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Georges Bernanos (February 20, 1888 – July 5, 1948) was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. Of Catholic and monarchist leanings, he was a violent adversary to bourgeois thought and to a certain defeatism that led, in his view, to France's defeat in 1940.

He was born in Paris into a family of craftsmen. Bernanos served in the first world war as a soldier. Despite his anti-democratic and anti-bourgeois learnings, stemming from old-fashioned Catholic monarchism, he was able to see the danger in fascism and nazism (which he decribed as "disgusting monstrousness") before World War II broke out in Europe. He emigrated to South America 1938, and stayed there till 1945, for most of the time in Brazil, where he tried his hand at managing a farm. His three sons returned to France to fight when World War II broke out, while he fulminated at his country's 'spiritual exhaustion' which he saw as the root of its collapse in 1940. From exile he mocked the 'ridiculous' Vichy regime and became a strong supporter of the conservative, nationalist resistance of de Gaulle.

After the liberation, Charles de Gaulle invited him to return to France, offering him a post in the government. He did return, but did not participate actively in French political life.

He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

His writings are sharply critical of modern society and its inroads into personal liberty, both through government and through technical development. He was an isolated figure, but maintained a very high reputation among his fellow-writers in France.

Principal works:

• Sous le soleil de Satan 1926
• L'imposture 1927
• La joie 1929 (winner of the Prix Femina)
• La grande peur des bien-pensants 1931
• Jeanne relapse et sainte 1934
• Un crime 1935
• Journal d'un curé de campagne 1936 (winner of the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française)
• Nouvelle histoire de Mouchette 1937 (later made into the film Mouchette by Robert Bresson)
• Les grands cimetières sous la lune 1938
• Scandale de la vérité 1939
• Nous autres français 1939
• Lettre aux anglais 1946 (originally published in Rio de Janeiro in 1942)
• La France contre les robots 1947 (originally published in Rio de Janeiro in 1946)
• Français, si vous saviez (collection of articles written between 1945–1948) 1961
• Le chemin de la Croix-des-Âmes 1948
• Dialogue des carmélites 1949
• Les enfants humiliés 1949
• Un mauvais rêve 1950
• Monsieur Ouine 1950
• La liberté, pour quoi faire ? 1953
• Combat pour la vérité; Correspondance inédite 1904-1934 1961
• Combat pour la liberté; Correspondance inédite 1934-1948 1961
• La vocation spirituelle de la France (collection of articles assembled by J.-L. Bernanos) 1975
• Les prédestinés (includes "Sainte Dominique" 1926, "Jeanne relapse et sainte," and "Frère Martin" 1943) 1983
• Lettres retrouvées. Correspondance inédite 1904-1948 1983

Sources: See http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/label_france/ENGLISH/LETTRES/bernanos/bernanos.html

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