ESTAUNIE, EDOUARD (1862— ), French novelist, was born at Dijon on Feb. 4, 1862. Estaunie, who became an academician in 1924, has written novels which carry on the great traditions of the French psychological novel. They are profound in their analysis, which is based on a detailed account of the char acters, demanding prolonged attention from the reader. Through out runs the thesis that the external life of each individual masks an internal life, usually very different and much more important. Incidentally, the novels provide vivid and penetrating pictures of provincial France. The more important of them are: L'Em preinte (1896), a study of the influence of Jesuit education; La Vie secrete (19o8), the title of which is indicative of Estaunie's main contention; Les Choses voient (1913), in which three pieces of furniture relate the history of three generations ; L'Ascension de Monsieur Baslivre (192o), the story of the official and the pri vate life of a French civil servant ; L'Appel de la route (1922).