Georges Duhamel characterized the major portion of his extraordinarily varied and prolific production as "littérature de témoignage": his mission was to bear witness to a world in crisis, to understand and explain it to his contemporaries and, in so doing, to impose order where there was seemingly nothing but chaos. The writer's ultimate goal was to provide his readers with some calm, some hope during a difficult time--the first half of the twentieth century. These efforts to transform the irrational into the rational began first in the author's immediate experience, and because Duhamel never hesitated to enhance his writing with the autobiographical, there is an indisputable interrelatedness between his life and his work.

Born in Paris on 30 June 1884 to parents of peasant stock, Georges Duhamel was one of eight children, although four died quite young. His mother, Emma Pionnier Duhamel, was exemplary but his...