The Nobel Prize in Literature 1901
Born: 16 March 1839, Paris, France
Died: 7 September 1907, Châtenay, France
Prize motivation: "in special recognition of his poetic
composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a
rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect."
Sully Prudhomme was born in Paris. After an eye disease forced him to
discontinue engineering studies, he supported himself for a while as a lawyer.
He had already begun writing poetry as a student, and his debut came in 1865.
In time he became a respected poet, particularly through induction into the
French Academy in 1881. As time passed, his health declined and he lived alone
in his home in the southern suburbs of Paris, where he died in 1907. Sully
Prudhomme used the money from his Nobel Prize to establish a fund for
publishing young French poets.
Sully Prudhomme belonged to the French Parnassian school, a group of poets
that, in the tradition of Théophile Gauthier, wanted to write in a classic and
formally elegant style. The movement got its name from La Parnasse Contemporain
anthology. Sully Prudhomme's poetry combined a Parnassian regard for formal
perfection with an interest in science and philosophy. According to the Swedish
Academy, his elevated poetry fit in Alfred Nobel's formulation about works in
an ideal direction
Rene
Francois Armand Prudhomme (1839-1907) was the son of a French shopkeeper. He wanted
to become an engineer, but an eye disease terminated his training at a
polytechnic institute. He studied literature, and after a brief and
unsuccessful interlude in industry, he took up law, though without much
conviction, and worked in a solicitor’s office. Sully Prudhomme was a member of
the «Conference La Bruyère», a distinguished student society, and the
favourable reception that his fellow members gave to his juvenilia encouraged
him to go on writing poetry. His first volume, Stances
et Poèmes (1865) [Stanzas and Poems], was well reviewed by
Sainte-Beuve and established his reputation. Sully Prudhomme combined a
Parnassian regard for formal perfection and elegance with philosophic and
scientific interests, which are revealed, for instance, in his translation of
the first book of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura (1878-79).
Some of his other poetic works are: Croquis Italiens (1866-68)
[Italian Notebook]; Solitudes (1869); Impressions de la guerre (1870) [Impressions of
War]; Les Destins (1872) [Destinies]; La Révolte des fleurs (1872) [Revolt of the
Flowers ]; La France (1874); Les Vaines Tendresses (1875) [Vain
Endearments]; La Justice (1878); and Le Bonheur (1888) [Happiness]. Les Epaves (1908) [Flotsam], published
posthumously, was a collection of miscellaneous poems. A collected edition of
his writings in five volumes appeared in 1900-01. He also wrote essays and a
book on Pascal, La Vraie Religion selon Pascal (1905)
[Pascal on true Religion]. Sully Prudhomme was a member of the French Academy
from 1881 until his death in 1907.
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