Mario Vargas Llosa assumes chair at the French Academy

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Spanish-Peruvian writer is the first to be part of the institution without having written in French. He enters the Academy at the age of 86, an exception to the house rules, which until then admitted applicants up to 75 years of age. Mario Vargas Llosa takes chair at the French Academy Emmanuel Dunand/AFP The Nobel Prize in Literature Mario Vargas Llosa enters the French Academy this Thursday (9), becoming the first foreign language writer to be part of this emblematic institution founded in 1635 Elected by the Academy’s “Immortals” in November 2021, the Hispano-Peruvian writer assumes seat number 18 at the age of 86, an exception to the house rules, which, in principle, admits candidates up to 75 years of age. But Vargas Llosa is an avowed Francophile, author of two important essays on Victor Hugo and Gustave Flaubert, two of his favorite writers. The Academy founded by Cardinal Richelieu, at the time of Louis XIII, welcomed foreign writers, who switched, at a given moment, to French. “Certainly, some expressed the complaint that you don’t write in French,” Carrère d’Encausse told those present, among whom were family members of Vargas Llosa and his ex-wife Patricia Urquidi. “But they ignore that, to be received at the French Academy, it is necessary that, I quote: ‘please the Monsignor, the Protector, have good humor, good reputation, intelligence… And be able to serve academic functions'”, he recalled. Mario Vargas Llosa joins the French Academy Emmanuel Dunand/AFP Vargas Llosa was almost unanimously accepted by academics more than a year ago and was welcomed by the current “protector” of the Academy, French President Emmanuel Macron. He is already a member of the Spanish Royal Academy, as well as the Peruvian and Brazilian ones. “As for his reputation, we already know its prestige and extent,” added Carrère d’Encausse. Among those present was the director of the Spanish Royal Academy, Santiago Múñoz Machado, one of the “godfathers” of the sword, made with Toledan steel. Juan Carlos I among the guests Located on the left bank of the Seine, opposite the Louvre Museum, the French Academy is responsible for ensuring the health of Molière’s language. Publishes a dictionary and issues style recommendations. In recent years, the French Academy has had some difficulty recruiting new members (known as “the Immortals”) from among the French intelligentsia. The author’s public “installation”, as it is known in the jargon of the Academy, will take place at noon on Thursday and will feature an exceptional guest: the Spanish king emeritus Juan Carlos I. Appointed marquis by Juan Carlos I in 2011, the writer personally invited the former monarch, who lives in the United Arab Emirates. Since 2020, Juan Carlos I has officially left the Emirates on a few occasions. The last of these was during the funeral of former Greek King Constantine II on January 16. Last survivor of the boom generation As tradition dictates, Vargas Llosa will deliver a tribute speech to his predecessor in seat number 18, philosopher Michel Serres (1930-2019). In addition to his medieval-style sword, he will wear a black frock coat, embroidered with olive branches. Written with the help of the novelist’s French translator, Albert Bensoussan, the speech is expected to be challenged by another scholar. A universal writer based on the complex Peruvian reality, Vargas Llosa was part of the so-called Latin American “boom” along with other greats such as the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez, the Argentine Julio Cortázar and the Mexicans Carlos Fuentes and Juan Rulfo. Admired for his description of social realities, he is the author of renowned novels such as “Conversa na Catedral”, “A Cidade e os Cachorros” and “A Festa do Bode”. He lived in Paris for several years in the early 1960s. He was a journalist and translator. Vargas Llosa “is a writer born in Peru, and those years are formative years. In Paris, he discovers himself as Latin American. And now, from Spain, he has this European aspect” that helps to explain his entry into the Academy, explains Eduardo Ramos -Izquierdo, Chair of Latin American Literature at the Sorbonne University.

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