French writer Henri Barbusse: biography, creativity and interesting facts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

One of the most famous French writers of the early 20th century is Henri Barbusse. The best books have glorified him as an anti-war author, a pacifist, an opponent of violence in any form. He became one of the first who described all the horrors of the First World War as realistic and naturalistic as possible.

First steps

Henri Barbusse was born in 1873 in the northwestern suburb of Paris, the small town of Asnières-sur-Seine, which became very popular with Russian emigrants after the revolution.

He was born into an international family of a Frenchman and an Englishwoman. His father was also a writer, so it is not surprising that his son entered and successfully graduated from the literary department at the Sorbonne. Barbusse's first steps in literature were the collection of poems "Weepers", published in 1895. As well as the novels "Hell" and "Begging" written a few years later, the works are imbued with pessimism. However, they were not very popular.

At the front

In 1914, Henri Barbusse's life changed dramatically. He volunteered to go to the front to fightagainst Germany. In 1915 he was wounded and discharged for he alth reasons. He was awarded the Military Cross for participation in hostilities, but the main thing that he endured from the front line was personal emotions and experiences that formed the basis of his most famous book, "Fire".

The idea of this work appeared at the front, in between battles. Barbusse talks about him in letters to his wife. He began to translate ideas into reality in the hospital at the very end of 1915. The book was finished quite soon and in August 16th it had already begun to be published in the newspaper "Tvorchestvo". The work was published as a separate edition in mid-December of the same year by the Flammarion publishing house. It also indicated that Henri Barbusse had been awarded the Prix Goncourt, the most prestigious French literary award.

"Fire" is Barbusse's main novel

In the first chapter of the novel, the work is compared with Dante's "Divine Comedy", which gives the book a poetic character. The heroes of "Fire" seem to be marching from paradise to the last circles of hell. At the same time, religious notes disappear, and the imperialist war appears more terrible than the most fantastic fiction of any writer. The book is "terrible for its merciless truth," as Maxim Gorky writes about Barbusse's novel in the preface to the first Russian edition.

Glimpses of insight of heroes appear already in the very first chapter "Vision". It tells about the earthly "paradise" in the Swiss mountains. There is no war, and the people living in it, representativesdifferent nations have already come to understand the uselessness and horror of war.

The main characters of the novel, the soldiers, come to the same conclusion. In the final chapter "Dawn", they awaken. The biography of Barbusse Henri is closely connected with the events described in the novel. Its main message is the inevitable coming of the broad masses of the people to revolutionary ideas. The catalyst for this is the participation of almost all European countries in the imperialist war.

The novel is written in the form of a "diary of one platoon". This allows the author to make the story as realistic as possible, following the characters, the reader finds himself under fire on the front line, then in the rear, then in the thick of the battle when the platoon goes on the attack.

Barbusse and the October Revolution

The October Revolution in Russia Henri Barbusse perceived as a key event in world history, actively supporting it. In his opinion, it would allow all European peoples to free themselves from capitalist oppression.

To a large extent, these ideas were reflected in the novel "Clarity" of 1919. Inspired by the socialist revolution in Russia, Henri Barbusse becomes a member of the French Communist Party. Quotations of the writer, dedicated to the events of those years, argue that "peace is peace arising from labor." So, the author really believed that by working hard for the benefit of the whole society, people can achieve happiness in any state.

Since then, Henri Barbusse has led an active publicpolitical life. In particular, in 1924 he opposed the repression of the leaders of the Tatarbunary uprising in Romania. Then an armed peasant uprising broke out in South Bassarabia against the current authorities, supported by the Bolshevik Party.

Criticism of capitalism

The books of the author Barbusse Henri, the list of which is supplemented by the novels "Light of the Abyss", "Manifesto of Intellectuals", published in France in the 20s, are devoted to sharp criticism of capitalism. The writer also did not recognize the bourgeois civilization, insisting only that in the course of socialist construction in the state it is possible to build an honest and just society. As an example, Barbusse took the events that took place in the Soviet Union, in particular the actions taken by Joseph Stalin. In 1930, his essay "Russia" was even published, and 5 years later, after his death, the essay "Stalin". In these works, these ideas were precisely stated in detail. True, in the homeland of socialism, the books were soon banned, since many of the heroes mentioned in them had been repressed by that time.

"Stalin is Lenin today" - an aphorism that belongs to the pen of Barbusse.

Barbuses in the USSR

The Soviet Union Barbuses visited 4 times, for the first time in 1927. On September 20, the French progressive author spoke in the Hall of Columns in the House of the Unions in Moscow with a report "White Terror and the Danger of War". In the same year, he made a whole journey through the socialist state under construction, visiting Kharkov, Tiflis, Batumi, Rostov-on-Don and Baku.

In 1932, Barbusse came to the Soviet Union already as one of the organizers of the international anti-war congress, which took place in August in Amsterdam. On it, he gave his famous "I accuse" speech.

His next visit coincided with the election of an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. After that, work was conceived and work began on a book about Stalin. In July 1935, Barbusse visited Moscow for the last time, actively worked on the book, studied documents, met with friends and associates of Lenin. However, the work could not be completed.

Barbusse suddenly fell ill with pneumonia and died suddenly in Moscow on August 30, 1935. After 3 days, the body was escorted to France at the Belorussky railway station, arranging a farewell rally.

The writer was buried at the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris on September 7th. Farewell to Barbusse turned into a political demonstration of the united popular front.