{ "id": "epg40be18v", "slug": "paul-vialar", "title": "Paul Vialar", "updated": "2026-11-11", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.literature", "label": "Literature and written works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.literature" }, { "id": "culture.literature.people", "label": "Writers and literary biographies", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.literature.people" }, { "id": "culture.literature.people.people-novelists", "label": "Fiction writers: novelists and genre", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.literature.people.people-novelists" }, { "id": "culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists", "label": "Continental European literary novelists", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists" }, { "id": "culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists.early-20th-century-novelists", "label": "Early 20th-century novelists", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists.early-20th-century-novelists" }, { "id": "culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists.early-20th-century-novelists.french-novelists", "label": "French novelists", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists.early-20th-century-novelists.french-novelists" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists.early-20th-century-novelists", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Early 20th-century novelists", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists.early-20th-century-novelists", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature", "label": "Literature and written works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature.people", "label": "Writers and literary biographies", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature.people" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature.people.people-novelists", "label": "Fiction writers: novelists and genre", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature.people.people-novelists" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists", "label": "Continental European literary novelists", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists.early-20th-century-novelists", "label": "Early 20th-century novelists", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists.early-20th-century-novelists" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Paul Vialar (1898–1996) was a French novelist and short-story writer, author of roughly eighty works, best known for the hunting novel La Grande Meute (1943).", "snippet": "Paul Vialar (1898–1996) was a French novelist and short-story writer, author of roughly eighty works, best known for the hunting novel La Grande Meute (1943).", "node": "culture.literature.people.people-novelists.continental-european-literary-novelists.early-20th-century-novelists.french-novelists", "markdown": "# Paul Vialar\n\n**Paul Vialar** (Paul Marie Ernest Vialar; 18 September 1898, Saint-Denis – January 1996, Vaucresson) was a French novelist and short-story writer, author of roughly eighty works, best known for the hunting novel *La Grande Meute* (1943) and for three multi-volume novel cycles published between 1946 and 1961. He won the [Prix Femina](https://www.edgepedia.org/prix-femina) in 1939 for *La Rose de la mer* and the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris in 1948 for the cycle *La Mort est un commencement*; *La Grande Meute* did not win the 1943 [Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française](https://www.edgepedia.org/grand-prix-du-roman-de-lacademie-francaise), which went to Maxence Van der Meersch's *Corps et âmes* while Vialar's book was excluded.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Paul_Vialar/148737) • [3](https://caisse-a-lire.com/wp/2025/05/31/paul-vialar/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Life dates | Born 18 September 1898 in Saint-Denis; died in Vaucresson in January 1996 (6 January per one biographical notice, 8 January per SACEM and the Library of Congress)[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [4](https://musee.sacem.fr/index.php/Detail/entities/5641) • [5](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50014222.html) |\n| Breakthrough | *La Rose de la mer*, Prix Femina 1939, on a third ballot, 11 votes against 5 for Daniel-Rops's *L'Épée de feu*[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) |\n| Best-known novel | *La Grande Meute* (February 1943), 30,000 copies by October 1943; still in print in Gallimard's Folio collection[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [6](https://www.gallimard.fr/catalogue/la-grande-meute/9782070360451) |\n| Three cycles | *La Mort est un commencement* (8 volumes, 1946–1951), *La Chasse aux hommes* (10 volumes, 1952–1953), *Chronique française du XXe siècle* (10 volumes, 1955–1961)[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Paul_Vialar/148737) |\n| Prizes | Prix Femina 1939; Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris 1948; the 1943 Académie grand prix went to Van der Meersch, not Vialar[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [3](https://caisse-a-lire.com/wp/2025/05/31/paul-vialar/) |\n| Output and screen | Nearly 80 works; at least sixteen film or television adaptations between 1932 and 1975[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [3](https://caisse-a-lire.com/wp/2025/05/31/paul-vialar/) |\n| Institutions | President of the Société des gens de lettres (1952–1955), of the SNAC, and of the International Writers Guild (1969); commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) |\n\n## Life and career\n\nVialar was born at 4 rue de Paris in Saint-Denis-sur-Seine on 18 September 1898.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) His father, Pierre Marie Eugène Vialar, a distiller born in Gaillac (Tarn) in 1845, died in 1904; his mother, Geneviève Nabielak, died in January 1911, leaving him orphaned at twelve, an abandonment he later transposed into his fiction.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) His maternal grandfather, Ludwik Nabielak (1804–1883), had taken part in the November 1830 Polish revolution as one of the \"Belvédériens.\"[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php)\n\n**Guardian and hunting.** The industrialist Gaston Poulenc, founder of Rhône-Poulenc, served as his subrogé tuteur (substitute guardian) and introduced him to hunting, giving him his first gun; the pastime became a lifelong subject.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) He studied at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris and then in England.[7](https://pares.cultura.gob.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/autoridad/270306)\n\n**War and formation.** In 1916 he enlisted in the Corps Francs and served in the Orient, in Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria, until 1919, receiving the Croix de guerre.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [7](https://pares.cultura.gob.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/autoridad/270306) He graduated from HEC in 1921 and the same year published his first poetry collection, *Le Cœur et la boue*; he later said the war supplied the central theme of many of his works.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php)\n\nHe died at his home in Vaucresson in January 1996. The biographical notice on thyssens.com gives 6 January; SACEM and the Library of Congress authority record, citing the [British Library](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-library) database, give 8 January.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [4](https://musee.sacem.fr/index.php/Detail/entities/5641) • [5](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50014222.html)\n\n## Major works\n\nLarousse classifies his output as comedies (*L'Âge de raison*, 1924), novels, and three great novel cycles: *La Mort est un commencement* (8 volumes, 1946–1951), *La Chasse aux hommes* (10 volumes, 1952–1953), and *Chronique française du XXe siècle* (10 volumes, 1955–1961).[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Paul_Vialar/148737) The first cycle appeared at the Domat publishing house of Jeanne Loviton.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php)\n\n**La Grande Meute.** Published in February 1943, the novel follows a grande société de chasse à courre in a changing rural world and is regarded by many as a monumental fresco of French vénerie, mixing human drama, social tensions, and sumptuous description.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [8](https://www.chassepassion.net/dossier-chasse/periscope/paul-vialar-lecrivain-chasseur-qui-a-eleve-la-venerie-au-rang-de-litterature) It sold quickly: the first printing was exhausted before 15 May 1943, and a new printing brought the total to 30,000 copies by October.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) Vialar drew the material from the Folembray equipage, whose master is the barely veiled double of the novel's character Lambrefault, hunting in the interwar years in the forest of Saint-Gohain in the Aisne.[9](https://www.livresenfamille.fr/romans-francais-et-etrangers/14699-la-grande-meute.html)\n\nOther notable titles include *La Rose de la mer* (1939), *Le Temps des imposteurs* (1960), and *L'Homme du fleuve* (1981).[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Paul_Vialar/148737)\n\n## Themes and style\n\nThree preoccupations run through the novels: the modernization of the countryside, the end of a certain social order, and the rise of a utilitarian relation to nature, against which Vialar sets a humanist vision of hunting as one of the last tangible links between man and nature.[8](https://www.chassepassion.net/dossier-chasse/periscope/paul-vialar-lecrivain-chasseur-qui-a-eleve-la-venerie-au-rang-de-litterature) War is the other central theme, one he said came directly from his own service in the Orient.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) His style is described as clear and precise, often poetic, with a sincere love of nature.[8](https://www.chassepassion.net/dossier-chasse/periscope/paul-vialar-lecrivain-chasseur-qui-a-eleve-la-venerie-au-rang-de-litterature)\n\n## Prizes, controversies, and institutions\n\n**Prix Femina 1939.** Three ballots were needed before *La Rose de la mer* carried the prize; in the final round it took eleven votes against five for Daniel-Rops's *L'Épée de feu*.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php)\n\n**The 1943 Académie episode.** *La Grande Meute* did not win the 1943 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, which went in June to Maxence Van der Meersch's *Corps et âmes*; the Goncourt that year (awarded 21 March 1944) went to Marius Grout. Denoël, Vialar's publisher, reported that the book was excluded \"because of the Franco-German pages,\" and blamed the political opinions of Duhamel and Mauriac.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) His documented prizes are the Femina (1939) and the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris (1948), the latter for *La Mort est un commencement*.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [3](https://caisse-a-lire.com/wp/2025/05/31/paul-vialar/)\n\n**Institutional roles.** He was president of the [Société des gens de lettres](https://www.edgepedia.org/societe-des-gens-de-lettres) from 1952 to 1955, of the syndicat de la Société des auteurs et compositeurs (SNAC) from the 1960s to 1974, and of the Société des écrivains sportifs; in 1969 he led the International Writers Guild, and from 1974 he sat on the Conseil supérieur des Lettres. He ended as a commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php)\n\n## Adaptations and afterlife in print\n\nAt least sixteen of his works were adapted for film or television between 1932 and 1975: *La Grande Meute* (Jean de Limur, 1945), *La Rose de la mer* (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1946), *La Maison sous la mer* (Henri Calef, 1947), *On n'aime qu'une fois* (Jean Stelli, 1949), *Le Bon Dieu sans confession* (Claude Autant-Lara, 1953), *Le Petit Garçon de l'ascenseur* (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1962), and the 1975 television series *La Chasse aux hommes* and *Les Zingari*, among others. He also wrote dialogue and adaptations for films from *Le Soir des rois* (1932) to *La Chèvre d'or* (1943), and he is described as a pioneer of television.[1](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php) • [3](https://caisse-a-lire.com/wp/2025/05/31/paul-vialar/)\n\n*La Grande Meute* remains available: Gallimard lists it in the Folio collection (no. 45), 448 pages, in an edition dated 25 February 1972, and a reissue has appeared from Montbel.[6](https://www.gallimard.fr/catalogue/la-grande-meute/9782070360451) • [9](https://www.livresenfamille.fr/romans-francais-et-etrangers/14699-la-grande-meute.html)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Notices biographiques – Vialar Paul, thyssens.com](http://www.thyssens.com/03notices-bio/vialar_p.php)\n2. [Paul Vialar, Larousse encyclopedia](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Paul_Vialar/148737)\n3. [Paul VIALAR, Caisse à lire, 31 May 2025](https://caisse-a-lire.com/wp/2025/05/31/paul-vialar/)\n4. [Musée SACEM: Paul Vialar](https://musee.sacem.fr/index.php/Detail/entities/5641)\n5. [Vialar, Paul, 1898-1996, Library of Congress authority record](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50014222.html)\n6. [La Grande meute, Gallimard (Folio no. 45)](https://www.gallimard.fr/catalogue/la-grande-meute/9782070360451)\n7. [PARES Spanish Archives authority record, Paul Vialar](https://pares.cultura.gob.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/autoridad/270306)\n8. [Paul Vialar: l'écrivain chasseur qui a élevé la vénerie au rang de littérature, Chasse Passion](https://www.chassepassion.net/dossier-chasse/periscope/paul-vialar-lecrivain-chasseur-qui-a-eleve-la-venerie-au-rang-de-litterature)\n9. [La grande meute, Montbel edition, livresenfamille.fr](https://www.livresenfamille.fr/romans-francais-et-etrangers/14699-la-grande-meute.html)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Writers and literary biographies › Fiction writers: novelists and genre › Continental European literary novelists › Early 20th-century novelists › French novelists*\n\n*Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Nov 11, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-vialar", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-vialar.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Paul Vialar\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-vialar. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Paul Vialar](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-vialar)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-vialar](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-vialar). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Paul Vialar\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-vialar. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Paul Vialar was a French novelist and short-story writer, author of roughly eighty works, best known for the hunting novel La Grande Meute." }