Even more than every year, Jean-Louis von Hauck, an author based in Tours for years, was interested in the Goncourt prize. And for good reason, he has just devoted a book to The Audacity and Insolence of the Goncourt Brothers.
The author delves into the intimacy of this astonishing couple, these “brothers” as says the Lorraine and president of the Goncourt academy, Philippe Claudel. Although not very sympathetic, the eldest Edmond kept his word after his commitment to their lifelong mother: to take care of the youngest, the most frail, Jules.
The author describes the management of their property in the East to make a living from their pen, first with articles, plays, novels. And their famous diary, this catalog of indiscretions on their author friends, including Daudet, Zola – who will be nourished by the realism of the two brothers –, Turgenev, Flaubert. “Realism, this reaction towards romanticism, comes from Goncourt and then will form a school with several authors, like Huysmans at the beginning of his work”.
The Goncourts also brought the art of the 18th century up to datee century and Japan. The book on Marie Antoinette was a great success. “Notoriety and consecration came late, after the death of Jules in 1870.” The eponymous academy was born from the desire to oppose the French Academy to allow young authors to emerge. The first prize was awarded in 1903. The merit of the book lies in the honesty with which the author traces both the greatness and the smallness of these fierce “brothers”.
“The audacity and insolence of the Goncourt brothers” published by Hugues-de-Chivré. Price: €20
