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Points of View: From Kipling to Graham Greene
Book by ANDRE MAUROIS
409 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1968
About the author
André Maurois
1,096 books255 followersAndré Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog, was a French author. André Maurois was a pseudonym that became his legal name in 1947.
During World War I he joined the French army and served as an interpreter and later a liaison officer to the British army. His first novel, Les silences du colonel Bramble, was a witty but socially realistic account of that experience. It was an immediate success in France. It was translated and also became popular in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries as The Silence of Colonel Bramble. Many of his other works have also been translated into English (mainly by Hamish Miles (1894–1937)), as they often dealt with British people or topics, such as his biographies of Disraeli, Byron, and Shelley.
During 1938 Maurois was elected to the prestigious Académie française. Maurois was encouraged and assisted in seeking this post by Marshal Philippe Pétain, and he made a point of acknowleging with thanks his debt to Pétain in his 1941 autobiography, Call no man happy - though by the time of writing, their paths had sharply diverged, Pétain having become Head of State of the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy France.
During World War II he served in the French army and the Free French Forces.
He died during 1967 after a long career as an author of novels, biographies, histories, children's books and science fiction stories. He is buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris.
During World War I he joined the French army and served as an interpreter and later a liaison officer to the British army. His first novel, Les silences du colonel Bramble, was a witty but socially realistic account of that experience. It was an immediate success in France. It was translated and also became popular in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries as The Silence of Colonel Bramble. Many of his other works have also been translated into English (mainly by Hamish Miles (1894–1937)), as they often dealt with British people or topics, such as his biographies of Disraeli, Byron, and Shelley.
During 1938 Maurois was elected to the prestigious Académie française. Maurois was encouraged and assisted in seeking this post by Marshal Philippe Pétain, and he made a point of acknowleging with thanks his debt to Pétain in his 1941 autobiography, Call no man happy - though by the time of writing, their paths had sharply diverged, Pétain having become Head of State of the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy France.
During World War II he served in the French army and the Free French Forces.
He died during 1967 after a long career as an author of novels, biographies, histories, children's books and science fiction stories. He is buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris.
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October 31, 2025
His biography of Disraeli is one of my favourite books. So when I found this in a small bookstore (in Singapore) I had to buy it.
His intention, Maurois tells us in the introduction is to examine English writers since the beginning of the century [the 20th, of course] who “have played an important part in the moulding of one or two generations of human beings.” His audience was the French, but he certainly has something to say to us reading this book 90 years after its first publication.
The first striking thing is that he could pick eleven English writers who flourished a hundred years ago that are still popular or at least well known nearly a hundred years later. Probably the one writer whose fame is not what it used to be be is Lytton Strachey. And Kathrine Mansfield is technically not English. And still more amazing the list of writers Maurois does not analyse. The editor of the edition (from 1969) complains that he left out James Joyce and Evelyn Waugh. And I would have liked to get his opinions on Bennett, Galsworthy, Maugham and Belloc and Graves and Agatha Christie. Which means that there are nearly twenty English writers that are still widely known today. I would have trouble to name five German writers of the time that still have something to say to us today. Or American or French.
The next interesting thing is the shifting of fame. The editor finds it remarkable that Maurois recognized the genius of Conrad and Lawrence but thinks that Chesterton “looks scarcely as important as he did in 1935”. And Maurois thinks that Kipling was by far of all the writers he talks about the most important, followed by Conrad. On the other hand, although he thinks highly of her, I think that he did not really like Virginia Woolf. (Maybe I read between the lines what I want to read, because I cannot stand her.) And of course, she is the most popular here on Goodreads with 27,000 followers. (Kipling: 3,500, H.G. Wells: 10,000, D.H. Lawrence: 4000, Katherine Mansfield: 1000, Graham Greene: 6,000, Bernard Shaw: 4000, Chesterton: 5,500, Huxley 13,000, Conrad: 4,500, Strachey: 60)
I interrupted my reading this book to refresh my impressions on Lawrence and Wells. And here against my wishes I found that Lawrence was by far the better writer.
All the essays are brilliant. And although I do not always share his literary convictions (for example, I certainly do not think that Graham Green's books can be read like a detective story - I find them utterly boring), I respect his point of view immensely. Within a few pages he manages to introduce you to the authors and their works. And he makes you want to know more about them.
His intention, Maurois tells us in the introduction is to examine English writers since the beginning of the century [the 20th, of course] who “have played an important part in the moulding of one or two generations of human beings.” His audience was the French, but he certainly has something to say to us reading this book 90 years after its first publication.
The first striking thing is that he could pick eleven English writers who flourished a hundred years ago that are still popular or at least well known nearly a hundred years later. Probably the one writer whose fame is not what it used to be be is Lytton Strachey. And Kathrine Mansfield is technically not English. And still more amazing the list of writers Maurois does not analyse. The editor of the edition (from 1969) complains that he left out James Joyce and Evelyn Waugh. And I would have liked to get his opinions on Bennett, Galsworthy, Maugham and Belloc and Graves and Agatha Christie. Which means that there are nearly twenty English writers that are still widely known today. I would have trouble to name five German writers of the time that still have something to say to us today. Or American or French.
The next interesting thing is the shifting of fame. The editor finds it remarkable that Maurois recognized the genius of Conrad and Lawrence but thinks that Chesterton “looks scarcely as important as he did in 1935”. And Maurois thinks that Kipling was by far of all the writers he talks about the most important, followed by Conrad. On the other hand, although he thinks highly of her, I think that he did not really like Virginia Woolf. (Maybe I read between the lines what I want to read, because I cannot stand her.) And of course, she is the most popular here on Goodreads with 27,000 followers. (Kipling: 3,500, H.G. Wells: 10,000, D.H. Lawrence: 4000, Katherine Mansfield: 1000, Graham Greene: 6,000, Bernard Shaw: 4000, Chesterton: 5,500, Huxley 13,000, Conrad: 4,500, Strachey: 60)
I interrupted my reading this book to refresh my impressions on Lawrence and Wells. And here against my wishes I found that Lawrence was by far the better writer.
All the essays are brilliant. And although I do not always share his literary convictions (for example, I certainly do not think that Graham Green's books can be read like a detective story - I find them utterly boring), I respect his point of view immensely. Within a few pages he manages to introduce you to the authors and their works. And he makes you want to know more about them.
Displaying 1 of 1 review