Françoise Mallet-Joris is the nom de plume of Françoise Lilar.

She was born in Antwerp, the daughter of the writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 Suzanne Lilar

Suzanne Lilar

Suzanne, Baroness Lilar was a Flemish Belgian essayist, novelist, and playwright writing in French...

 and the Belgian Minister of Justice and Minister of State

Minister of State

Minister of State is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a "minister of state" is a junior minister, who is assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister...

 Albert Lilar

Albert Lilar

Albert Jean Julien François, Baron Lilar was a Belgian politician of the Liberal Party and a Minister of Justice....

, and the sister of the 18th century art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

 historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 Marie Fredericq-Lilar. Mallet-Joris spent two years in the America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 before going to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, where she attended the Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

. She currently lives in Paris and Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, Belgium.

She has been married to Robert Amadou, Alain Joxe and Jacques Delfau, and has four children, Daniel Amadou, and Vincent, Alberte and Pauline Delfau.

She is a prolific writer who was a member of the Prix Femina

Prix Femina

The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...

 committee from 1969 to 1971 when she was appointed to the Académie Goncourt

Académie Goncourt

The Société littéraire des Goncourt , usually called the académie Goncourt , is a French literary organization based in Paris. It was founded by the French writer and publisher Edmond de Goncourt...

.

Literary Debut

Mallet-Joris began her literary career early with the publication of Le rempart des Béguines in 1951. It was translated as The Illusionist. It is set in a town that resembles Mallet-Joris' native Antwerp and treats the themes of social class and lesbianism. She followed her first work with a sequel in 1955 named La chambre rouge, in English The Red Room. In it, she continued her treatment of social class and mores in Belgium.

Themes

Mallet-Joris' novels deal with interpersonal relationships and social class in France and Belgium. Often, characters must deal with disappointment as they realize they have unrealistic expectations. She also depicts social climbers and deceitful characters.

In Allegra (1976) Mallet-Joris tackled the themes of racism

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

 and feminism

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

 in France.

She has also written works of non fiction, like The Uncompromising Heart: A Life of Marie Mancini

Marie Mancini

Anna Maria Mancini was the third of the five Mancini sisters; nieces to Cardinal Mazarin who were brought to France to marry advantageously...

, Louis XIV's First Love in 1964, and she has written essays about her philosophy of life and writing in Lettre à moi-même (A Letter to Myself) in 1963 and La Maison de papier (The Paper House) in 1970.

Literary Awards

Mallet-Joris won the "Librarians' Prize" (Prix des bibliothécaires) in 1958 for House of Lies (in French, the title was Les mensonges which means simply "Lies"), the Femina Prize in 1958 for Café Céleste (in French, it was called L'empire céleste which means "Heavenly Empire" or "Celestial Empire", a title that is highly ironic) and the Monaco Prize in 1964 for her biography of Marie Mancini.

Bibilography

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French literature

French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...

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|By category
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!style="background-color: #cccccc"| French literary history
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Medieval

Medieval French literature

Medieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in Oïl languages during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century....

16th century

French Renaissance literature

For more information on historical developments in this period see: Renaissance, History of France, and Early Modern France.For information on French art and music of the period, see French Renaissance....

17th century

French literature of the 17th century

17th-century French literature was written throughout the Grand Siècle of France, spanning the reigns of Henry IV of France, the Regency of Marie de Medici, Louis XIII of France, the Regency of Anne of Austria and the reign of Louis XIV of France...

18th century

French literature of the 18th century

18th-century French literature is French literature written between 1715, the year of the death of King Louis XIV of France, and 1798, the year of the coup d’État of Bonaparte which brought the Consulate to power, concluded the French Revolution, and began the modern era of French history...

19th century

French literature of the 19th century

19th-century French literature concerns the developments in French literature during a dynamic period in French history that saw the rise of Democracy and the fitful end of Monarchy and Empire...

20th century

French literature of the 20th century

20th-century French literature is literature written in French from 1900 to 1999. For literature made after 1999, see the article Contemporary French literature. Many of the developments in French literature in this period parallel changes in the visual arts...

Contemporary

Contemporary French literature

Contemporary French literature is French literature from the year 2000 to the present day.- Overview :The economic, political and social crises of contemporary France˜—exclusion, immigration, unemployment, racism, etc.—and the notion that France has lost its sense of identity and international...

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!style="background-color: #c9c9c9"| French writers
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Chronological list