Abel Hermant

Yet another right-wing gay French intellectual who got done for collaborationism, Abel Hermant was indeed an early (1885) contributor to the classic French gay Catholic boarding school genre. Having been a respected member of the Académie française, he was unceremoniously chucked out after the Second World War for having been pro-Nazi.

According to Wikipedia,

Hermant was born in Paris, the son of an architect. He received a degree from the École Normale Supérieure in 1880, and published his first volume of verse in 1883, The Contempt. After several youthful novels, he moved to ironic analysis of the popular mores of the Belle Époque and achieved popular success. His first semi-autobiographical novel, Monsieur Rabossonof 1884, established his reputation as a satirical social observer. Its follow-up Le Cavalier Miserey of 1887, dealt with the issue of homosexuals in the military.

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By 1899 Hermant was well-connected in society; for instance he was the guest of Anna de Noailles at Évian-les-Bains, where he became friends with Marcel Proust. After a number of tries Hermant was elected to the Académie française on 30 June 1927.

During World War II Hermant's contributions to Jean Luchaire's pro-Nazi evening daily Les Nouveaux Temps, beginning in 1940, his open support of the Vichy regime, and his criticisms of the French Army, marked him as a collaborator. At over 80 years of age, he was sentenced to life in prison on 15 December 1945. Hermant achieved the negative distinction of being one of the four "immortals" removed from the Académie française after World War II for collaboration with Germany. Hermant and Abel Bonnard were expelled outright, in disgrace; Charles Maurras of Action Française and Marshall Philippe Pétain had their seats declared vacant and were not replaced until their deaths.

Pardoned and released in 1948, Abel Hermant tried to justify his conduct during the Occupation in his Thirteenth Notebook. He died shortly thereafter.

Hermant's early work La Mission de Cruchod (Jean-Baptiste) was republished two years ago with a new title and (mysteriously!) a picture of St Dominic Savio on the cover. (Don't ask me why, but do the Google search. Perhaps they just didn't know who he was!)

According to the current publisher's blurb, the story is about George, a beautiful blond fourteen-year-old American boy who, having been enrolled by his parents in a French boarding school in Lausanne, becomes the object of "particular friendship" of another boy, Jean-Baptiste, who is three years his senior. The protestant Jean-Baptiste falls in love with the younger boy at first sight, but, having once tried (and failed) to make love to him, then embarks on a new mission to convert the Catholic George to Calvinism - a "holy" cause which subsequently develops into a darkly possessive, jealous and despotic relationship.