Later Works and Honors

In 1888, Bourget published Études et portraits. This book included his thoughts from his time in England and Ireland. He especially remembered the months he spent in Oxford. In 1891, he wrote Sensations d'Italie, which were notes from a trip to Italy. This book showed a new side of his writing skills. In 1895, he published Outre-Mer, a two-volume book. It was his journal from a visit to the United States in 1893.

Other novels he wrote include Coeur de Femme (1891), La Terre Promise (1892), and Cosmopolis (1892). Cosmopolis was a psychological novel set in Rome. He also wrote Une Idylle tragique (1896), La Duchesse bleue (1897), Le Fantôme (1901), and Les Deux Sœurs (1905). He also wrote several collections of shorter stories. These included Complications Sentimentales (1896), Drames de famille (1898), and Un Homme d'Affaires (1900).

L'Etape (1902) was a story about a family that quickly moved up in society. It showed how hard it was for them to fit into their new life. This book was followed by Un Divorce (1904). This novel supported the Roman Catholic idea that divorce goes against natural laws.

Paul Bourget became a member of the Académie française in 1894. In 1895, he was promoted to an officer of the Légion d'honneur. He had received the first medal for this honor ten years before.

Final Years

Bourget continued to write many new novels. These included La Vie Passe (1910), Le Sens de la Mort (1915), and Lazarine (1917). He also wrote Némésis (1918) and Laurence Albani (1920). He published three books of short stories and plays. Two of his plays, Un Cas de Conscience (1910) and La Crise (1912), were written with other people. He also published a book of critical studies in 1912. Another travel book, Le Démon du Midi, came out in 1914.

On March 16, 1914, he was at the office of a newspaper called Le Figaro. The editor, his friend Gaston Calmette, was shot and killed there. This event caused a huge public scandal at the time.

Paul Bourget also contributed to Le Visage de l'Italie, a book about Italy published in 1929. The book had an introduction written by Benito Mussolini.

Paul Bourget died on Christmas Day, December 25, 1935, in Paris. He was 83 years old.

Paul Bourget's Importance in Literature

As a poet, Bourget's poems were collected in two volumes (1885–1887). These poems help us understand his writing style and his later works. However, he was especially good at being a critic. His Sensations d'Italie (1891) and his psychological studies are very important.

Bourget's reputation as a novelist is still strong in some academic groups. But while his novels were very popular when he was alive, most people don't read them much today. He was inspired by the writer Henry Beyle (Stendhal). Bourget started a new way of writing at a time when the realist style was popular in French stories.

Bourget mostly focused on observing human character. At first, his goal seemed to be purely artistic. But when Le Disciple came out in 1889, the introduction to that story showed his strong moral beliefs. After that, his work became more serious. He wrote about the complicated feelings of women, whether they were wronged or made mistakes. He also described the ideas, feelings, and failures of young men in France.

One of his poems inspired a song by the famous composer Claude Debussy. The song is called Beau Soir. Debussy also set other poems by Bourget to music, including 'Romance' and 'Les Cloches'.