Claude Eugène Henri Simon
(born Oct. 10, 1913, Tananarive [now Antananarivo], Madag. — died July 6, 2005, Paris, France) French writer. Captured by the Nazis while fighting in World War II, he escaped to join the French Resistance. He completed his first novel during the war. His works, mixing narration and
stream of consciousness in densely constructed prose, are representative of the
nouveau roman ("new novel"), or French
antinovel, that emerged in the 1950s. Perhaps most important is the cycle comprising
The Grass (1958),
The Flanders Road (1960),
The Palace (1962), and
History (1967), with its recurring characters and events. His other novels include
The Wind (1957),
Triptych (1973),
The Acacia (1989), and
The Trolley (2001). He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1985.
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