Martin du Gard, Roger (rôzhā` märtăN` də gär), 1881–1958, French novelist. Long associated with the Nouvelle Revue française, he first gained recognition with Jean Barois (1913), a novel of France during the Dreyfus Affair Dreyfus Affair (drā`fəs, drī–), the controversy that occurred with the treason conviction (1894) of Capt.
..... Click the link for more information. . His fame, however, rests chiefly on his eight-part novel cycle The World of the Thibaults (1922–40, tr. 1939–41). A story of two families, one Roman Catholic and the other Protestant, it explores the conflicts of French society in the early 20th cent. He also began a second ambitious novel, Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort, unfinished at his death and not published until 1983 (tr. 1999). His other books include Confidence africaine (1931) and Vieille France (1933, tr. The Postman, 1954). Martin du Gard was awarded the 1937 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Bibliography

See studies by D. I. Schalk (1967) and C. H. Sarage (1968).

Martin du Gard, Roger

(born March 23, 1881, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France—died Aug. 22, 1958, Bellême) French novelist and dramatist. Originally trained as a paleographer and archivist, he brought to his literary works a spirit of objectivity and a scrupulous regard for detail. He first attracted attention with the novel Jean Barois (1913), the story of an intellectual torn between the Roman Catholic faith of his childhood and the scientific materialism of his maturity. He is best known for the eight-novel cycle Les Thibault (1922–40), the record of a family's development that chronicles the social and moral issues facing the French bourgeoisie in the pre-World War I era. He received the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature.