Robles, Emmanuel Francois

▪ 1996

      Algerian-French novelist and playwright (b. May 4, 1914, Oran, Alg.—d. Feb. 22, 1995, Boulogne, France), portrayed the struggle of the individual to find fulfillment, a sense of purpose, and happiness, however short-lived, in the face of political and social oppression and violence. Roblès was reared by his widowed mother and grandmother in a bilingual (French and Spanish) household in the Roman Catholic section of Oran, and he drew on his Spanish heritage as well as the French North African milieu in which he spent his childhood for the settings and themes of his best works. He attended teachers college and began his first novel, L'Action (1938), while employed as a teacher in Oran. During his World War II service as a Spanish translator and special war correspondent, he met Albert Camus, who encouraged him to contribute articles to Alger-Républicain, the liberal daily of which Camus was editor, and to write his second novel, La Vallée du paradis (1941). After the war Roblès moved between Paris and Algiers, but in 1958 he settled in Paris permanently to escape the rapidly escalating Algerian war. Roblès' novels include Travail d'homme (1943; The Angry Mountain, 1948), the Prix Fémina-winning Les Hauteurs de la ville (1948), Le Vésuve (1961; Vesuvius, 1970), and L'Herbe des ruines (1992). He also wrote short stories and several plays, notably Montserrat (1948) and Plaidoyer pour un rebelle (1965; Case for a Rebel, 1977). Roblès was elected to the Académie Goncourt in 1973.

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