Paul Bourget

Born in Amiens on September 2, 1852, and raised partly in Clermont-Ferrand, Paul Bourget studied in Paris and first made his name as a poet and critic. His early essays on contemporary writers and ideas helped establish him as an important interpreter of the literary and intellectual mood of his time.

He is best remembered for novels that explore inner conflict and motive, which is why he is often associated with the psychological novel. Over time, his fiction took on a more openly moral and religious tone, and his work became especially influential among conservative French readers before World War I.

Bourget was elected to the Académie française in 1894 and remained a prominent public literary figure for decades. He died in Paris on December 25, 1935.