Paul Morand (1888–1976)
Author of Brassai : Paris By Night
About the Author
Image credit: Paul Morand en 1970
Series
Works by Paul Morand
Poèmes : "Lampes à arc", "Feuilles de température", "Vingt-cinq poèmes sans oiseaux" (1973) 5 copies
Oda a Marcel Proust y otros poemas (Poesía Universal, Serie menor) (Spanish Edition) (2007) 2 copies
Route de Paris à la Méditerranée 2 copies
New-York, le jour et la nuit 1 copy
Poèmes 1914 - 1924 Lampes à arc, Feuilles de température suivis de Vingt-Cinq Poèmes sans oiseaux 1 copy
Papiers d'identite 1 copy
L'arte di morire 1 copy
Lettres à Pierre Benoît 1 copy
El viaje Ayer y hoy 1 copy
Mr. U [short fiction] 1 copy
Majorca. 1 copy
L'Europe galante. Grasset. 1925. Broché. 260 pages. Rousseurs sur la couverture. (Littérature XXème. ) (1925) 1 copy
Lewis et Irène, roman 1 copy
Nœuds coulants 1 copy
Campioni del mondo. 1 copy
France la doulce 1 copy
Charleston U.S.A. 1 copy
Les Extravagants. Scènes de la vie de bohème cosmopolite (L'Imaginaire) (French Edition) (2017) 1 copy
Orient Air Express 1 copy
A Frenchman's London 1 copy
L'europe 1 copy
Il signor Zero 1 copy
Nouvelles compltes 1 copy
The Catalan Night 1 copy
The road to India 1 copy
Earth Girdled 1 copy
Papiers d'identité. 1 copy
Papiers d'identité 1 copy
Le voyage. Notes et maximes 1 copy
Paris After Dark 1 copy
Brassai Paris De Nuit 1 copy
Paul Morand. L'Europe galante : Chronique du XXe siècle. Édition revue... Préface de Henry Muller (1959) 1 copy
Voyages 1 copy
Poèmes 1 copy
Associated Works
The Dial, Vol LXXVII No 6, December 1924 — Contributor, some editions — 1 copy
The Dial, Vol LXXVII No 3, September 1924 — Contributor, some editions — 1 copy
Weird Tales Volume 30 Number 3, September 1937 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Morand, Paul Émile Charles Ferdinand
- Birthdate
- 1888-03-13
- Date of death
- 1976-07-24
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Sciences Politiques
University of Oxford - Occupations
- diplomat
novelist
biographer
travel writer
short story writer
Nazi collaborator - Awards and honors
- Académie française élu en 1968 par 21 voix contre 4
- Relationships
- Morand, Eugène (Père)
Giraudoux, Jean (Précepteur)
Boutmy, Emile (Professeur)
Renault, Louis (Professeur)
Lévy-Bruhl, Lucien (Professeur)
Leroy-Beaulieu, Anatole (Professeur) (show all 8)
Sorel, Emile (Professeur)
Chambrun, René de (Ami) - Short biography
- Fils du haut fonctionnaire et artiste Eugéne Morand, Paul Morand, après ses études à l'Ecole libre des Sciences politiques, fut reçu en 1913 premier au grand concours des ambassades, et embrassa une carrière de diplomate.
Nommé attaché à Londres, il fit ses premiers pas en littérature avec 2 recueils de poèmes ( Lampes à arc, Feuilles de température) avant de se découvrir un talent de nouvelliste. Aprés un recueil de nouvelle londoniennes, Tendres Stocks, préfacées par Marcel Proust, il connut la célébrité dès 1922 avec Ouvert la nuit, puis, un an plus tard, Fermé la nuit. Suivirent L'Europpe Galante, Rien que la terre, Magie noire, Paris-Tombouctou, Champion du monde, New York, Papiers d'identité, Air indien, Londres de l'entre-deux guerres et évoquent les lieux de cet infatigable voyageur, en congé pour un temps de la diplomatie, a traversés
Ayant réintégré les Affaires étrangères en 1938, Paul Morand se trouvait, au moment de la défaite de 1940, à Londres où il occupait les fonctions de responsable de la mission de guerre économique. Mis à la retraite d'office par le gouvernement de Vichy, il publiait en 1941 Chroniques de l'homme maigre, livre d'orientation maréchaliste. De cette période datent encore Propos des 52 semaines, L'Homme pressé, Excursions immobiles.
Avec le retour de Laval au gouvernement, il était nommé à la présidence de la commission de censues cinématographique, avant de terminet la guerre comme ambassadeur à Berne, ce qui lui valut d'être révoqué à la Libération, et contrant à l'exil en Suisse. Il s'y consacra à la poursuite de son oeuvre: Le dernier jour de l'Inquisition, Le Flagellant de Séville, Le coucou et le roitelet, l'Eau sous les ponts, Hécate te les chiens, La folle amoureuse, Fin se siècle, Nouvelles d'une vie, Les écarts amoureux.
Admiré par la jeune génération des hussards, de l'après-guerre (Roger Nimier, Michel Déon, Antoine Blondin, Jacques Laurent), l'écrivain allait connaître un regain d'influence. En 1953, il était réintégré dans l'administration.
Paul Morand, qui s'était porté une première fois candidat à l'Académie Française dés avant la guerre et n'avait obtenu que 6 voix au fauteuil Cambon en 1936, fut de nouveau candidat en 1958. Sa candidature devait soulever l'hostilité des gaullistes et donner lieu à une scéance houleuse, laquelle se termina par une suspension de scrutin. Pierre Benoît, animateur de la candidature de Morand, indigné par cette décision, quitta ce jour-là l'Académie où il décidait de ne plus jamais siéger.
Ce n'est qu'en 1968 que le général de Gaulle, après une longue hostilité, consentit à une nouvelle candidature Morand. Toute l'Académie était présente pour son élection, le 24 octobre. Il remporta le fauteuil de Maurice Garçon par 21 voix au second tour, contre 4 à son concurrent et 15 blancs ou nuls. Il était âgé de 80 ans. Exceptionnellement, il n'y eut pas de cérémonie d'investiture à l'Elysée. Paul Morand fut reçu par Jacques Chastenet, le 23 mars 1969. - Cause of death
- Naturelle (Vieillesse)
- Nationality
- France
- Birthplace
- Paris, France
- Place of death
- Paris, France
- Burial location
- Cimetière grec orthodoxe de Trieste, Frioul-Vénétie Julienne, Italie
- Map Location
- France
Members
Reviews
Some books seem really contemporary, long after they were published. Some, like this one, do not. Not only was Morand a Nazi sympathiser and Petainist, he also palled around with Coco Chanel. The disgust is overpowering. At the same time, Ezra Pound translated him, and Marcel Proust wrote a preface to that volume. The man was a prick, but a talented prick.
This little book, then, will only appeal to people who aren't convinced that bad politics necessarily leads to bad literature, i.e., this show more book does not seem contemporary. It also doesn't seem contemporary in its, well, gross orientalism, or its narrator's attitude to women.
Are you still here? Have you not unfriended me on goodreads? Well, then, know that despite all that, it's an interesting, short read, which is quite pleasant if you don't mind a bit of overblown Olympian prose, as in this randomly chosen sentence:
"We wallowed and rolled in the trough of depression cause by the confluence of two vast air flows, one oceanic, the other continental."
The book's interest comes from the clash between the style and plot, or perhaps the way they work together, but there's no way to describe that without spoiling the plot. So, plot spoilers ahead.
The narrator meets, and falls for, a woman. He thinks all is hunky dory. It turns out that he isn't satisfying her sexually, perhaps because she's a pedophile. He becomes desperate, and starts to procure children for her. His company hears about this through the grapevine, and sends him home. Years later, he meets her husband, who implies that she's led him down the same path. Finally, he meets her again; she accuses him of depravity; he tells her he's met her husband.
So we're left to wonder, did she lead him down this path, or was it all his own doing? Either way, he clearly was not in control, despite his controlled style. Contemporary readers are just as likely to ask: are the author, and the narrator behind him, both sincerely blaming this woman for their own repulsive instincts? show less
This little book, then, will only appeal to people who aren't convinced that bad politics necessarily leads to bad literature, i.e., this show more book does not seem contemporary. It also doesn't seem contemporary in its, well, gross orientalism, or its narrator's attitude to women.
Are you still here? Have you not unfriended me on goodreads? Well, then, know that despite all that, it's an interesting, short read, which is quite pleasant if you don't mind a bit of overblown Olympian prose, as in this randomly chosen sentence:
"We wallowed and rolled in the trough of depression cause by the confluence of two vast air flows, one oceanic, the other continental."
The book's interest comes from the clash between the style and plot, or perhaps the way they work together, but there's no way to describe that without spoiling the plot. So, plot spoilers ahead.
The narrator meets, and falls for, a woman. He thinks all is hunky dory. It turns out that he isn't satisfying her sexually, perhaps because she's a pedophile. He becomes desperate, and starts to procure children for her. His company hears about this through the grapevine, and sends him home. Years later, he meets her husband, who implies that she's led him down the same path. Finally, he meets her again; she accuses him of depravity; he tells her he's met her husband.
So we're left to wonder, did she lead him down this path, or was it all his own doing? Either way, he clearly was not in control, despite his controlled style. Contemporary readers are just as likely to ask: are the author, and the narrator behind him, both sincerely blaming this woman for their own repulsive instincts? show less
The Allure of Chanel is based upon conversations Morand had with his friend Chanel in Switzerland in 1946, when neither of the two would, quite rightly, have been welcome in France. Though Allure is apparently narrated by Chanel, and though her own words no doubt lie behind it, Morand's fashioning of those words is the reason for much if not most of its appeal.
Chanel speaks about her life, but this isn't a biography; she talks about fashion generally and her work specifically, but this isn't show more a book about fashion; she discusses artists and aristocrats of her acquaintance, but in no way is this a social history. Look elsewhere for any of those.
What strikes me about this book is how vividly a personality is portrayed--Chanel is down-to-earth, outrageous, overbearing, oddly passive, and even more mendacious than bitchy--through some very good writing. Someone taken with this might want to look into Morand's other writings; everything I've read by him has been worthwhile.
And anyone thinking about buying Allure should know that there are two editions: The larger book has illustrations by Karl Lagerfeld and some striking photographs that the smaller lacks. show less
Chanel speaks about her life, but this isn't a biography; she talks about fashion generally and her work specifically, but this isn't show more a book about fashion; she discusses artists and aristocrats of her acquaintance, but in no way is this a social history. Look elsewhere for any of those.
What strikes me about this book is how vividly a personality is portrayed--Chanel is down-to-earth, outrageous, overbearing, oddly passive, and even more mendacious than bitchy--through some very good writing. Someone taken with this might want to look into Morand's other writings; everything I've read by him has been worthwhile.
And anyone thinking about buying Allure should know that there are two editions: The larger book has illustrations by Karl Lagerfeld and some striking photographs that the smaller lacks. show less
Morand was in his eighties when he put together this book. I say 'put together' because although there's a chronological framework it seems almost incidental and Venices, whilst being a look back through the years, is a collection of musings as much of as memories. Morand touches upon his father's habits, Palladian architecture, his own travels, office politics in the diplomatic corps, Venetian history, the way the sunlight falls on a favourite cafe. And because he was reared and for all his show more life kept a foot in an artistic milieu the likes of Les Six, Diaghilev, and Proust are some of those who people the book, though a reader shouldn't expect telling anecdotes about the famous.
As he does in the other books I've read by him, Morand writes with a calm restraint in a style thati, although in no other way striking, seems effortless. Perhaps it's that calmness that makes his books so attractive--that and, in Venices, an incredibly strong sense of mood. I can't just now think of another book so strongly pervaded by mood. The tone is overwhelmingly elegiac, and long after I finished reading I felt a bit melancholy. It's not that Morand expresses sadness or regret; he's much too urbane for that. (And when he does give way to a things-were-better-when-we-were-young complaint he ends in self-mockery:: 'And the young people of today are better-looking than we were'.)
My copy of Venices has a very appealing cover with a murky painting of a Venetian scene on a textured blue background, but its publisher Pushkin has also issued an edition with a horrid cover that looks like a wallpaper sample from the 1950's. If you're ordering this online, it might be worth checking to see which version you'd be getting. show less
As he does in the other books I've read by him, Morand writes with a calm restraint in a style thati, although in no other way striking, seems effortless. Perhaps it's that calmness that makes his books so attractive--that and, in Venices, an incredibly strong sense of mood. I can't just now think of another book so strongly pervaded by mood. The tone is overwhelmingly elegiac, and long after I finished reading I felt a bit melancholy. It's not that Morand expresses sadness or regret; he's much too urbane for that. (And when he does give way to a things-were-better-when-we-were-young complaint he ends in self-mockery:: 'And the young people of today are better-looking than we were'.)
My copy of Venices has a very appealing cover with a murky painting of a Venetian scene on a textured blue background, but its publisher Pushkin has also issued an edition with a horrid cover that looks like a wallpaper sample from the 1950's. If you're ordering this online, it might be worth checking to see which version you'd be getting. show less
Morand first met Coco Chanel in 1921, and in 1946 was invited to visit Chanel in St. Moritz, where he had extensive conversations with her, with a view to help write her memoirs. That project never came off, and the notes were put away and did not surface again until after Chanel's death, and were published finally in 1976.
It's pretty well known by now that Chanel created herself in more ways than one, inventing stories about her childhood and upbringing, but the reality of a young woman who show more broke loose from that past, lived in the era of Picasso and Sert, and changed the face of fashion in a career that spanned the world wars, can't be anything other than fascinating. No longer were clothes designed only for women whose lives were "worthless and idle"; they were for women who led busy lives and who, therefore, needed to feel comfortable in their clothes. Tossing out corsets and introducing menswear tailoring, Chanel anticipated the needs of women as the 20th-century advanced.
Because these are Chanel's own words and thoughts, this book provides an insight into the thinking of a woman who was not only a great couturier, but a woman whose influence still resonates today. I cannot help but be reminded of the Chanel exhibit I saw at the Metropolitan Museum of Art a few years ago. The exhibit juxtaposed Chanel's work with that of Karl Lagerfeld, who became head of the House of Chanel in the early '80s. The difference was stark. Nearly everything of Coco Chanel's could be worn today without hesitation, so classic are they. The designs of Lagerfeld, on the other hand, could have had the date of design written on them.
The book is not, however, confined to Chanel and the world of fashion. She talks, also, about her private life, her amours, which would be a book in and of themselves. show less
It's pretty well known by now that Chanel created herself in more ways than one, inventing stories about her childhood and upbringing, but the reality of a young woman who show more broke loose from that past, lived in the era of Picasso and Sert, and changed the face of fashion in a career that spanned the world wars, can't be anything other than fascinating. No longer were clothes designed only for women whose lives were "worthless and idle"; they were for women who led busy lives and who, therefore, needed to feel comfortable in their clothes. Tossing out corsets and introducing menswear tailoring, Chanel anticipated the needs of women as the 20th-century advanced.
Because these are Chanel's own words and thoughts, this book provides an insight into the thinking of a woman who was not only a great couturier, but a woman whose influence still resonates today. I cannot help but be reminded of the Chanel exhibit I saw at the Metropolitan Museum of Art a few years ago. The exhibit juxtaposed Chanel's work with that of Karl Lagerfeld, who became head of the House of Chanel in the early '80s. The difference was stark. Nearly everything of Coco Chanel's could be worn today without hesitation, so classic are they. The designs of Lagerfeld, on the other hand, could have had the date of design written on them.
The book is not, however, confined to Chanel and the world of fashion. She talks, also, about her private life, her amours, which would be a book in and of themselves. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 166
- Also by
- 11
- Members
- 1,318
- Popularity
- #19,501
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 22
- ISBNs
- 208
- Languages
- 8
- Favorited
- 2
