Prix Goncourt

The Prix Goncourt was established by Edmond Louis Antoine de Goncourt (1822-96). Edmond bequeathed his entire estate for the foundation and maintenance of the Académie Goncourt, the association which awards the Goncourt Prize, in honor of his brother, Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt (1830-70). The brothers were literary collaborators. Prix Goncourt Winners

The Goncourt Prize for French Fiction

The Goncourt Writings

Edmond was born May 26, 1822, in Nancy; Jules, December 17, 1830, in Paris. Both were educated in Paris. Their mother extracted from them a promise that they would spend their lives in the closest association. Reputedly, they carried out this promise so faithfully that they were never apart, except for a single 24-hour period. Jules died June 20, 1870, in Anteuil; Edmond died 26 years later on July 16, 1896, in Champrosay.

The Goncourts were financially independent and thus were able to devote themselves to art for a brief period and subsequently to literature. The first results of their literary collaboration were a series of historical works, including Histoire de la société française pendant la révolution (History of French Society During the Revolution, 1854) and Portraits intimes du XVIIIe siècle (Intimate Portraits of the 18th Century, 2 volumes, 1857-58). Concerning themselves exclusively with the 18th century, they sought to present history not as the relation of great events, but in a new way, as an analysis of society derived from the study of intimate, unpublished documents, social customs, popular music, costumes, and other details. Their approach to art criticism, as displayed in L'art du XVIIIe siècle (The Art of the 18th Century, 3 volumes, 1859-75), was the same: an intimate study of the personal lives of the artists.

Similarly, the outstanding characteristic of the novels written by the Goncourts is a painstaking presentation of the details of physical reality, with the aim of explaining the emotional lives of the characters in terms of their reactions to reality. Their fiction includes Renée Mauperin (1864; trans. 1902), Germinie Lacerteux (1864; trans. 1891), and Madame Gervaisais (1869); these deal largely with pathological cases. The novels written by Edmond after the death of Jules closely resemble in style those written jointly.

In 1851 the Goncourts began a diary, Le journal des Goncourts, continued by Edmond until shortly before his death. Full of gossip, anecdotes, and scathing judgments of artists, writers, and society figures, it was published in part in 9 volumes between 1887 and 1896. The entire work was published in 22 volumes between 1956 and 1958; English translations of selections appeared in 1937 and 1962.

Edmond bequeathed his entire estate for the foundation and maintenance of the Académie Goncourt, an association that annually awards a monetary prize, the prestigious Prix Goncourt, for French fiction.