Rouart, Jean-Marie 1943–

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Rouart, Jean-Marie 1943–

PERSONAL: Born April 8, 1943, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

ADDRESSES: Home—France. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, 61, rue des Saints-Père, 75006 Paris, France.

CAREER: Writer and journalist. Magazine littéraire, writer, 1967; Figaro, political journalist; Quotiedien de Paris, director of literary pages; Figaro littéraire, political journalist, then director, 1986–2003.

MEMBER: Academie Française, George Duby chair, 1997.

AWARDS, HONORS: Renaudot prize, for Avant-guerre, 1983; Prince Pierre of Monaco prize.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

La fuite en Pologne (novel, title means "Escape from Poland"), Grasset (Paris, France), 1974.

La blessure de Georges Aslo (novel), Grasset (Paris, France), 1975.

Les feux du pouvoir (novel), Grasset (Paris, France), 1977.

Le mythomane (novel), Grasset (Paris, France), 1980.

Avant-guerre (novel), Grasset (Paris, France), 1983.

Ils ont choisis la nuit, Grasset (Paris, France), 1985.

Le cavalier blessé (novel), Grasset (Paris, France), 1987.

La femme de proie (novel), Grasset (Paris, France), 1989.

Le voleur de jeunesse (novel), Grasset (Paris, France), 1990.

Le goût du malheur (novel), Gallimard (Paris, France), 1993.

L'invention de l'amour (novel), Grasset (Paris, France), 1997.

Une jeunesse à l'ombre de la lumière (novel), Gallimard (Paris, France), 2000.

BIOGRAPHIES

Morny: un voluptueux au pouvoir, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1995.

La noblesse des vaincus, Grasset (Paris, France), 1997.

Bernis: le cardinal des plaisirs, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1998.

Une famille dans l'impressionnisme, Gallimard (Paris, France), 2001.

Adieu à la France qui s'en va, Grasset (Paris, France), 2003.

OTHER

Omar: la construction d'un coupable (case study), Editions de Fallois (Paris, France), 1994.

(With Hélène Carrère d'Encausse and Jean d'Ormesson) Discours de récaption de Jean-Marie Rouart et résponse de Hélène Carrère d'Encausse, Grasset (Paris, France), 2000.

Nous ne savons pas aimer (autobiography), Gallimard (Paris, France), 2002.

Ils on choisi la nuit (case study), Grasset (Paris, France), 2003.

Libertin et chrétin: entretiens avec Marc Leboucher, Desclée de Brouwer (Paris, France), 2004.

Mes fauves, Grasset (Paris, France), 2005.

Contributor to Paris-Match.

SIDELIGHTS: Jean-Marie Rouart was born to a family of painters but chose to follow his own path, becoming a writer and journalist. His first novel, La fuite en Pologne ("Escape from Poland"), was published in 1974. He went on to write several more novels, winning the Renaudot prize in 1983 for Avant-guerre. In addition to his novels, he has written biographical accounts of several figures throughout French history and an autobiographical account of his own experiences with love titled Nous ne savons pas aimer. In an article for World Literature Today, reviewer Donald Dziekowicz remarked on Rouart's recounting of his love affairs, stating that the writer "candidly meditates upon his amorous affairs with nostalgic regret … [and] he involves himself in situations that leave him void of any caring once the sexual act is terminated."

Une jeunesse à l'ombre de la lumière also has an autobiographical feel to it, despite being labeled a novel. Anita Brookner, reviewing the book for the Spectator, called the volume "an autobiography interspersed with travel notes." The narrator focuses on the disappointments in his life and career. Brookner wrote that "Rouart writes, in a particularly mellifluous French, of his early years, which to him were overshadowed by failure, but failure seen through the years of later success." She concluded that the volume "proves, against the odds, that confession … is eminently attractive on the page."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Rouart, Jean-Marie, Nous ne savons pas aimer, Gallimard (Paris, France), 2002.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1991, Bosilika Stevanovic, review of Le voleur de jeunesse, p. 128; December 15, 1994, review of Omar: la construction d'un coupable, p. 74.

Economist, October 4, 2003, "France's Autumn Blues: Naming the Villains," p. 80.

Express International, October 7, 1993, review of Le goût du malheur, p. 69.

Film Quarterly, fall, 1986, review of Ils ont choisis la nuit, p. 64.

Spectator, December 30, 2000, Anita Brookner, review of Une jeunesse à l'ombre de la lumière, pp. 27-28.

Spirale, November-December, 1999, review of Bernis: le cardinal des plaisirs, pp. 6-7.

World Literature Today, October-December, 2003, Donald Dziekowicz, review of Nous ne savons pas aimer, p. 114.