Simon, Claude

Simon, Claude (Eugène Henri)

(born Oct. 10, 1913, Tananarive [now Antananarivo], Madag.—died July 6, 2005, Paris, France) French writer. Captured by the Nazis while fighting in World War II, he escaped to join the French Resistance. He completed his first novel during the war. His works, mixing narration and stream of consciousness in densely constructed prose, are representative of the nouveau roman (“new novel”), or French antinovel, that emerged in the 1950s. Perhaps most important is the cycle comprising The Grass (1958), The Flanders Road (1960), The Palace (1962), and History (1967), with its recurring characters and events. His other novels include The Wind (1957), Triptych (1973), The Acacia (1989), and The Trolley (2001). He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1985.