Henry Bordeaux

Georges Guynemer, Knight of the Air; illustration from the Bordeaux book of the same name

Henri Bordeaux (25 January 1870 in Thonon-les-Bains - 29 March 1963) was a French writer and lawyer. His novels included:

• Le Pays natal (1900)
• La Peur de vivre (1902)
• La Petite mademoiselle (1905)
• Les Roquevillard (1906)
• Les Yeux qui s’ouvrent (1908)
• La Croisée des chemins (1909)
• La Robe de laine (1910)
• La Neige sur les pas (1911)
• La Maison (1913)
• La Résurrection de la chair (1920)
• La Chartreuse du reposoir (1924)
• La Revenante (1932)

His writing was likened to Paul Bourget's.

Bordeaux came from a family of lawyers in Savoie. His grandfather was a magistrate and his father served on the Chambery bar. In his early life, he moved backwards and forwards between Savoie and Paris and the tensions between provincial and city life strongly marked his outlook. In his professional life he observed closely the break up of numerous families and analysed the causes and consequences of these. From the age of seventeen he spent three years in Paris studying law. Then he returned to practice law in Savoie. He returned to Paris after the publication of his first book in 1894. When his father died in 1896 he returned to Savoie.