André Malraux (1901-1976) was a French writer, essayist, adventurer and statesman, author notably of La Condition humaine, La Voie royale and L’Espoir. A major figure of twentieth-century French literature, he received the Prix Goncourt in 1933 for La Condition humaine.
Born in Paris, Malraux was largely self-taught, frequenting bookshops, museums and artistic circles from an early age. His travels in Asia during the 1920s played a decisive role in his work. His experience in Indochina notably informed La Voie royale, published in 1930, while revolutionary China provided the material for Les Conquérants and later La Condition humaine, devoted to the events in Shanghai in 1927.
Published in 1933, La Condition humaine remains his most famous novel. Through several destinies confronted with revolution, violence and death, Malraux develops a reflection on commitment, brotherhood and man's capacity to give meaning to his existence.
In the 1930s, he joined the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War. This experience inspired L’Espoir, published in 1937. During the Second World War, he joined the Resistance and commanded the Alsace-Lorraine brigade before drawing closer to General de Gaulle.
After the war, Malraux also devoted an essential part of his work to art, notably with Les Voix du silence and his reflection on the “imaginary museum,” according to which the reproduction of works profoundly transforms the way we perceive the history of art.
From 1959 to 1969, he served as Minister of State for Cultural Affairs under the presidency of Charles de Gaulle and played a founding role in the cultural policy of the Fifth Republic.
André Malraux died in 1976. A novelist of action, a thinker on art and a witness to the upheavals of his century, he left behind a body of work deeply marked by the question of human destiny in the face of history.
