BOUTELLEAU, Jacques 1884-1968
(Jacques Chardonne)

PERSONAL:

Born January 2, 1884, in Barbezieux, Charant, France; died, 1968; married Anny Antoine.

CAREER:

Writer and publishers. P.V. Stock (publisher), beginning 1910; Librarie Stock, France (publisher), beginning c. 1924.

WRITINGS:

AS JACQUES CHARDONNE

Oeuvres complètes, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1921.

L'éithalame (fiction), Larousse (Paris, France), 1921.

L'épithalame (novel), Stock (Paris, France), 1921, published in English as Epithalamium, G. Doran (New York, NY), 1924, reprinted in French as L'épithalame, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1987.

Le chant du bienheureux, roman (novel), Delamain et Boutelleau (Paris, France), 1927.

Les varais: roman (novel), Stock (Paris, France), 1929, reprinted, Brasset (Paris, France), 1989.

Eva; ou, Le journal interrompu (novel), Grasset (Paris, France), 1930, published in English as Eva, V. Gollancz (London, England), 1930, reprinted in French, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1983.

Claire: roman (novel), Les Libertés Belges (Brussels, Belgium), 1931, reprinted, Grasset (Paris, France), 1984.

(With Roger Nimier) L'amour du prochain. Le bonheur de Barbezieux. Attachments. Lettres a Roger Nimier, Grasset (Paris, France), 1932, reprinted, Stock (Paris, France), 1984.

Destinees Sentimentales (novel; first published in three volumes; contains La femme de Jean Barnery, Pauline, and Porcelaine de Limoges; also see below), Grasset (Paris, France), 1934–36, translated by W.J. Strachan published as The House of Barnery, P. Owen (London, England), 1955, reprinted in French, 2000.

L'Amour c'est beaucoup plus que l'amour, Stock (Paris, France), 1937, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1957, reprinted, 1992.

Romanesques (novel), Librairie Artheme Fayard (Paris, France), 1937, reprinted, 1996.

Chronique privée de l'an 1940, Stock (Paris, France), 1941.

(With André Gide and Maurice Martin du Gard) Voir la figure, Grasset (Paris, France), 1941.

Attachements (chronique privée), Stock (Paris, France), 1943, revised edition, 1944.

Oeuvres complètes en six volumes, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1947–55.

Chimériques (fiction), Éditions du Rocher (Monaco), 1948, reprinted, Rocher (Monaco), 1992.

Le chant du bienheureux: Les varias: romans, (novels), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1951.

Vivre à Madère, Grasset (Paris, France), 1953, reprinted, 1984.

(With Roger Nimier) Lettres à Roger Nimier, Grasset (Paris, France), 1954, reprinted, 1985.

Matinales, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1956.

Le ciel dans la fenêtre, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1959, La Table Ronde (Paris, France), 1998.

Femmes, contes choisis et quelques images, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1961.

(With Paul Morand, Michel Déon, and Emmanuel Boudot-Lamotte) Le Portual que j'aime, Aux Editions Sun (Paris, France), 1963.

Demi-jour. Suite et fin du "Ciel dans la fenêtre," A. Michel (Paris, France), 1964.

Catherine (fiction), A. Michel (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1964.

Propos comme ça (short sketches), Grasset (Paris, France), 1966.

Détachements, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1969.

Ce que je voulais vous dire aujourd'hui, foreword by Paul Morand, Grasset (Paris, France), 1970, reprinted, 2001.

Correspondence, 1950-1962, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1984.

Correspondence, 1928-1962, Stock (Paris, France), 1999.

Also author of Le ciel de Nieflheim, [Bucharest, Hungary], 1991. Boutelleau's works have been translated into several foreign languages, including Japanese and English. Author's letters are housed at Indiana University's Lilly Library Manuscript Collections.

ADAPTATIONS:

Destinees Sentimentales was adapted as a movie, Arena Films, c. 2000; Claire was adapted for television, 1986.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jacques Boutelleau had established himself in the French publishing industry before he began in the 1920s to write novels under the pseudonym of Jacques Chardonne. Boutelleau's novels primarily focus on the psychological aspects of domestic relations and life. He is best known for his family saga Destinees Sentimentales, which was first published as three separate novels: La femme de Jean Barnery, Pauline, and Porcelaine de Limoges. The story revolves around early-twentieth-century family life and the changing ways of the modern world. It primarily focuses on the son of a company owner who goes through failed marriages and several careers, beginning around the turn of the century and following him through the Great Depression. The saga was adapted as a movie by director Olivier Assayas. In an interview on the Les Destinees Web site, Assayas noted that when he read the book, he "was surprised to find that Chardonne had constructed that novel very much like a screenplay. There's a very sound narrative structure, a large number of scenes with dialogue, and I felt that it could lead to a very specific type of film project." Assayas went on to note: "We have here a great novelist who, in observing his own family and himself, carried out an inside study of the century's industrial transformation. There's something miraculous and unique about it."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Forum for Modern Language Studies, January, 1987, William Kidd, "French Literature and World War II: Vercors and Chardonne," pp. 38-47.

Magazine Litteraire, July-August, 2000, André Bay, "Jacques Chardonne du bonheur conjugal," pp. 62-64.

Nouvelle Revue Francaise, August, 1968, Marcel Arland "Un Accomplissement," pp. 69-72.

Revue de Paris, June, 1967, Denise Bourdet, "Jacques Chardonne," pp. 104-111; October, 1968, Claude Elsen,"ChardonneM'Écrivit…,"pp.41-45; November, 1968, Paul Morand, "Un Puritan Voluptueux," pp. 9-13.

Sight and Sound, January, 2001, Keith Reader, review of film version of Destinees Sentimentales, pp. 46-47.

World Literature Today, winter, 1965, review of Catherine, p. 41, and review of Demi-jour, p. 43.

ONLINE

Internet Movie Database,http://www.imdb.com/ (June 12, 2006), author credit information.

Les Destinees,http://www.wellspring.com/lesdestinees/ (April 21, 2006), interview with film director Olivier Assayas, includes discussion of author.*