Armand Petitjean & Jean Paulhan, 1934-1968
Armand PetitjeanJean Paulhan“It goes without saying that when the question arises: the several hundred letters he wrote to me are at the disposal of the one or those who will assume responsibility for his literary “legacy”” (Letter 695). This postscript from Armand Petitjean's letter written on October 10, 1968 the day after the death of Jean Paulhan and received by Dominique Aury, last companion of the director of La Nouvelle Revue Française, well reflects the historical prescience and sensitivity of the author. The edition of this corpus of almost seven hundred letters constitutes the testimony of a true exchange between the two men which spanned more than thirty years, from 1934 to 1968.
The reader attends closely here a true and fascinating intellectual adventure through the most turbulent period of the 20th century, to gain a perspective on the political promises and disappointments, the challenges and historical impasses of the aftermath of the days of February 1934, the Popular Front, the Anschluss, the Munich crisis, the "Phoney War", the defeat and the Occupation, through the Liberation and the beginnings of the Cold War, to continue until the resurrection of the NRF in 1953 and, after the Algerian crisis, the establishment of the Fifth Republic. Inseparable from this intellectual adventure, and an actor as crucial as the two men, is the NRF itself, already well established as a political-cultural institution.
What do we learn from reading these letters, in addition to their inestimable historical value? Above all, it is about friendship, a friendship whose depth we have not yet been able to judge. From the start, the two men are aware of being on the same wavelength. As in any great friendship that lasts, there are quarrels and even threats of breakup. Differences will oppose them, particularly under the Occupation. In turn, the letters reveal the shared humor, the frankness, the loyalty, the intelligence of this friendship, despite the anger, the vicissitudes, the reconciliations which put it to the test.
The vagaries of destiny, the vagaries of history, complicity and discussions, demands on oneself, on a friend, unwavering affection: the correspondence of these two men finally reveals to us its riches, its human and historical complexity.
J. Paulhan, A. Petitjean: Correspondance, 1934-1968 - Fabula
Le résistant et le repenti - Le Figaro
Publisher : Gallimard