author
Paul Morand
1888–1976
A fast, stylish voice in 20th-century French literature, this writer captured the speed, glamour, and nervous energy of the interwar years. His fiction is known for its wit, sharp observation, and cosmopolitan sense of place.
1 Audiobook
Lewis and Irene
by Paul Morand
About the author
Born in Paris on March 13, 1888, Paul Morand became one of the best-known French writers of the interwar period. He also worked as a diplomat, and that international life helped shape the quick-moving, worldly atmosphere of much of his fiction.
He was especially praised for short stories and novellas marked by elegance, speed, and vivid description. Works such as Ouvert la nuit and Fermé la nuit helped build his reputation, and many readers have seen him as an important modernizing stylist in French prose.
Morand's life and legacy remain complicated. Alongside his literary success, his public career and political associations during World War II have drawn lasting criticism. He was later elected to the Académie française, where he took his seat in 1969, and he died in Paris on July 23, 1976.