French Witers Dominate Literary World, The Nobel Prizes In Literature

Thank you Mr. Gerard Araud, Ambassador of France to the United States, for bringing it to my attention, it’s really amazing, how French writers continue to dominate the literary world.

French historical author, Patrick Modiano has been awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Academy described the novelist, whose work has often focused on the Nazi occupation of France, as “a Marcel Proust of our time”.

Previous winners include literary giants such as Alice Munro, Mo Yan, Tomas Tranströmer, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Herta Müller.

A total 111 individuals have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature between 1901 and 2014.

Modiano is the 14th French writer to win prestigious award (the most of any other country) and the 14th winner to write in French (the most of any language other than English).

(Photo Martin Bureau. AFP)

The Nobel Prize in Literature, ranked by country of origin:

1. France (14 winner): Sully Prudhomme, Frédéric Mistral, Romain Rolland, Anatole France, Henri Bergson, Roger Martin du Gard, André Gide, François Mauriac, Albert Camus, Saint-John Perse, Jean-Paul Sartre, Claude Simon, J. M. G. Le Clézio, and Patrick Modiano.

2. United States (8 winner): T. S. Eliot, Sinclair Lewis, Eugene O’Neill, Pearl S. Buck, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Toni Morrison.

3. Germany (8 winner): Theodor Mommsen, Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Paul von Heyse, Gerhart Hauptmann, Thomas Mann, Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, and Herta Müller.

4. United Kingdom (7 winner): Rudyard Kipling, John Galsworthy, Bertrand Russell, Winston Churchill, William Golding, Harold Pinter, andDoris Lessing

5. Sweden (7 winner): Selma Lagerlöf, Verner von Heidenstam, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Pär Lagerkvist, Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson, Tomas Tranströmer

French premier Manuel Valls, quoted by news agency, said Modiano was “undoubtedly one of the greatest writers” of recent years.

“This is well-deserved for a writer who is moreover discreet, as is much of his excellent work.”