Literature

Beyond the Book of Saints

The Bible and Book of Saints’ Lives constituted the library in most Breton homes in past times and just fragments of literature in Breton have come down the centuries to us. After the Revolution, St-Malo-born writer Chateaubriand caused a stir with his Romantic whirlwind and while outsiders were inspired to write about Brittany, much of the most moving regional literature has come from native writers.

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Brittany by the book 

Chateaubriand, with his gushingly brilliant style, penned an epic autobiography featuring his childhood in Brittany while Balzac and Hugo created torrid tales of the anti-Revolutionary Breton uprising, the Chouannerie. Flaubert later wrote entertainingly of his travels around backwards Brittany while his contemporary, naval officer Pierre Loti, got much more under the Breton skin with his moving fiction. A line of modern authors have also focused on Breton themes, such as Henri and Yann Queffélec, Michel Le Bris, Nathalie Le Broc and Eric Orsenna.

Tough autobiography  

Jean-Marie Déguignet, born into poverty in 19th-century Finistère, learned to read and write, and left a heart-rending account of the ups and downs of his life. In the 20th century, Pierre Jakez Hélias first wrote a study of his native Pays Bigouden in Breton and then in French; Le Cheval d’Orgueil or The Horse of Pride, became a huge bestseller. Firebrand Xavier Grall hit back at what he saw as Hélias’s sentimentality.

Literary pilgrimages 

French literary types are drawn to Chateaubriand’s childhood home, the eerie Château de Combourg, and his tomb on an island at St-Malo, as well as to Madame de Sévigné’s Château des Rochers. Further Breton writers honoured with a little museum include the anti-Catholic Ernest Renan in Tréguier and Hélias at Pouldreuzic. St-Malo hosts the most famous literary festival in Brittany, Etonnants Voyageurs, on travel writing. Inland, bibliophiles head for lovely bookish Bécherel.

Did you know ?

American Beat writer Jack Kerouac followed the road to Brittany to discover his regional roots in Huelgoat.