The Diaries of Marie Vassiltchikov and the Goncourt Brothers

This article relates to The Folded Clock

In The Folded Clock, which is a curated selection of Julavits' journal entries over two years, she writes about reading diaries by Franz Kafka and Virginia Woolf. These are two giants of twentieth-century literature and thought, but Julavits also references other less well-known practitioners of the craft, including Marie Vassiltchikov (Berlin Diaries) and the Goncourt brothers.

Marie Vassiltchikov was a Russian princess who emigrated with her parents to Germany as a young child. During World War II, Vassiltchikov, who was proficient in English, managed to find employment in the Information Department of the German Foreign Ministry. Her Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945, chronicle Vassiltchikov's daily life and experiences during the war. Although the diary has attracted some criticism – there are entries where Vassiltchikov is felt to be too frivolous and self-absorbed given the situation in Europe – her description of the bombing of Berlin has been compared to Samuel Pepys' record of the Great Fire of London. Incidentally, Vassiltchikov was close to a number of the conspirators who attempted to assassinate Hitler in the July 20 plot of 1944.

The Goncourt Brothers' journals are also noteworthy because of the circles in which these two literary brothers moved. Born in 1820s France, Edmond and Jules Goncourt co-authored many novels and histories but they are best remembered for the journal they began together in 1851. Friends with notable French literati including Emile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, Balzac and Marcel Proust, Heidi Julavits describes them as "two brothers who aspired to be famous writers but instead only hung out with famous writers."

Although Julavits admits to struggling to read the Goncourt Journals, she knows that this is not a universally shared view. In 2006, The New York Review of Books described the diaries as "one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century French literature." The Goncourt Journals are read today for the duo's continual sniping about their own lack of literary success and for their vivid depictions of the great minds of nineteenth century art and literature — for their gossiping and drinking, talking as much of whores and venereal disease as literary matters.

Although Jules Goncourt died in 1870, Edmond continued the journals and began publishing them in the 1880s, causing some controversy, as critics and the people described and quoted in the diary reacted to their publication. Edmond died in 1896 and his legacy was the founding of the Academie Goncourt, a society which promotes French literature and for over a century has awarded an annual Prix Goncourt to the best work of fiction published in French each year. Winners include Marcel Proust and Simone de Beauvoir.

Picture of Marie Vassiltchikov from Goodreads
Picture of Goncourt Brothers by Felix Nadar

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This "beyond the book article" relates to The Folded Clock. It originally ran in June 2015 and has been updated for the March 2016 paperback edition. Go to magazine.

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