Lacretelle, Jacques de

▪ French novelist

born July 14, 1888, Cormatin, France

died Jan. 2, 1985, Paris

      French novelist, the third member of his family to be elected to the French Academy (1936).

      Lacretelle wrote his first novel, La Vie inquiète de Jean Hermelin (“The Troubled Life of Jean Hermelin”), an autobiographical novel of adolescence, in 1914, and it was published in 1920. Lacretelle's next novel, Silbermann (1922), recounts the story of a Jewish boy's persecution during the time of the Dreyfus affair. Following the publication of La Bonifas (1925; Marie Bonifas), a minutely detailed study of provincial life, Lacretelle turned to shorter fiction and nonfiction, writing theatre reviews for Nouvelle Revue Française, fictional essays, and short stories. His return to novel writing was marked by the publication, in 1929, of Amour Nuptiale (Eng. trans. A Man's Life); this psychological study of a marriage won for Lacretelle the Prix du Roman of the French Academy.

      From 1930 to 1935 Lacretelle wrote Les Hauts-Ponts (“High Bridges”), a long family saga set in the province of Vendée during the 19th century. Sabine (1932), the first of the four volumes in the series, was hailed as a masterpiece, though the other three were somewhat less well received. Lacretelle worked through the war years as a journalist for Le Figaro, of which he was a director. His postwar works include an autobiographical novel, Le Pour et le contre (1946; “For and Against”); a memoir, Le Tiroir Secret (1959; “The Secret Drawer”); and the antinovel Les Vivants et leur ombre (1977; “The Living and Their Shadows”).

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