Френските

The last three months of each year are some of the busiest in French literary life. During these three months, French publishers compete to publish new books, mainly novels, which participate in the great competition for the Goncourt, Théophraste Re-Nodo, Femina, Enteralie, Medici prizes... This revival of the literary market causes considerable concern to literary critics in the pages of the authoritative Parisian newspapers and weeklies such as Le Monde, Le Figaro Literaire, Le Nouvelle Literaire, Le Lettre Française, Carrefour, and Express. Often, the pages of these newspapers carry out that "triage" that greatly facilitates the final decisions of the numerous juries called upon to determine the lucky laureates from among the large number of candidates. Of course, sometimes factors that are more interested in the material side also influence the selection of laureates - these are the publishers, who have their own connections in the composition of the committees themselves. Naturally, this is no secret. The competition in this regard is great, the tension is strong. Because - what does it mean for an author, for his novel and therefore for his publisher to be awarded the Goncourt Prize, the monetary value of which is only five thousand old French francs or today's fifty... This means a dizzying rise in the barometer of circulation: from the initial five thousand copies, the "awarded" book begins to be published in successive editions of a thousand copies each, to reach a circulation of over one hundred, two hundred and often three hundred thousand copies. Would Françoise Sagan - despite the advertising of her publisher Julier - have reached half a million copies or even more if she had not received the critics' prize and if - this is also of great importance in France - the laudatory words of Françoise Mauriac and the late eminent literary critic Robert Kemp had not appeared in print for her first book, "Good afternoon, sadness"! Indeed, Françoise Sagan was a rare exception in terms of the circulation of her books, since not only her award-winning novel marked a record number in sales (810 thousand), but also her subsequent books: "A Famous Smile" and "In a Month, in a Year" marked impressive figures in their circulation: the first 500 thousand, the second 400 thousand.

Symbolism still remains one of the most unexplored areas of our literary history. The reasons for this are many and of the most diverse nature. Bourgeois science cannot embrace this phenomenon in perspective and retrospectively - it lacked the historical distance, and its very approach could hardly ensure the desired success. In the period of the cult of personality, the inertia of crude sociological simplistic thinking for a long time kept our literary science captive to the setting, the essence of which was reduced to the statement that symbolism was one of the ideological disguises of the reactionary bourgeoisie. Alleged vices were exposed, real and undeniable virtues were kept silent. And since there was a time when exposing the openly reactionary in science and art was considered almost an outdated taste, and the arrows in our criticism were aimed at "disguised" idealism, "disguised" fideism, etc., then it seemed fashionable to criticize symbolism as well.

The last two or three months of the year bring a special excitement to French literary life. Numerous publishing houses are in a race to release new books, mainly books by young writers, by debutants, who participate in the competition for literary prizes. The tension reaches its peak in the second half of November, when the first literary prizes are announced. Before that, all sorts of "predictions" are made, guesses about one or another author, about one or another book. Of course, these suggestions also provide guidance, and often the literary prizes are awarded to some of the names that have already been launched. A healthy tradition has already been established in this regard, which, during this small section of the end of the year, causes a certain increase in interest among the public in the literary production offered to it. Literary barometers show the coefficient of sales of various books, among which novels occupy first place. On the competitive field, so to speak, they are at the forefront.