Maurice Barrès Books

Auguste-Maurice Barrès was a French author whose works celebrated a humanistic love of the self, while also flirting with occult mysticisms. His literary style associated him with Symbolism, which found equivalence with British Aestheticism and Italian Decadentism. During the Dreyfus affair, he underwent an ideological shift, becoming a leading anti-Dreyfusard and popularizing the term nationalism to describe his views. In later life, Barrès returned to the Catholic faith, playing a role in the restoration of French church buildings and the establishment of a national day of remembrance for St. Joan of Arc.