A few years ago I met a man outside of a bookshop in Paris. His name was Olivier Todd. He wanted to sell some books out of his library. We spoke for about ten minutes and immediately I was fascinated by this impressive monsieur. He was a disciple of Jean-Paul Sartre for starters. He also wrote a few biographies I had long since known were important on Albert Camus and Andre Malraux. It was then because of his knowledge of Camus that I was always tempted to contact him again and ask him for a coffee, but quite honestly I felt my 'from the gut appreciation' of Camus (and my bare bones knowledge of Malraux) wasn't quite up to snuff.
Malraux has a reputation for being skimmed rather than read in France. I have read two of his works: La condition humaine (Man's Fate) and my personal favourite, Antimémoires (Anti-Memoirs).
It's a vastly important book. Malraux was a part of some major events during his lifetime: the Chinese Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the French Resistance during WWII, and then as a minister in France for Charles de Gaulle. This book is the memoir of a man who was wounded and captured during WWII, only to escape to join the French underground movement to be captured and to escape again.
Or is it?
Malraux and his life have since been coined as "Malrucian legend". It was mostly invention. There was no relationship with Mao for example. They met, yes, but Andre made most of it up.
So here's some of the real skinny, courtesy of Monsieur Todd's biography:
He went to Cambodia and basically stole priceless works of art. When he was arrested the "Andres" came out in full force in support of Monsieur Malraux. Andre Maurois, Andre Gide, and even Andre Breton. He was then moved to Vietnam.
He met with Trotsky who claimed that Malraux "is incapable of moral independence; he was born biddable". Malraux abandoned Trotsky for the winning team. The problem is, given that de Gaulle was the last great president of France (in my opinion), it's hard to blame Malraux for hitching his wagon to de Gaulle's 5th Republic.
Considered by some as the French Hemingway, Malraux lived his life in search of fulfilling his love of myths. In La Voie Royale, Malraux wrote that "every adventurer is born a mythomaniac".
Malraux inscribed many of his letters with a cat - perhaps an indication of his many lives, but just before his death he scrawled the words, "it should have been otherwise".
In Antimémoires Malraux wrote something even more fitting that has always stayed with me: "La vérité d’un homme c’est d’abord ce qu’il cache." - The truth of a man is before that which he hides.
Perhaps that is what inspired Monsieur Todd to write his biography on Malraux, but I have always admired the man whether or not ''Ce n'était ni vrai ni faux, c'était vécu.'' - because regardless of whether or not the myth of Andre Malraux stands up to the truth because as he said in his Prix Goncourt winning book La condition humaine, "it was neither true or false, it was experienced".
And if you read Anti-memoirs, you'll see more clearly why I feel a certain love for Malraux. What he hid was a very sad life, but he certainly tried to make the best out of it. And sometimes he did.
Malraux has a reputation for being skimmed rather than read in France. I have read two of his works: La condition humaine (Man's Fate) and my personal favourite, Antimémoires (Anti-Memoirs).
It's a vastly important book. Malraux was a part of some major events during his lifetime: the Chinese Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the French Resistance during WWII, and then as a minister in France for Charles de Gaulle. This book is the memoir of a man who was wounded and captured during WWII, only to escape to join the French underground movement to be captured and to escape again.
Or is it?
Malraux and his life have since been coined as "Malrucian legend". It was mostly invention. There was no relationship with Mao for example. They met, yes, but Andre made most of it up.
So here's some of the real skinny, courtesy of Monsieur Todd's biography:
He went to Cambodia and basically stole priceless works of art. When he was arrested the "Andres" came out in full force in support of Monsieur Malraux. Andre Maurois, Andre Gide, and even Andre Breton. He was then moved to Vietnam.
He met with Trotsky who claimed that Malraux "is incapable of moral independence; he was born biddable". Malraux abandoned Trotsky for the winning team. The problem is, given that de Gaulle was the last great president of France (in my opinion), it's hard to blame Malraux for hitching his wagon to de Gaulle's 5th Republic.
Considered by some as the French Hemingway, Malraux lived his life in search of fulfilling his love of myths. In La Voie Royale, Malraux wrote that "every adventurer is born a mythomaniac".
Malraux inscribed many of his letters with a cat - perhaps an indication of his many lives, but just before his death he scrawled the words, "it should have been otherwise".
In Antimémoires Malraux wrote something even more fitting that has always stayed with me: "La vérité d’un homme c’est d’abord ce qu’il cache." - The truth of a man is before that which he hides.
Perhaps that is what inspired Monsieur Todd to write his biography on Malraux, but I have always admired the man whether or not ''Ce n'était ni vrai ni faux, c'était vécu.'' - because regardless of whether or not the myth of Andre Malraux stands up to the truth because as he said in his Prix Goncourt winning book La condition humaine, "it was neither true or false, it was experienced".
And if you read Anti-memoirs, you'll see more clearly why I feel a certain love for Malraux. What he hid was a very sad life, but he certainly tried to make the best out of it. And sometimes he did.
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| Malraux putting together one of his "museums without walls", which is what he considered art books. |
