LAVEDAN, HENRI. - French playwright and novelist, son of Hubert-Léon, a highly spirited political writer, b. at Orléans in 1859 and d. at Vichy on 30 Sept. 1940. Member of the French Academy.
He began his literary career with several rather crude and realistic satirical dialogues on Parisian high society (Inconsolables; Petites fêtes; Leur beau physique, etc.), and soon turned to the theatre, following in the footsteps of Dumas fils and Augier. He became increasingly well known and acclaimed with the dramas Une famille (1890) and Le prince d'Aurec (1892), in which the condition of certain declining aristocratic classes is depicted in most vivid colours. L.'s success continued in his later works, which opened out to ever more general concerns. Le duel (1905)158ca magnificently presents and resolves the conflict between human ideals and religious ideals. In the immediate post-war period, the author of dramas gave way to the writer who had recovered his Catholic faith. The biography of St Vincent de Paul (Monsieur Vincent, aumônier des galères, Paris 1928) is a splendid religious and literary testimony to this.