Prevost, Marcel

Prévost, Marcel 

Born May 1, 1862, in Paris; died Apr. 8, 1941, in Vianne, department of Lot-et-Garonne. French writer. Member of the Académie Française (1909).

Prévost studied at Catholic colleges in Bordeaux and Paris and graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique. His first novel, The Scorpion (1887; Russian translation, 1901), which depicts the mores of a Jesuit college, was written under the influence of Zola.

Prévost wrote romantic and psychological novels that combined erotic scenes with censure of adultery and praise of Christian duty. They included Mademoiselle Jauffre (1889), A Woman’s Autumn (1893; Russian translation, 1893), The Demi-Vierges (1894; Russian translation, 1895; play of the same title, 1898), and The Happy Couple (1901).

In his later works, Prévost was primarily a moralist, as seen in the novels Strong Maidens (vols. 1–2, 1900) and Letters to Françoise (vols. 1–4, 1902–24). The events of World War I were reflected in the novels Petty Officer Bénoît (1916; Russian translation, 1916) and My Dear Tommy (1920).

WORKS

Oeuvres completes, [vols. 1–33]. Paris, 1887–1924.
L’Homme vierge. Paris, 1948.
In Russian translation:
Sobr. soch., vols. 1–4. St. Petersburg, 1901.
Sobr. soch. [books 1–14]. St. Petersburg [1912].
Don-Zhuanshi. Petrograd, 1923.

REFERENCES

Bertaut, J. M. Prévost. Paris [1904]. (Contains bibliography.)
M. Prévost. Brussels, 1966.

I. S. KOVALEVA