BARRES, MAURICE French writer and politician, was born at Charmes (Vosges) on Sept. 22, 1862. Maurice Barres always considered himself a Lorrainer, charged with the interpretation and the vindication of his own people. His school days were spent at the Lycee of Nancy, and, immedi ately after, he made his literary debut with some ironical pamph lets which successfully displayed his intellectual "dandysme." Renan paid him the compliment of being annoyed by his Hui jours chez M. Renan (1888) .
He enhanced his reputation by the three volumes of the Culte du moi, which appeared from 1888 to 1891. They provoked much ridicule in the Press, but the humour, charm and "pretiosite" with which he developed his theme of the cultivation of the "ego," and thus a harmonious inner life, was hailed with delight by the younger generation. Many of the ideas which permeate his later works may be found in his second work Un homme libre (1889), which exercised a considerable influence on his genera tion. The section dealing with Lorraine was described by Ernest Lavisse as an admirable piece of historical psychology. His third book, Le jardin de Berenice (1891), a novel, showed great deli cacy of feeling and subtlety of style, and was inspired by the author's electoral campaign at Nancy as Boulangist candidate. He was only 26 when he was elected to the chamber, and from that time he led a life divided between literature and politics.
Intelligent, ardent, ambitious, modelling himself now on Ben jamin Constant and now on Disraeli, Barres, during the period between the end of Boulangism and the Dreyfus case, hesitated as to the wisest course to pursue. He stood for one of the Paris divisions as a Socialist patriot, and was defeated. In 1892, he wrote a short novel, L'ennemi des lois, the subject of which was anarchy. He travelled in Italy and in Spain. He edited for about six months a paper called La Cocarde. Maurras was his colleague in this venture, and together they roughly blocked out the future doctrines of the French Nationalist Party.
In 1897, he began the publication of his most important work, Le roman de l'energie nationale. The generation and milieu de scribed are his own. His characters are types rather than living beings, but as a delineation of a period it may be ranked with Le Rouge et le Noir and L'Education sentimentale. The second volume, L'appel au soldat, contains a vivid account of the Bou langist Movement, and the third, Leurs figures, a picture of par liamentary life at the time of the Panama affair, bears comparison with the pages of Saint-Simon.
The Dreyfus case, in which he took an active interest, made him a vehement Nationalist. He now assumed the position of spokesman for Lorraine, and undertook the series entitled Bas tions de l'Est. Au service de l'Allemagne (19o5) describes the year of military service under Germany of a young Alsatian, and Colette Baudoche (19o9) tells the story of a young girl from Metz. The war brought these books a rather artificial success as propaganda. Meanwhile, Barnes was writing admirable descrip tions of travel in France—Les amities f ran(aises (1903), in Greece—Le voyage de Sparte (1906), in Spain—Greco (1912). They contain some of his best work, and some of the finest prose in the language.
The war was the apotheosis of his doctrines. He redoubled his activities. His work as a journalist had always been remarkable in quality, it now became remarkable in quantity also. He achieved the feat of writing an article for the Echo de Paris every day for four years. These, when they were re-issued in the long series, L'dme f ranfaise et la guerre (1915-19), did not retain their original popularity.
After the war, Barres carried on his role as defender of the French Eastern front by a mediocre work, Le genie du Rhin (1921). He returned to pure literature with his novel Un jardin sur l'Oronte (1922), which derives its inspiration from his earlier travels in the East. These he described in tine enquete aux pays an Levant, which appeared in 1923 on the very day, Dec. 5, of the author's sudden death in Paris from heart failure. He left much unpublished work, the materials for the autobiography, Memoires, on which he was engaged, and a large correspondence, which will probably prove to be one of the most interesting of his generation.
He was, when he died, even more than Anatole France, the most significant figure among contemporary French men of let ters. The influence of his political thought had worn itself out, but his literary authority still swayed the younger generation. He had the power to charm. The prejudices, the narrowness and the egotism, with which he had been reproached, gradually dis appeared. The qualities of sympathy and reverence always com manded his esteem, and his epic of the countryside, La colline inspiree (1913), reveals the springs of his religious life. His old age would have been fruitful, and his death deprived us of recol lections which might have rivalled Les Memoires d'outre-tombe. Of all French writers he may best be compared with Chateau briand. Like Chateaubriand he created but one living figure, himself, but into that figure he breathed the soul of contem porary France, and thereby captured the heart of his generation.