Maurice Barre?s and French Traditionalism

Abstract

Barre?s was a novelist who dabbled in the politics of the Chamber. His involvement with political organizations espousing a program of extraparliamentary action was considerable. Yet, he was first and foremost a novelist. Barre?s' themes inspired a host of younger writers to emulate their master's traditionalist frame of reference. Thus, Barre?s was the motivating force behind the "regional novel." Frangois Mauriac, Andre Maurois , and Pierre Loti were his most distinguished followers. Andre Malraux, while a traditionalist , acquired Barre?s' taste for the description of murders , political intrigue, and Oriental landscapes. Barres was not an "action novelist," like Malraux, yet he did introduce a feeling for the sensuality of death into the history of fin-de- siecle French letters. The most accurate adjective in a description of Barre?s character is romantic. Since his early youth, Barre?s demonstrated the qualities of a romantic: the love of action, vicarious at first, and the desire to attain exaltation through aesthetic contributions. Though he was neither a Disraeli nor a Lamartine, Barre?s was able to articulate a traditionalist solution for the political problems of his patrie which captivated many of his countrymen. The various doctrines within his system of mystico-nationalism were never accepted by the country at large. Yet, when the inevitable war of revanche came, Barre?s had let off his histrionic steam, and he attempted, with a large measure of success, to act as a force of solace for his countrymen. The Boulangist, revisionist, and anti-Dreyfusard attempted to repair the divisiveness he had helped to foment. [From concluding section]