Although Raymond Radiguet wrote many poems and critical articles, it is as the author of the two novels, Le Diable au corps (1923; translated as The Devil in the Flesh, 1932) and Le Bal du comte d'Orgel (1924; translated as The Count's Ball, 1929), that he is best known. He is one of the leaders of that return to tradition loosely called "classicism." By a curious irony Radiguet's novels seem detached from their period or even their century, whereas his brief life--and death--reflect visibly and even dramatically the turbulent period after World War I when he came to maturity.

As the oldest of seven children whose father, Jules-Maurice Radiguet, eked out a meager living as a cartoonist, Radiguet made an early decision to leave school and try to sell first his drawings, then his short writings. His mother, Jeanne-Louise-Marie Tournier, was so busy with her other children that she could spare little...