Tournier, Michel
Tournier, Michel (1924– ),French author of mythical, multi‐layered narratives for adults and children. He was the son of Germanicists, and his family was deeply affected by World War II. He experienced at first hand the rise of Nazism in Germany, the adulation by some Frenchmen of their conquerers, the appropriation of his home as Nazi headquarters, and the round‐up of fellow villagers for concentration camps. He would later record these reactions and interview prisoners of war in Le Roi des Aulnes (translated as both The Erl King and The Ogre, 1970). He studied philosophy, initially in Paris. After defending his Sorbonne thesis on Plato in 1946, he studied German philosophy at the University of Tübingen and returned in 1950 to take the agrégation (the highly competitive examination leading to secondary‐ and university teaching positions). Ironically, it is because he failed this exam that he...
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