1944: Le Cœur de Watteau

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1944 | 1933-1952 Fuckin' youth, 2.1 Bibliographies, Fictional biographies

Julliard, 354 pages.

Written between 1942 and 1943, this novel is a succession of detailed images and earthy dialogues. The misery of the times that Françoise navigates as best she can finds an echo in the descriptions that she makes of popular life under Louis XIV. A whole world of craftsmen, shopkeepers and rank and file soldiers comes to life in these pages against the backdrop of the life and paintings of Antoine Watteau. Women are also very present there, especially Morena, who embodies a hard-won and preserved independence. This novel, which is deftly constructed in a masterly way, is surprisingly mature for a 22-year-old author. (Vincent)

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1943 : Littérature n° 2

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1943 | 1933-1952 Fuckin' youth, 2.1 Bibliographies, Literature essays

Paris, Julliard, collection Sequana, (190 pages ?)

Texts and poems by : Robert Antelme, Gabriel Audisio, Jean Baudry, Pierre Béarn, André Berry, Claude Boncompain, Louise Bresson, Jeanne de Castro, Jean-Louis Curtis, Max Dietlin, Maurice Druon, Raymond Dumay, Françoise d’Eaubonne, Paul Gadenne, Kléber Haedens, Simone Jouglas, René Laporte, Jean Larcena, Henri Laville, René Lefèvre, Fernand Lequenne, Jean Loisy, Jean Massin, Jacques Mauchamp, Jean Merrien, P. van der Meulen, Raymonde Michaud, Robert Morel, Georges Neveux, Albert Ollivier, Jean Proal, C.-A. Puget, Silvio Ray, Alice Rivaz, Pierre-Maurice Richard, Henri Rode, Jean Rougeul, Claude Roy, René Tavernier, Maurice Toesca, Anne de Tourville, Claire Vallier, Nicole Vedrès.

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1942: Colonnes de l’âme

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1942 | 1933-1952 Fuckin' youth, 2.1 Bibliographies, Poetry

Editions Lutetia, coll. Itinéraire n°1.

Handwritten preface by Joë Bousquet. The series Itinéraires under the direction of Jacques Aubenque, who wrote the afterword to this collection.

Eighteen poems by Françoise, aged 22, divided into four themes (Love, Faith, Dream, Revolt), each illustrated with a drawing by the author. (Vincent)

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1933 : Mireille, fille des montagnes

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1933 | 1933-1952 Fuckin' youth, 2.1 Bibliographies, Miscellaneous novels

This novel, Françoise’s very first, published in an abridged version, is probably lost forever. This is the story behind it.

1932, Denoël et Stelle publishers launch a literary competition for under-13s. A minimum of 200 lines was required to get to the starting line. Françoise was 12 years old, and entered a novel that ran to 225 pages. The jury, a little taken aback, launched an investigation, discreetly questioning the parish priest: in addition to its unusual size, the text contained assumptions about the characters’ love lives that seemed hard to attribute to a child’s pen. After checking, Françoise won the competition.

This was not her first try, having completed her first 50-page novel at the age of 10, a few acts of Cornelian drama and a number of poems, for in her childhood she placed poetry above all else. Although Dostoyevsky, Zola and so many others shone brightly in her firmament at an early age, it was Rimbaud, “whose entire work in verse I soon knew by heart“, who remained for her the Indépassable: she devoted three books to him.

The child did not go unnoticed. Colette, who had published two poems she had written when she was nine, let her know that her destiny was there: she was going to be a writer, she had to be. Françoise was so overwhelmed by this encounter that her Goddess intimidated her all her life, to the point where she didn’t dare (Françoise, don’t dare!) to contact her for fear of losing precious moments of her genius. From memory, I think they only met once.

Françoise d’Eaubonne was born to literature in 1933. (Vincent)

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