Faux passeports

A poet, political activist, lawyer and journalist, Charles Plisnier (1896–1952) was the first Belgian writer to win France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. More than that, he was the first foreigner of any nationality to be honored by the Académie. In this respect, he seems to have weathered the decades rather better than several of his fellow laureates.

Faux passeports is a collection of short stories, which won the prize against Georges Simenon’s Le Testament Donadieu. Two Belgians in the final round was quite a novelty. In fact, Plisnier had already been shortlisted the previous year, but had been denied the prize because of his nationality, even though his novel Mariages had been hailed by critics as the work of a “new Balzac.” It seemed predetermined that the 1937 prize would go to a francophone writer, but not a French one. The subtitle of Faux passeports, Les Mémoires d’un agitateur, thus takes on more meaning than was perhaps intended, since this award overturned the geographical boundaries of the Goncourt.

Since then, eleven other foreign writers have received the same honor: two more Belgians (Francis Walder, 1958; François Weyergans, 2005); two Moroccans (Tahar Ben Jelloun, 1987; Leïla Slimani, 2016); a Swiss (Jacques Chessex, 1973); a Canadian (Antonine Maillet, 1979); a Lebanese (Amin Maalouf, 1993); a Russian (Andreï Makine, 1995); an American (Jonathan Littell, 2006); an Afghan (Atiq Rahimi, 2008); and a Senegalese (Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, 2021).

Thanks to this success, Plisnier became a member of the Académie de langue et de littérature françaises, the Belgian equivalent of the Académie française. Once he had won the prize, Plisnier gave up the bar to devote himself to Meurtres, a five-volume saga. The series was adapted for film in 1949, with an unusual cast pairing Jeanne Moreau and Fernandel.

Alongside his literary career, Plisnier was also a committed activist. Involved from 1945 in the Walloon federalist movement, he presided over the Union fédéraliste des minorités et régions européennes and was an early advocate for European unity. He was one of the few Goncourt laureates to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1952, the year it was awarded to François Mauriac).

From the library of Gustave J. Nellens (bookplate).