Bernanos, Georges

Bernanos, Georges (1888-1948), French writer. As a novelist he advocated the pursuit of spiritual rather than material goals and explored the struggle for the human soul between the forces of good and evil. His devotion to Roman Catholicism and his mysticism show clearly in Journal d'un curé de campagne (1936; Diary of a Country Priest, 1937), the story of a young priest's struggle against sin. It was made into a film in 1951 by the director Robert Bresson. His film script The Carmelites (1949; trans. 1961) was the basis for a successful opera, Dialogues des Carmélites (1957), by Francis Poulenc. In Les Grands Cimetières sous la lune (1938; A Diary of My Times, 1938), he attacked the Fascist outrages of the Spanish Civil War.

Other notable works are Sous le Soleil de Satan (1926; The Star of Satan, 1939; Under the Sun of Satan, 1949), La Joie (1929; Joy, 1946), Nouvelle Histoire de Mouchette (1937; Mouchette, 1966), and Monsieur Ouine (1943; The Open Mind, 1945).