French Literature Reviews - 2026

C. Boschian-Campaner, Henri Ghéon, camarade de Gide, biographie d'un homme de désirs
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

Henri Ghéon, camarade de Gide, biographie d'un homme de désirs

Catherine Boschian-Campaner

Presses de la Renaissance, 2009.

EAN 9782750904067

Publisher's overview:

"Henri Ghéon (1875-1944), literary critic, writer, and physician, was one of the co-founders of the NRF alongside Gide. The two men shared a deep friendship until Ghéon's conversion in 1915 profoundly altered their relationship. This biography traces the journey of the unjustly forgotten Ghéon, placing strong emphasis on the historical and cultural context of his development, as well as the writers with whom he associated and corresponded extensively (including Gide, Marcel Drouin, Vielé-Griffin, Rivière, Schlumberger, etc.). It reveals a man passionately in love with life and a talented playwright."

Henri Ghéon occupied a notable place in the early twentieth-century French literary landscape as a writer, literary critic, physician, and co-founder of the Nouvelle Revue Française alongside André Gide. This biography traces his intellectual trajectory, his extensive correspondence with figures such as Marcel Drouin, Francis Vielé-Griffin, Jacques Rivière, and Jean Schlumberger, and the profound shift in his relationship with Gide following his conversion in 1915. Catherine Boschian-Campaner places strong emphasis on the historical and cultural context of his development, tracing the life of an unjustly forgotten writer who was also a talented playwright.

Biographies of early twentieth-century French intellectuals often illuminate the dense networks of correspondence, artistic collaboration, and ideological shifts that characterized the period surrounding the creation of major literary reviews. Readers interested in the history of the Nouvelle Revue Française and the complex personal and professional relationships among its founders may find this volume relevant.