LAVEDAN, HENRI. — French playwright and novelist, son of Hubert-Léon, a very lively political writer, born in Orléans in 1859 and died in Vichy on 30 September 1940. Member of the Académie française.
He began his literary career with some rather crude and realistic satirical dialogues about 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, becoming increasingly well-known and applauded with the plays Une famille (1890) and Le prince d'Aurec (1892), in which the situation of certain declining aristocratic classes is depicted in vivid colours. Lavedan’s success continued in his subsequent works, which broaden to encompass ever more general interests. Le duel (1905) splendidly addresses and resolves the conflict between human and religious ideals. In the immediate post-war period, the dramatist gave way to the writer who had regained his Catholic faith. The biography of St Vincent de Paul (Monsieur Vincent, aumônier des galères, Paris 1928) is a magnificent religious and literary testimony to this.