Trente mille jours

The last book published in Maurice Genevoix’s lifetime, Trente mille jours is a masterpiece of memory, lucidity and transmission. Genevoix retraces the “thirty thousand days” of his life, from his childhood on the Loire in Decize and Châteauneuf-sur-Loire to his appointment as perpetual secretary of the Académie française, passing through the ordeal of the Great War. A rare sincerity and authenticity, combined with a prodigious memory, make his work an exemplary companion for life.

On 20 June 1980, he was the exceptional guest on Apostrophes, where Bernard Pivot questioned him about this book. The war, of course, but also the question of language, of that gift, that charm, that fluidity attributed to him: “That may be true, but at the root of it there is patience. Patience. Curiosity, but also patience. Man always has less patience than animals, but one must have a patience comparable to theirs; if you take the time, you achieve extraordinary things.”

This intellectual and sensitive autobiography is the literary testament of a man who remained true to himself, faithful to his values, to his dead, to nature and to writing. While a long and moving passage is devoted to the genesis and afterlife of Raboliot, the novel that transformed his destiny, the text is constantly marked by the war narratives and by the weight of memory.

The author’s own testimonial copy.

From the library of Maurice Genevoix, at “Les Vernelles,” with bookplate.