Jean Raspail (French pronunciation:[ʒɑ̃ʁaspaj], 5 July 1925 – 13 June 2020) was a French explorer, novelist, and travel writer. Many of his books are about historical figures, exploration and indigenous peoples. He was a recipient of the prestigious French literary awards Grand Prix du Roman and Grand Prix de littérature by the Académie française. The French government honoured him in 2003 by appointing him to the Legion of Honor, with the grade of Officer.[1][2] Internationally, he is best known for his controversial 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints, which is about mass third-worldimmigration to Europe.
His traditional Catholicism serves as an inspiration for many of his utopian works, in which the ideologies of communism and liberalism are shown to fail, and a Catholic monarchy is restored. In his 1990 novel Sire a French king is crowned in Reims in February 1999, the 18-year-old Philippe Pharamond de Bourbon, a direct descendant of the last French kings.
In his best known work, The Camp of the Saints (1973), Raspail predicts the collapse of Western civilization from an overwhelming "tidal wave" of Third Worldimmigration. The "hordes" of the world rise and, in the words of playwright Ian Allen, "destroy the white race."[6] The book has been translated into English, German, Spanish, Italian, Afrikaans, Czech, Dutch, Polish, Hungarian and Portuguese, and as of 2006 it had sold over 500,000 copies.[7] After The Camp of the Saints Raspail wrote other novels, including North, Sire, and The Fisher's Ring. Raspail reiterated these views in a co-written 1985 article ("Will France Still Be French in 2015?") for Le Figaro magazine, where he stated "the proportion of France's non-European immigrant population will grow to endanger the survival of traditional French culture, values and identity".[8]
Raspail was a candidate for the French Academy in 2000, for which he received the most votes,[9] yet did not obtain the majority required for election to the vacant seat of Jean Guitton.
Les Hussards : histoires exemplaires (The Hussars: Representative Stories) (1982)
Les Yeux d'Irène (Irene's Eyes) (1984) – novel
Le Président (The President) (1985) – novel
Qui se souvient des hommes... (1986), translated as Who Will Remember the People...: A Novel. Translated by J. Leggatt (Mercury House, 1988, ISBN 0-916515-42-7) – novel. UK paperback published under alternative title The People (1988).
Sept cavaliers (2008–2010), comic book in three volumes by Jacques Terpant
Le Royaume de Borée (2011–2014), comic book in three volumes by Jacques Terpant
Quotationsedit
"One cannot be a man, fully, from the moment one admits that others exist. For one is no more than a copy, a vague facsimile drawn from a billion examples. One mustn't know anything about others, or at least by ruthless choice, unless it is how to invent oneself on one's own, – everything has been so repeated."[17]
"Your universe has no meaning to them. They will not try to understand. They will be tired, they will be cold, they will make a fire with your beautiful oak door."[18]
Referencesedit
^"La promotion de la Légion d'honneur du nouvel an HOMMAGE". La Croix. 2 January 2004.
^"[LITTÉRATURE] Jean Raspail a 89 ans". Archived from the original on 25 June 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
^Dupuis, Jérôme (6 April 2011). "Le camp des Saints, de Jean Raspail, un succès de librairie raciste?". LExpress.fr (in French). The Express. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
^Dupuis, Jerome (6 April 2011). Le camp des Saints, de Jean Raspail, un succès de librairie raciste? (in French). L'Express. En 1981, il a reçu le Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française pour Moi, Antoine de Tounens, roi de Patagonie
^"GRANDE MÉDAILLE D'OR DES EXPLORATIONS ET VOYAGES DE DÉCOUVERTE (in French)". Société de géographie. Archived from the original on 6 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
^Naulin, Michaël (13 June 2020). "Mort de Jean Raspail, écrivain et explorateur, auteur du "Camp des Saints"" (in French). Le Figaro. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
^"Le roi de Patagonie (TV Mini Series 1990– ) - IMDb". IMDb.
^""Cinéma 16" le jeu du roi (TV Episode 1991) - IMDb". IMDb.
^Raspail, Jean (2022). Septentrion. Sunny Lou Publishing.
^Raspail, Jean (1973). The camp of the saints. Éditions Robert Laffont.
Sourcesedit
Jarvis GE. Raspail, racism, and migration: Implications for radicalization in a polarizing world. Transcultural Psychiatry. 2021;58(5):616-631. doi:10.1177/1363461520930921