Peyrefitte, Roger

(1907-2000)

   novelist

   Born in Castres, Roger Peyrefitte, after a religious education and a diplomatic career that ended at the close of World War II, began his literary career with a novel, Les Amitiés particulières (1944), in which was depicted adolescent homosexual evolution among the graduates of a religious school. It was followed by Les Amours singulières (1949). After a break in his work, Peyrefitte began his documentary and satirical writings. Dedicated to government institutions (Les Ambassades, 1951; La Fin des ambassades, 1953), to religious issues (Les Clefs de Saint-Pierre, 1955; Les Chevaliers de Malte, 1957), or social and moral questions (Les Fils de la lumière, a study of freemasonry, 1961; Les Juifs, 1965), these successful and also controversial works underscore the ignominies of societies that the author sensed as "marginal." Peyrefitte is also the author of a biographical novel on Alexander the Great (1977-81).