Nouvel Observateur, Le. This weekly, sired out of France Observateur (1950), first appeared in November 1964. Jean Daniel, formerly of L'Express, ran the journal as a left-of-centre news magazine, distinguished for its fine writing, from the 1960s to the 1990s. It played the Socrates of the Left: throughout the 1960s and 1970s it battled for the birth of a new Left, over and above the rivalries of existing parties and politicians. In 1981 Daniel hailed the accession of François Mitterrand as president of the Republic. In its cultural pages, Le Nouvel Observateur has done much to stimulate and reflect cultural innovation in France.

[Michael Palmer]

The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.