the jury of The Prix Chateaubriand, which crowns a work of historical research or literary history, has chosen to honor the work of Maurizio Serra for his book D’annunzio the beautiful (Grasset). The jurors were effusive: “It is hard to conceive today that Gabriele D’annunzio (1863-1938) was the writer-character, the more surrounded, the most imitated, the most jealously looked upon of his time. Henry James to Joyce or Borges, three generations of intellectuals have read, studied, and copied, even to deny it or to forget it afterwards,” they write.
And he added: “A legend and a black rose bloomed around a man outside the norm. Because D’annunzio was not only a poet, novelist, playwright, seducer, aviator, war hero, warlord, Commander during the “Five hundred days” of Fiume, until his long voluntary retirement in his palace of the Vittoriale on lake Garda. He was, from the beginning to the end, a poet of action, that the movement raised, that the downturn is crippling and that inertia kills. Not an adventurer, but a true prince of the adventure, the precursor of Lawrence of Arabia, Saint Exupéry, Malraux, Romain Gary, who were inspired by him.”
A prestigious jury
And the prestigious jury, chaired by Marc Fumaroli, of the French Academy, concluded: “If one adds that it is especially a great writer, the time is not ripe to re-read without prejudice? This book is therefore dedicated to the French public of today: not to change its judgment on the man and his work, but in order that he could form one. And located at the place which is, and which will remain theirs, D’annunzio, in spite of everything, wonderful.”
Maurizio Serra had already received a handsome reward with Malaparte lives and legends that décrochât the Goncourt for biography, prices, Casanova).
The results were declared in the area county of la Vallée-aux-Loups – Maison de Chateaubriand, in Châtenay-Malabry. The writer will receive a cheque for 8000 euros awarded by the department of the Hauts-de-Seine.
The official presentation of the Prix Chateaubriand 2018, and the conference winner will take place on 14 march, 2019 18 hours to the Institute of France, Paris.
