Jean Hougron

French novelist

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Jean Hougron (1 July 1923[1] – 22 May 2001) was a French novelist, famous for a series of novels set in French Indochina in the mid-20th century, which is where he resided and travelled for several years. Several of these novels are collected in the series La Nuit Indochinoise (The Indochina Night), which include several best sellers, such as Tu récolteras la tempête (Reap the Wirlwind).

## Life

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Jean Hougron was born on 1 July 1923 to a French Breton family in Calvados, a department of north-western France between Normandy and Brittany. He began his professional life as a teacher of English and sciences in north-western towns, then moved south to Marseille to work for one year with an import-export trading firm. In his youth, Jean Hougron absolutely wanted to leave France.[2] This firm sent him to Indochina in June 1947. From there, he exercised several trades, travelling across Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and southern China, while learning to speak some of the regional languages. In 1949, he returned to Saigon, Vietnam, where he worked at the US consulate and then at Radio France Asie, the Asian branch of the French state-owned radio broadcasting corporation. He returned to France in 1951. He died on 22 May 2001 in Paris.

## Novels

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From his years in Indochina, he came with many anecdotes, observations and souvenirs, which he used to write novels, starting with Tu récolteras la tempête (1950). He published several novels, mostly based in Indochina, which met with great success, especially the series of novels the La Nuit Indochinoise collection. In 1953, he was awarded the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française (French Academy Novel Prize)[3] for these books.

Hougron's novels are not focused on political subjects, such as on the French Indochina colony and the decolonization movement in South Asia during or after World War II and the beginning of the First Indochina War, but rather on studies of atmosphere, climate, landscape, characters, and human relations. He has been sometimes called "The French Joseph Conrad". Several of his books have been translated and published in English and other languages.

He continued writing novels, which were often best sellers and some of which were made into movies (I'll Get Back to Kandara (1956), directed by Victor Vicas, and Fugitive in Saigon (1957), directed by Marcel Camus).

While the context of his books is dated, some of them, especially the Nuit Indochinoise series, have been re-edited regularly, and he has retained a steady readership.

## Publications

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* Tu récolteras la tempête (La Nuit indochinoise, I), Domat, 1950
* Rage blanche (La Nuit indochinoise, II), Domat, 1951
* Soleil au ventre (La Nuit indochinoise, III), Domat, 1952
* Mort en fraude (La Nuit indochinoise, IV), Domat, 1953 (Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française 1953)
* Les Portes de l'aventure (La Nuit indochinoise, V), Domat, 1954
* Les Asiates (La Nuit indochinoise, VI), Domat, 1954
* Je reviendrai à Kandara, Domat, 1955
* Quatrième étage, in Les Oeuvres libres..., A. Fayard, 1955
* La Terre du barbare (La Nuit indochinoise, VII), Del Duca, 1958
* Par qui le scandale, Éditions mondiales, 1960
* Le Signe du chien, Denoël, coll. "Présence du futur", n°44, 1961
* Histoire de Georges Guersant, Stock, 1964 (Prix du roman populiste 1965)
* Les Humiliés, Stock, 1965
* La Gueule pleine de dents, Plon, 1970
* L'Homme de proie, Plon, 1974
* L'Anti-jeu, Plon, 1977
* Le Naguen, Plon, 1980 (Grand Prix de la Science-Fiction 1981)
* La Chambre, Hachette, 1982
* Coup de soleil, Hachette, 1984
* Beauté chinoise, Hachette, 1987

## References

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1. ^ registre d'état civil ville de 14460 Colombelles dans le Calvados
2. ^ Hougron, Jean. La Nuit Indochinoise (in French). Robert Laffint. pp. Préface - I. ISBN 2-221-05871-2.
3. ^ "Jean HOUGRON | Académie française".

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Laureates of the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française

1915–1925|

* 1915 Paul Acker
* 1916 Louis de Blois [fr]
* 1917 Charles Géniaux [fr]
* 1918 Camille Mayran [fr]
* 1919 Pierre Benoit
* 1920 André Corthis
* 1921 Pierre Villetard [fr]
* 1922 Francis Carco
* 1923 Alphonse de Châteaubriant
* 1924 Émile Henriot
* 1925 François Duhourcau

1926–1950|

* 1926 François Mauriac
* 1927 Joseph Kessel
* 1928 Jean Balde [fr]
* 1929 André Demaison [fr]
* 1930 Jacques de Lacretelle
* 1931 Henri Pourrat
* 1932 Jacques Chardonne
* 1933 Roger Chauviré
* 1934 Paule Régnier
* 1935 Albert Touchard
* 1936 Georges Bernanos
* 1937 Guy de Pourtalès
* 1938 Jean de La Varende
* 1939 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
* 1940 Édouard Peisson [fr]
* 1941 Robert Bourget-Pailleron
* 1942 Jean Blanzat
* 1943 Joseph-Henri Louwyck [fr]
* 1944 Pierre Lagarde [fr]
* 1945 Marc Blancpain [fr]
* 1946 Jean Orieux [fr]
* 1947 Philippe Hériat
* 1948 Yves Gandon [fr]
* 1949 Yvonne Pagniez
* 1950 Joseph Jolinon

1951–1975|

* 1951 Bernard Barbey [fr]
* 1952 Henri Castillou [fr]
* 1953 Jean Hougron
* 1954 Pierre Moinot / Paul Mousset [fr]
* 1955 Michel de Saint Pierre [fr]
* 1956 Paul Guth
* 1957 Jacques de Bourbon Busset
* 1958 Henri Queffélec
* 1959 Gabriel d'Aubarède
* 1960 Christian Murciaux [fr]
* 1961 Phạm Văn Ký [fr; vi]
* 1962 Michel Mohrt
* 1963 Robert Margerit
* 1964 Michel Droit
* 1965 Jean Husson [fr]
* 1966 François Nourissier
* 1967 Michel Tournier
* 1968 Albert Cohen
* 1969 Pierre Moustiers
* 1970 Bertrand Poirot-Delpech
* 1971 Jean d'Ormesson
* 1972 Patrick Modiano
* 1973 Michel Déon
* 1974 Kléber Haedens
* 1975

1976–2000|

* 1976 Pierre Schoendoerffer
* 1977 Camille Bourniquel
* 1978 Pascal Jardin
* 1979 Henri Coulonges
* 1980 Louis Gardel
* 1981 Jean Raspail
* 1982 Vladimir Volkoff
* 1983 Liliane Guignabodet [fr]
* 1984 Jacques-Francis Rolland [fr]
* 1985 Patrick Besson
* 1986 Pierre-Jean Rémy
* 1987 Frédérique Hébrard
* 1988 François-Olivier Rousseau
* 1989 Geneviève Dormann
* 1990 Paule Constant
* 1991 François Sureau
* 1992 Franz-Olivier Giesbert
* 1993 Philippe Beaussant
* 1994 Frédéric Vitoux
* 1995 Alphonse Boudard
* 1996 Calixthe Beyala
* 1997 Patrick Rambaud
* 1998 Anne Wiazemsky
* 1999 François Taillandier / Amélie Nothomb
* 2000 Pascal Quignard

2001–present|

* 2001 Éric Neuhoff
* 2002 Marie Ferranti
* 2003 Jean-Noël Pancrazi
* 2004 Bernard du Boucheron
* 2005 Henriette Jelinek [fr]
* 2006 Jonathan Littell
* 2007 Vassilis Alexakis
* 2008 Marc Bressant [fr]
* 2009 Pierre Michon
* 2010 Éric Faye [fr]
* 2011 Sorj Chalandon
* 2012 Joël Dicker
* 2013 Christophe Ono-dit-Biot [fr]
* 2014 Adrien Bosc [fr]
* 2015 Hédi Kaddour / Boualem Sansal
* 2016 Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre
* 2017 Daniel Rondeau
* 2018 Camille Pascal
* 2019 Laurent Binet
* 2020 Étienne de Montety
* 2021 François-Henri Désérable
* 2022 Giuliano da Empoli

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