La Nouvelle Revue Française

La Nouvelle Revue Française
Title	La Nouvelle Revue Française
Discipline	Literature
Language	French
Country	France
Publisher	Éditions Gallimard
Firstdate	1909
Frequency	Bimonthly (historically monthly)

La Nouvelle Revue Française is a French literary review founded in 1909 that became a central organ of twentieth‑century Franco‑European letters. Launched by figures associated with Éditions Gallimard, it served as a forum for prose, poetry, criticism, and manifestos that linked authors, intellectuals, and cultural institutions across Paris, Marseille, London, New York, and Geneva. Over successive decades the review published texts that engaged with movements and personalities from Symbolism and Futurism to Surrealism, Existentialism, and the postwar avant‑garde.

History

The review was established in 1909 amid literary ferment involving founders who had relations with Mercure de France, Société des gens de lettres, and publishing networks in Paris and Montparnasse. Early contributors included figures connected to Paul Valéry, Marcel Proust, André Gide, Romain Rolland, and networks around Symbolism and Dreyfus Affair sympathizers. During the 1920s and 1930s the review intersected with writers active in Montparnasse, Montmartre, and publishing houses like Grasset and Plon, attracting submissions from authors associated with Saint‑Beuve‑influenced criticism, Impressionism‑era poets, and new voices such as Jean Paulhan and Saint‑John Perse. The wartime period overlapped with institutions such as Vichy France and international currents linking Berlin, Rome, and Madrid; editorial choices reflected tensions found in the aftermath of the First World War and during the Second World War. Post‑1945, the review participated in debates involving Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Maurice Merleau‑Ponty, and younger writers tied to Les Temps modernes and Tel Quel, while maintaining ties to major publishing houses including Éditions Gallimard and Éditions Grasset.

Editorial Line and Contributors

The review cultivated an editorial line that combined conservative and avant‑garde tendencies, drawing contributors from clusters around André Gide, Paul Valéry, Marcel Proust, Anatole France, and later André Breton, Louis Aragon, and Paul Éluard. Editors and regular collaborators included editors linked to Jean Paulhan, Valéry Larbaud, Gaston Gallimard, and critics associated with Georges Bataille and Roland Barthes. The pages also featured translations and essays by figures who worked across languages and institutions: T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Federico García Lorca, and Jorge Luis Borges. Novelists and poets published in the review ranged from Louis‑Ferdinand Céline, André Gide, Françoise Sagan, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Giraudoux, Gustave Flaubert‑related scholarship, to later contributors such as Marguerite Yourcenar, Samuel Beckett, Michel Houellebecq, Patrick Modiano, and Annie Ernaux.

Publication and Format

Originally a monthly illustrated review produced in Paris, the publication experimented with formats typical of early twentieth‑century periodicals that included essays, serialized novels, poetry sections, reviews, and visual art reproductions linked to Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Georges Braque. The review's pagination and typographic choices reflected influences from Gutenberg‑era standards updated through collaborations with printers and designers operating in Île‑de‑France and distribution channels reaching Lyon, Marseille, and international bookstores in London, New York, and Buenos Aires. Over time the frequency shifted in response to market and political pressures; special issues and collected editions connected to publishing houses such as Éditions Gallimard and series overseen by literary committees appeared alongside separate monographs on figures like Paul Valéry and Marcel Proust. Indexes and bibliographies printed in the review corresponded with academic networks at institutions including Sorbonne University and the Collège de France.

Influence and Reception

The review exerted major cultural influence through its role in launching careers and shaping reputations—impact felt in salons and institutions such as Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots, Académie française, and the publishing world around Gallimard. Critical reception ranged from praise in progressive circles connected to Les Temps modernes and La Nouvelle Revue Française‑adjacent critics to polemics from conservatives associated with Action Française and debates in periodicals like Le Figaro and Le Monde. The review's decisions affected prizes and recognitions such as the Prix Goncourt, Prix Renaudot, Nobel Prize in Literature, and national cultural appointments. Internationally, review essays influenced translators and critics engaged with Cambridge, Columbia University, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford.

Controversies and Censorship

Editorial choices provoked controversy through episodes involving political collaboration, censorship, and accusations of ideological alignment during crises such as the Dreyfus Affair‑era disputes and the Second World War occupation. Debates about contributors' stances evoked responses from institutions including Vichy France, Free French Forces, and postwar tribunals assessing cultural collaboration. Legal and market pressures from entities like Ministère de la Culture and commercial rivals led to occasional suppression of pieces and contested print runs; censorship networks extended to distribution channels in German Empire‑era successor states and occupied territories. Controversies also followed the review into late twentieth‑century debates over representation and postcolonial critiques involving figures linked to Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, and the policy debates surrounding Décolonisation.

Legacy and Modern Revival

The review's legacy is visible in the continuity of French literary institutions, imprint strategies of Gallimard, and the careers of writers promoted within its pages who went on to win the Prix Goncourt, Nobel Prize in Literature, and other international awards. Renewed interest in archival issues, digitization projects undertaken by university libraries such as Bibliothèque nationale de France, and retrospective exhibitions at cultural centers including Centre Pompidou and the Musée d'Orsay prompted a modern revival of critical study. Contemporary iterations and special editions have sought dialogue with postwar and postmodern movements linked to Tel Quel, Nouvelle Vague, and postcolonial literatures involving authors from Algeria, Vietnam, Senegal, and diasporic circles in Montreal and Brussels. The review remains a subject of scholarship across departments at Université Paris‑Sorbonne, Université de Genève, Columbia University, and research centers funded by the CNRS.

Category:French literary magazines