Goncourt brothers

For the village and commune, see Goncourt, Haute-Marne.

Edmond (left) with his brother Jules. Photographed by Félix Nadar

The Goncourt brothers (pronounced [gɔ̃kuːʁ]) were Edmond de Goncourt ([ɛdmɔ̃], 1822–96) and Jules de Goncourt ([ʒil], 1830–70), both French naturalist writers. They formed a partnership that "is possibly unique in literary history. Not only did they write all their books together, they did not spend more than a day apart in their adult lives, until they were finally parted by Jules's death in 1870."^[1] They are known for their literary work and for their diaries, which offer a intimate view into the French literary society of the later nineteenth century.

Their career as writers began with an account of a sketching holiday together. They published books on aspects of 18th-century French art and society (e.g., Portraits intimes du XVIII siecle), dismissing the vulgarity of the Second Empire in favour of a more refined age. They wrote the long Journal des Goncourt from 1851, which gives an interesting,^{[says who?]} at times spiteful view of the literary and social life of their time. They also published six novels, of which Germinie Lacerteux, 1865, was the fourth. It is based on the true case of their own maidservant, Rose Malingre, whose double life they had never suspected. Though their emphasis on pathological cases occasionally trumped their psychological delicacy, their impressionist style nonetheless had an intense and original precision.^{[says who?]}

Edmond de Goncourt bequeathed his entire estate for the foundation and maintenance of the académie Goncourt. Since 1903, the académie has awarded the Prix Goncourt, probably the most important literary prize in French literature.

The first-ever English-language version of Manette Salomon, translated by Tina Kover, will be published in the spring of 2012 by Hol Art Books.

Works

Novels

• Germinie Lacerteux (1865)
• Manette Salomon (1867)
• Madame Gervaisais (1869)

Other

• Journal des Goncourt, 1851-1896
• French Eighteenth Century Painters, 1859-1875

Notes

1. ^ Kirsch (2006)

References

• Kirsch, Adam "Masters of indiscretion" in The New York Sun August 29, 2006