Why does any French writer dream of winning just 10 euros: the Goncourt Prize

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

One of the most famous writers' unions - the Goncourt brothers - went down in literary history not only thanks to the written works - by the way, not at all numerous - but also in connection with the competition, which became, perhaps, the main one for the French writing and reading.

Express the inexpressible

The mere fact that the brothers Jules and Edmond Goncourt wrote together, already guaranteed their place in the history of French literature. It was an amazing tandem - the work of two people who completely shared the tastes and worldview of each other, at the same time talented, capable of introducing new things into literature, without copying other people's truths, without engaging in empty polemics with authorities. Edmond, born in 1822, and Jules, born in 1830, became contemporaries of a large number of eminent masters, but they took a well-deserved place among the literary beau monde. Their literature is a logical continuation of the ideas of romanticism, realism, naturalism and impressionism. And a continuation of their own creative quest was the establishment of a society that helped other writers gain fame and be heard.

The brothers decided that after their death, their property should be sold, and the capital raised should be invested at a low but reliable rate of interest, which would be used for the benefit of French literature. It was assumed that the most talented authors would receive an amount from the established fund, sufficient in order not to be distracted by thoughts of food and focus on creativity.

Jules, the youngest of the brothers, died in 1870 in the fortieth year, Edmond survived him by twenty-six years. By the way, the diary kept by the brothers continued to be replenished with new entries even after the death of one of them. Edmond de Goncourt died in 1896, and in 1900, according to his will, the Society of the Goncourt brothers was created. Subsequently, it will receive the name Academy. In the famous diary of the Goncourts it is written: “One of the prideful joys of a writer, if he is a true artist, is to feel within himself the ability to immortalize in his own way everything that he wants to immortalize. No matter how little he may mean, he recognizes himself as a creative deity."

On February 26, 1903, at the Parisian Grand Hotel not far from the Opera, the first dinner of the "ten" took place, the very members of the Society who announced the best of French book novelties. On December 21, the first Goncourt Prize was awarded - it was received by John-Antoine But for the novel "Hostile Force".

Goncourt Prize

Since then and up to the present, the Goncourt Academy has not stopped working, and the prize was awarded annually, not excluding the years of the war - both the First World War and the Second. The ten most influential French writers - members of the Academy - meet once a month during an official dinner in a restaurant, and within a few months decide to award the Goncourt Prize to the author of the best, in their opinion, work of the current year.

The winner is paid the prize, as the Goncourts wanted - however, now it is symbolic. The financial transformations and upheavals that France went through in the 20th century affected the amount of payments to the laureates. If once the winners received 5,000 francs as a reward, then the current ones are entitled to only ten euros. True, the symbolic amount of the prize is accompanied by contracts from leading publishers along with guaranteed high circulation and sales - so the author in any case wins primarily from a financial point of view.

By the way, the academicians themselves are only entitled to a symbolic payment for their honorary function of membership in the society. The winner is determined by voting, each of ten votes can be cast for one book - in the event that several books receive an equal number of votes, the choice of the chairman turns out to be decisive.

According to the rules of the Academy, each author can receive the Goncourt Prize only once in a lifetime. The rule was violated only once, and then through an oversight: the writer Romain Gary, who received the prize in 1956 for his novel "The Roots of Heaven", in 1975 became the winner under the pseudonym Emil Azhar. This hoax was revealed after the announcement of the results of the competition.

The status of the owner of the Goncourt Prize in Literature instantly translates the author into the category of the best writers of our time. Since 1987, the Goncourt Prize for Lyceum students has been awarded - this competition is funded and conducted by the French authorities. The winner can be a high school author aged 15 - 18, and the best work is again chosen by high school students.

What the Goncourt Academy is criticized for

For all the external respectability of the Academy and the Goncourt Prize, the attitude towards them in literary circles is ambiguous. The jury members are reproached for the fact that the largest French writers of the 20th century, for example, Guillaume Apollinaire, André Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, fell out of their sight. That is, it turned out that the really best novel of the year was often not awarded.

The criteria by which this or that book is recognized as worthy of the main prize of the Goncourt Academy are also not considered transparent enough, moreover, the jury is accused of excessive academicism, and the most unpleasant thing - of addiction to the book products of several large publishers. The latter became the reason for the introduction of a new requirement into the rules of the Academy - since 2008, its members were prohibited from working in the publishing business.

The age to which one can enroll in the ranks of the current ten members of the Academy was also limited - 80 years, those who overcome this milestone are granted the status of an honorary member. Unlike other book prizes - Booker, Pulitzer - the composition of the jury, which decides on the award of the prize, does not change. A serious reproach from the Goncourt Academy was the outrageously small number of women among the winners of the main prize. During the entire existence of the competition, only ten representatives of the fair sex were awarded the title of the best writer in the eyes of the jury.

And the writer Jean-Louis Bory, who received the Goncourt Prize in 1945 for his novel "My Countryside in German Times", called this award a disease that averts the reader - "between lupus and gonorrhea", since the book is read for the sole reason that she has Goncourt, and subsequent works by the same author are not read, since they will never have Goncourt.

The Goncourt brothers were not the only ones among the relatives, who achieved success in a common cause and became famous.