Henri Fauconnier

Henri Fauconnier (1879-1973) was a French writer from Barbezieux in Charente, a leading figure in the “Barbezieux Group” alongside his sister Geneviève Fauconnier and his friend Jacques Chardonne. After studying law, he left France in 1905 to teach in England, then settled in Malaysia where he learned the trade of plantation owner and founded one of the first large rubber plantations in Selangor. This experience, which was decisive in his life, later inspired his literary work.

Settling in Tunisia in 1926, he wrote Malaisie, a largely autobiographical novel that won him the Prix Goncourt in 1930 and established his name in French literature. He then published Visions (1938), a collection of short stories, while continuing to correspond extensively with the writers of his time. An amateur painter and musician, a discreet and sensitive man, he is described by biographer Ginette Guitard-Auviste as “a kind of Hindu sage, silent as a stone, impassive and extremely sensitive.”

Founder of the Académie d’Angoumois with his sister Geneviève Fauconnier and Jacques Chardonne, he remains a singular figure in 20th-century literature.

He is the author of Malaisie, published by Éditions du Pacifique.