Martin du Gard, Roger << mahr TEHN doo GAHR, raw ZHAY >> (1881-1958), a French novelist and dramatist, won the 1937 Nobel Prize for literature. He is best known for his cycle of eight novels known in French as Les Thibaults (1922-1940). The first six novels were published in English as The Thibaults and the last two novels as Summer 1914. The novels portray the moral and social issues faced by the French middle class from about 1900 to the end of World War I in 1918. The cycle reflects the author’s objective, detailed, and realistic style.
Martin du Gard was born on March 23, 1881, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. He first gained notice with his novel Jean Barois (1913), the story of a man torn between the religious faith of his youth and the materialism of his adult years. Martin du Gard wrote the drama A Silent Man (1931) and two farces about French peasant life, Old Leleu’s Will (1914) and The Swelling (completed in 1924, published in 1928). His novel The Postman (1933) also describes French country life. He died on Aug. 22, 1958.
