Alain Robbe-Grillet

Author profile

born

in Brest (Finistère), France

August 18, 1928

died

February 18, 2008

gender

male

genre

Fiction

influences

Roland Barthes, Martin Heidegger

About this author

edit data

Alain Robbe-Grillet was a French writer and filmmaker. He was along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon one of the figures most associated with the trend of the Nouveau Roman. Alain Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat #32.

He was married to Catherine Robbe-Grillet (née Rstakian) .

Alain Robbe-Grillet was born in Brest (Finistère, France) into a family of engineers and scientists. He was trained as an agricultural engineer. In the years 1943-44 Robbe-Grillet participated in service du travail obligatoire in Nuremberg where he worked as a machinist. The initial few months were seen by Robbe-Grillet as something of a holiday, since in between the ver...more Alain Robbe-Grillet was a French writer and filmmaker. He was along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon one of the figures most associated with the trend of the Nouveau Roman. Alain Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat #32.

He was married to Catherine Robbe-Grillet (née Rstakian) .

Alain Robbe-Grillet was born in Brest (Finistère, France) into a family of engineers and scientists. He was trained as an agricultural engineer. In the years 1943-44 Robbe-Grillet participated in service du travail obligatoire in Nuremberg where he worked as a machinist. The initial few months were seen by Robbe-Grillet as something of a holiday, since in between the very rudimentary training he was given to operate the machinery he had free time to go to the theatre and the opera. In 1945, Robbe-Grillet completed his diploma at the National Institute of Agronomy. Later, his work as an agronomist took him to Martinique, French Guinea,Guadeloupe and Morocco.

His first novel The Erasers (Les Gommes) was published in 1953, after which he dedicated himself full-time to his new occupation. His early work was praised by eminent critics such as Roland Barthes and Maurice Blanchot. Around the time of his second novel he became a literary advisor for Les Editions de Minuit and occupied this position from 1955 until 1985. After publishing four novels, in 1961 he worked with Alain Renais, writing the script for Last Year at Marienbad (L'Année Dernière à Marienbad), and subsequently wrote and directed his own films. In 1963, Robbe-Grillet published For a New Novel (Pour un Nouveau Roman), a collection of previous published theoretical writings concerning the novel. From 1966 to 1968 he was a member of the High Committee for the Defense and Expansion of French (Haut comité pour la défense et l´expansion de la langue française). In addition Robbe-Grillet also led the Centre for Sociology of Literature (Centre de sociologie de la littérature) at the university of Bruxelles from 1980 to 1988. From 1971 to 1995 Robbe-Grillet was a professor at New York University, lecturing on his own novels.

In 2004 Robbe-Grillet was elected to the Académie française, but was never actually formally received by the Académie because of disputes regarding the Académie's reception procedures. Robbe-Grillet both refused to prepare and submit a welcome speech in advance, preferring to improvise his speech, as well as refusing to purchase and wear the Académie's famous green tails (habit vert) and sabre, which he considered as out-dated.

He died in Caen after succumbing to heart problems

Style

His writing style has been described as "realist" or "phenomenological" (in the Heideggerian sense) or "a theory of pure surface." Methodical, geometric, and often repetitive descriptions of objects replace the psychology and interiority of the character. Instead, one slowly pieces together the story and the emotional experience of jealousy in the repetition of descriptions, the attention to odd details, and the breaks in repetitions. Ironically, this method resembles the experience of psychoanalysis in which the deeper unconscious meanings are contained in the flow and disruptions of free associations. Timelines and plots are fractured and the resulting novel resembles the literary equivalent of a cubist painting. Yet his work is ultimately characterised by its ability to mean many things to many different people[2].

Novels

Robbe-Grillet wrote his first novel A Regicide (Un Régicide) in 1949, but it was rejected by Gallimard, a major French publishing house, and only later published with 'minor corrections' by his life-long publisher Les Editions de Minuit in 1978. His fi(less)

combine editions
Alain Robbe-Grillet's Books

Average rating: 3.84 · 3,672 ratings · 307 reviews · 50 distinct works · Similar authors

	Jealousy 3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 avg rating — 646 ratings — published 1957 — 18 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Erasers by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Richard Howard (Translator) 3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 avg rating — 547 ratings — published 1953 — 12 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jealousy & In the Labyrinth by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Richard Howard (Translator), Roland Barthes (Introduction) 3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 437 ratings — published 1960 — 4 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Voyeur by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Richard Howard (Translator), Richard Howard (Translation) 3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 avg rating — 462 ratings — published 1956 — 12 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	For a New Novel: Essays on Fiction by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Richard Howard 3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 248 ratings — published 1963 — 7 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In The Labyrinth by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Christine Brooke-Rose (Translator) 3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 175 ratings — published 1959 — 13 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Last Year at Marienbad: Text for the Film by Alain Resnais by Alain Robbe-Grillet (Translator), Richard Howard (Translator) 4.28 of 5 stars 4.28 avg rating — 134 ratings — published 1961 — 8 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	La Maison de Rendez-Vous and Djinn by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Richard Howard (Translator), Yvone Lenard (Translator) 4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 avg rating — 114 ratings — published 1987 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Djinn by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Yvonne Lenard (Translator), Walter Wells (Translator) 3.61 of 5 stars 3.61 avg rating — 154 ratings — published 1981 — 11 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Project for a Revolution in New York: A Novel by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Richard Howard (Translator) 3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 avg rating — 115 ratings — published 1972 — 10 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Alain Robbe-Grillet…

Quotes by Alain Robbe-Grillet

“To tell the truth, girls are no longer the way they used to be. They play gangsters, nowadays, just like boys. They organize rackets. They plan holdups and practice karate. They will rape defenseless adolescents. They wear pants... Life has become impossible.”
― Alain Robbe-Grillet, Djinn

tags: boys, gangsters, girls

29 people liked it

“The true writer has nothing to say. What counts is the way he says it.”
― Alain Robbe-Grillet

19 people liked it

“the world is neither meaningful, nor absurd. it quite simply is, and that, in any case, is what is so remarkable about it.”
― Alain Robbe-Grillet

12 people liked it

See all Alain Robbe-Grillet's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL WINTER CHALLENGE - 2008/2009	2174	3555	Mar 04, 2009 07:03am
Reading with Style: 10.9 - Cheryl TX's 2nd Place Task - Alphabet Soup	25	47	Jan 14, 2011 12:17pm
Latino and Latin ...: La Invencion de Morel/ The Invention of Morel pg. 1-54	9	16	Jul 22, 2011 09:53am
Reading with Style: Reading w/Style Completed Tasks - Fall 2011	662	120	Nov 30, 2011 09:03pm
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC!	2299	555	Nov 30, 2011 09:05pm
The Next Best Boo...: Your Life in Books	41	195	Dec 05, 2012 07:50pm
Romance Readers R...: 2012 A-Z Book Challenge	736	811	Jan 04, 2013 05:56pm
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2013 Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC!	2841	461	May 31, 2013 09:02pm
Reading with Style: Rws Completed Tasks - Spring 2013	999	90	May 31, 2013 09:03pm

More…

Alain's Fans (104)

Alain Robbe-Grillet

Author profile

combine editionsAlain Robbe-Grillet's Books

Quotes by Alain Robbe-Grillet

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Alain Robbe-Grillet's Books