Henri Barbusse had known the fire of the trenches from as early as 1915, first as a soldier, then as a stretcher-bearer. Writing largely from military hospitals, Barbusse recounts, in twenty-four chapters, his daily life at the front: “[…] appalling, unnatural exhaustion, water up to the belly, the mud, the stench and the vile filth, floating on the voracious earth,” drawing on the war notebook in which he had recorded his experiences.
The novel was ready by the very end of summer, and the idea of the Prix Goncourt was already taking shape among his publishers even before the contract was signed. The first chapters began appearing as a serial in the daily L’Œuvre on 3 August: the Fischer brothers, literary directors at Flammarion, sensed a good opportunity and approached the author to buy the rights to Le Feu. On 26 October, on the eve of a preparatory meeting of the Académie, they wrote to him:
“We spoke of the possibility we foresee regarding the Goncourt. Certain conversations we have had these past days, particularly with Paul Margueritte, lead us to believe we were not entirely mistaken. But we would need to move remarkably fast.”
Barbusse hesitated, being bound to other publishers, but the prospect of the Goncourt decided him. A week later, the contract was signed — six days before the end of the serial publication (93 installments). On 15 November, the text went to press and appeared, just in time, from Flammarion in early December.
Barbusse won the Prix Goncourt on the first ballot, on 15 December, with eight votes, without those of Léon Daudet or Élémir Bourges, as he had anticipated.
He was elected even though Maurice Genevoix’s Sous Verdun, published a few months earlier, had been considered the favorite. Two novels, two styles, and two ways of approaching a conflict that, until then, had only been treated in propaganda works, or at least in works not written by direct witnesses, still less by front-line soldiers.
Jean Norton Cru, Témoins, pp. 555–565; Talvart, I, 239, “there exist copies of the first edition printed on glazed paper, before the award of the Prix Goncourt. The other copies of the first edition are printed on lower-quality paper.”