Auguste Gilbert de Voisins

Born in Paramé, near Saint-Malo, on September 7, 1877, and dead in Paris on December 8, 1939, Auguste Gilbert de Voisins was a French writer, essayist, and translator. Library and reference sources identify him as the author of novels, poems, essays, and travel writing, and his bibliography includes titles such as Le Bar de la Fourche, L’Enfant qui prit peur, Écrit en Chine, L’Esprit impur, and La Conscience dans le mal.

French reference sources also note that he spent part of his youth in Provence, moved to Paris in 1898, and traveled in Europe, North Africa, Senegal, and Dahomey. In 1909 he accompanied Victor Segalen to Beijing, and the two set out on a long journey through western China; they returned to China again in 1913 with Jean Lartigue. That experience fed directly into his travel writing and helps explain the unusual blend of reflection and lived experience in his books.

Today he is usually remembered as a somewhat singular figure in early 20th-century French literature: drawn to inner conflict, moral unease, and the edge between reality and the visionary. He is not as widely read now as some of his contemporaries, but his work still appeals to readers who enjoy fin-de-siècle and interwar French writing with an introspective, adventurous streak.