“Maurice Druon is my hero and The Cursed Kings Is at the origin of Game Of Thrones“: by stating this ten years ago, George RR Martin – whose books inspired the successful series – had given a boost to the posterity of “the best French historical novelist since Alexandre Dumas”, who is often reduced to image of a grumpy, dusty academician. This month, it is Dominique Bona who is working on his rehabilitation. In his new book, Supportersshe crosses the destinies of Joseph Kessel and Druon, two extraordinary writers united by family ties – the first was the uncle of the second.
If Dominique Bona venerates the author of Ridersshe seems singularly amused by that of the cursed kingsas she confirms to us in person: “He was Minister of Cultural Affairs under Pompidou, and later Permanent Secretary of the French Academy. With his hats, his capes, his monocle and his cigar, he was close caricature. He had a flamboyant verb, a little too much, one had the impression of hearing Sacha Guitry speak. He relished provocation, he added it to irritate a cultural environment he did not like. This must not not make us forget the very inventive writer that he was also…”
“It’s Michel Houellebecq with half a century in advance”
Two brilliant strokes deserve to be credited to him. In 1948, aged only 30, the young Druon won the Goncourt prize for The Big Families, a caustic fresco on the social elite of his time. “He has a caustic and sarcastic look, it’s Michel Houellebecq with half a century in advance, jokes Dominique Bona, and even Houellebecq in comparison seems to write for the Pink Library!” A few years later, still thirty years old, Druon did it again in 1955 with The Iron Kingfirst volume of cursed kings. It was on this occasion that he created his famous workshop with half a dozen collaborators, including people as brilliant as Edmonde Charles-Roux or Matthieu Galey.
According to his biographer, Druon thus foreshadows the figure of the show runner : “In a sense, he is the ancestor of the Netflix series! He organized the financing and the functioning of this workshop. He knew very precisely what the series should be, he launched avenues and planned the work of his team – others than him were responsible for researching his characters. And based on their files, he rewrote everything.” Bookstore success adapted in 1972 as a television series on the second channel of the ORTF, The Cursed Kings will not remain a Franco-French phenomenon. Having sold 23 million copies of his medieval saga in Russia, Druon liked to say that he was more famous there than Victor Hugo. One fan deserves mention: Vladimir Putin. In 2003, already president and still frequentable, Poutine will be received by Druon at the abbey of Faize, his secondary residence in Gironde…
“Many teenagers are currently reading The Cursed Kings“
When you’ve been brilliant twice in your life, you can afford some deviations. In 1980, while Jean d’Ormesson supported Marguerite Yourcenar’s candidacy for the French Academy, Druon opposed it and declared that soon “forty good women will knit at dictionary sessions”. In 1997, on the strength of his status as a former member of Free France, he took a stand for Maurice Papon during his resounding trial. Died in 2009, he could not take advantage of the renewed interest that Game Of Thrones brought to his work.
Dominique Bona assures us: “Many teenagers currently read The Cursed Kings.” Druon was not only the author of Tistou the green thumbs and the close friend of Edouard Balladur (who cooked when he went on vacation to Faize): he retains a touch of modernity. On the Internet, there is an amazing program where, in 2006, he was invited by Thierry Ardisson. The academician was then 87 years old. Club tie, cane and signet ring: an old gentleman? By his humor and his freshness of spirit, he bursts the screen. Rediscover your life Supporters gives a lesson in freedom. From the Resistance of his youth to his old age, the author of cursed kings was a blessed writer.
Supporters. Kessel and Druon, a family story, by Dominique Bona. Gallimard, 522 pages, €24.