Force ennemie

The novel won the first Prix Goncourt almost eleven months later, on 21 December 1903, thanks to the promotional efforts of Félix Fénéon — who worked at La Revue blanche — on behalf of an author living in the south of France and largely unknown in Parisian literary circles. Despite his efforts, Eugène Léon Édouard Torquet — John-Antoine Nau’s real name — never obtained French nationality. This makes him not only the first, historic laureate of the Prix Goncourt, but also, in effect, the first winner who was not a French national. American by birth — he was born in San Francisco in 1860 — John-Antoine Nau had until then published only a few short stories in La Revue blanche and a slim volume of verse at his own expense. It was therefore the book of a complete unknown that circulated among the jury members and eventually won by six votes to four; the prize was collected by his brother, as Nau himself was in Saint-Tropez, where he resided.