Scott et Zelda Fitzgerald

Abstract

André Le Vot launched Fitzgerald studies in France with his doctoral thesis in 1972, followed by his biography and the detailed study of The Great Gatsby he co-authored with Bernard Poli, both published in 1979. Since then, inspired by his research, several French students have endeavored to shed light on the novelist's prose in their MA and PhD dissertations, some of them later becoming Fitzgerald scholars and university professors. In France, however, interest in the Fitzgeralds' life and works has always extended far beyond the academic sphere, as shown lately by the very successful “Escale Gatsby,” a one-day guided tour and symposium organized in St. Raphaël on 14 September 2019 by the local museum and cultural center (more on this in the next issue of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society Newsletter). Aside from the couple's works, available in various French translations, most prominently in the prestigious Pléiade collection of Fitzgerald's work issued by Gallimard in 2012 (Fitzgerald, Romans), the Fitzgeralds had such a dramatic life that the French book market has regularly seen new biographies, essays, and translations of their letters, articles, and even his Notebooks (known in France simply as Carnets). Publishers have seemed always ready to capitalize on the interest of French readers.Writers, translators, and journalists have often delved into Fitzgerald material, and, thanks to the reputations of the authors of the material, publishers have frequently targeted a wider readership than academic circles. Journalist Roger Grenier published Trois heures du matin: Scott Fitzgerald in 1995; translator Jacques Tournier devoted an essay to Zelda in 2008; Agnès Michaux published her Zelda “novel” in 2006; and Goncourt Prize–winner Gilles Leroy produced Alabama Song in 2007. In 2013, Liliane Kerjan offered Fitzgerald, le désenchanté, the first comprehensive biography since Le Vot's. While Kerjan is an American literature scholar and academic, although not a Fitzgerald specialist, the latest paperback biography published this year, Scott et Zelda Fitzgerald, comes from Stéphane Maltère, who teaches French literature and is a specialist in the life and works of novelist and traveler Pierre Benoit (1886–1962). Maltère has written articles and books on Benoit, including La Grande guerre de Pierre Benoit, for which he received the Pierre Benoit Prize from the Académie française. A prolific writer, Maltère has also edited literary classics for high school pupils and published two other titles in the Folio Biographies series, Madame de Sévigné and George Orwell.Maltère's volume is divided into twelve chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue, and it ends with a chronology, a bibliography, and notes. It also includes eight colored pages with photographs, paintings, and book and magazine covers related to the Fitzgeralds. From the start, it is obvious that Maltère has an excellent writing style—his prize from the rigorous Académie française would have been enough to suggest this—but it is also clear that he is a biography specialist who knows where to find his information and organize his writing project efficiently. Although he is a French literature scholar, he seems to have familiarized himself with the necessary and latest biographical and critical works on the Fitzgeralds, in French and in English. The modern media have even been relied upon, as he has consulted the Princeton University and University of South Carolina online archives. The seriousness of his biographical research is immediately noticeable in his bibliography and in the references in his endnotes, although entries for the Russian site of Fitzgerald's works by Anton Rudnev, which is not bound by copyright restrictions (Rudnev), and the www.scottandzelda.com site operated by the Fitzgerald estate (Estate of F. Scott Fitzgerald) are more surprising. One wonders how a Pierre Benoit specialist could have done such thorough research on a topic beyond his usual field of interest. The only answer I have found is that it might be the biographer's expertise at work. From Madame de Sévigné to George Orwell, there was perhaps just one step to the Fitzgeralds and their eventful life for a scholar accustomed to browsing paper and electronic primary and secondary sources, whether in French or in English, and evaluating a writer's life—and I emphasize the word “life” here because this is a detailed presentation of the Fitzgeralds' lives rather than a critical assessment of the works. Although the reactions of the press, readers, friends, and writers of the time to Fitzgerald's major works are mentioned, Maltère does not dwell on the novels and short stories themselves, which is a sign that he is a biographer, not a specialist in the Fitzgeralds' fiction.Thus, the familiar chronology—the fabled rise and fall from youth, money, and glamour—is present in terms of life events, correspondence, and critical reception. Absent is intimate knowledge and analysis of the texts. This was an approach that Le Vot mastered so well, relating the life to the works based on many years spent studying the novels and short stories and giving his 1979 biography a flavor that has never been equaled in French scholarship and criticism since 1979. Nevertheless, Maltère's work remains an excellent resource: well-documented, up-to-date, and elegantly written. It will satisfy the never-ending French interest in the Fitzgeralds' lives, but also the more serious academic search for well-organized and detailed information about them.