Pierre-Eugène Drieu La Rochelle

born Jan.
3, 1893, Paris, France
died March 16, 1945, Paris
French writer of novels, short stories, and
political essays whose life and works
illustrate the malaise common among European
youth after World War I.
Drieu, the brilliant son of a middle-class
family, attended the École des Sciences
Politiques with the intention of entering
diplomatic service. His plans, however, were
interrupted by World War I, in which he
fought and was wounded. Like many others of
his generation, he emerged from the war
disillusioned, and he began a lifelong
search for a sound moral and philosophical
approach to life. He briefly became involved
in the Surrealist movement. Characteristic
novels of this period include his first
novel, L’Homme couvert de femmes (1925; “The
Man Covered With Women”), and Le Feu follet
(1931; The Fire Within, or Will o’ the Wisp;
filmed by Louis Malle in 1963). Le Feu
follet is the story of the last hours in the
life of a young bourgeois Parisian addict
who kills himself. In one fashion or
another, the subject of decadence and the
general loss of moral fibre in postwar
French society was to remain a subject of
major concern throughout his life.
His later
works include La Comédie de Charleroi (1934;
The Comedy of Charleroi and Other Stories),
a memoir of the war; Rêveuse bourgeoisie
(1937; “Dreamworld Bourgeoisie”); and,
perhaps his best known novel, Gilles (1939).
Having worked through several political
ideologies, Drieu eventually settled on
fascism. He collaborated with the Vichy
government during World War II, and, shortly
after the liberation of France, he committed
suicide. His Récit secret (1961; Secret
Journal and Other Writings) and Mémoires de
Dirk Raspe (1966) were among a number of his
works that were published posthumously.