BARRE, MAURICE. - Born at Charmes-sur-Moselle (Vosges) on 22 Sept. 1862, died in Paris on 4 Dec. 1923. From 1883 he began to make himself known by writing for newspapers and magazines.
He was among the first to denounce the positivist doctrines of Renan and Taine (*Huit jours chez M. Renan*, 1888). The same year saw the publication of the novel *Sous l'œil des Barbares*, which revealed his nature as both ideologue and artist, followed by *Un nom libre* (1889) and *Le jardin de Bérénice* (1891), one of his most characteristic books, in which the contrast between sentiment and the brutality of material and political interests is brought to light. These three novels, which form a kind of trilogy under the title *Le culte du moi* where the inner unity of man is examined, are followed by those of *L'Énergie nationale*, namely *Les déracinés* (1907), in which B. deplores the disintegration of France and combats the excessive centralization of spiritual life in Paris, offering in contrast a passionate evocation of Lorraine; *Au service de l'Allemagne* (1905); and *Colette Baudoche* (1909), in which fidelity to tradition is embodied in a modest girl from Metz. He also wrote, alongside other novels, memoirs and travel impressions (Venice, Spain); studies on art (*Greco ou le secret de Tolède*, 1912); and a vigorous account of religious life in Lorraine (*La colline inspirée*, 1913). Sympathetic to the Church, he defended it against the dangers of the separation regime, though he was not a practicing Catholic. He was deputy for Nancy until 1895, a traditionalist and patriot, but did not adhere to Maurras’s monarchist movement. He became an Academician in 1906.