Премия Гонкура: Главная литературная награда Франции

French literary award

The Prix Goncourt (, lə pʁi ɡɔ̃kuʁ, The Goncourt Prize) is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but results in considerable recognition and book sales for the winning author. Four other prizes are also awarded: prix Goncourt du Premier Roman (first novel), prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle (short story), prix Goncourt de la Poésie (poetry) and prix Goncourt de la Biographie (biography). Of the "big six" French literary awards, the Prix Goncourt is the best known and most prestigious. The other major literary prizes include the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, the Prix Femina, the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Interallié and the Prix Médicis. In honour of his brother and collaborator, Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt (1830–1870), the académie has awarded the Prix Goncourt every December since 1903. Notable winners of the prize include Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time), Simone de Beauvoir (The Mandarins), André Malraux (Man's Fate) and Marguerite Duras (The Lover). Today, the Goncourt has a token prize amount (around 10 euros), about the same amount given in 1903, and so the prestige of the prize has been explained not because of the cash value of the prize, but "in terms of the tremendous book sales it effects: the Goncourt winner becomes an instant millionaire." Hervé Le Tellier's The Anomaly, which won the Goncourt in 2020, exceeded a million copies in less than a year after its publication. In 1987, the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens was established, as a collaboration between the académie Goncourt, the French Ministry of Education, and Fnac, a book, music, and movie retailer. The Prix Renaudot is announced at the same ceremony as the Prix Goncourt. It has become known as something of a second place prize.

Within months of the first prize in 1903, it spawned a "hostile counter prize" in the form of the Prix Femina to counter the all male Jury of the Goncourt with an all female jury on the Femina. Some decisions for awarding the prize have been controversial, a famous case being the decision to award the prize in 1919 to Marcel Proust; this was met with indignation, since many in the public felt that the prize should have gone to Roland Dorgelès for Les Croix de bois, a novel about the First World War. The prize was supposed to be awarded to promising young authors, whereas Proust was not considered "young" at 48 – however Proust was a beginning author which is the only eligibility requirement, age being unimportant. In 1932, the prize was controversial for passing up Louis Ferdinand Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit for Guy Mazeline's Les Loups. The voting process became the basis of the 1992 book Goncourt 32 by Eugène Saccomano. Although the award may only be given to an author once, Romain Gary won it twice, in 1956 for Les racines du ciel and again under the pseudonym Émile Ajar in 1975 for La vie devant soi. The Académie Goncourt awarded the prize to Ajar without knowing his real identity. In October 2021, the Académie Goncourt ultimately decided that it will no longer allow lovers and family members of the jury to be entered for consideration.

The Prix Goncourt is divided into three selection stages. The first selection is typically composed of fifteen finalists. The second selection is typically composed of eight finalists, narrowed down from the previous fifteen. A third and final selection leaves four finalists. In the voting rounds, a maximum of fourteen rounds can be carried out. To begin the deliberation process, the names of the four finalists are placed in a champagne bucket. In turn, the names are taken out and each member of the jury votes aloud in favour of, or in opposition to, the writer. An absolute majority—more than half the votes cast—is required until the tenth round, then a simple majority is sufficient to designate a winner. If, after fourteen rounds, there is no winner, the president's vote counts as double to determine a majority vote. At 12:45p. m., the Secretary General, Philippe Claudel, appears in front of the crowd of journalists and announces the winner. The winner typically waits in a cafe near the Drouant so that they can arrive in time. The winner is interviewed by the media and is offered a symbolic check for ten euros.

+ Prix Goncourt winners Year Author French title English title Transl. year Film title Film year Notes Publisher (x time) 1903 Force ennemie Enemy Force 2010 La Plume 1904 La Maternelle La Maternelle 1933 Albin Michel 1905 Les Civilisés Paul Ollendorff 1906 Dingley, l'illustre écrivain Édouard Pelletan 1907 Le Rouet d'ivoire and Jean des Brebis ou le livre de la misère Plon 1908 Écrit sur de l'eau Édition du Feu, later Émile Paul Frères 1909 En France Fasquelle 1910 De Goupil à Margot Mercure de France 1911 Monsieur des Lourdines The Keynote 1912 Monsieur des Lourdines 1943 Grasset 1912 Les Filles de la pluie Grasset (2) 1913 Le peuple de la mer Calmann Lévy 1914 L'Appel du Sol The Call of the Soil 1919 Flammarion 1917 La Flamme au poing The Flame That Is France 1918 Albin Michel (2) 1918 Civilisation Civilization 1919 Mercure de France (2) 1919 A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs Within a Budding Grove 1920 Gallimard 1920 Nêne Nêne 1920 Nène 1924 Plon (2) 1921 Batouala Batouala 1921 Albin Michel (3) 1922 Le vitriol de la lune and Le martyre de l'obèse Albin Michel (4) 1923 Rabevel ou Le mal des ardents Gallimard (2) 1924 Le Chèvrefeuille, le Purgatoire, le Chapitre XIII Gallimard (3) 1925 Raboliot RaboliotRaboliotRaboliot 194619722008 Grasset (3) 1926 Le supplice de Phèdre Gallimard (4) 1927 Jérôme 60° latitude nord Jerome: or, The Latitude of Love 1928 Gallimard (5) 1928 Un Homme se penche sur son passé A Man Scans His Past 1929 Un homme se penche sur son passéLes amants de rivière rouge 19581996 Rieder 1929 L'Ordre L'Ordre 1985 Gallimard (6) 1930 Malaisie The Soul of Malaya or Malaisie 1931 Stock 1931 Mal d'amour Desire 1931 Fayard (2) 1932 Les Loups The Wolves 1935 Gallimard (7) 1933 La Condition humaine Man's Fate 1934 Gallimard (8) 1934 Capitaine Conan Captain Conan 1935 Capitaine Conan 1996 Albin Michel (5) 1935 Sang et Lumières Grasset (4) 1936 L'Empreinte de Dieu Hath Not the Potter 1937 Albin Michel (6) 1937 Faux passeports Corrêa 1938 L'Araigne Plon (3) 1939 Les enfants gâtés Gallimard (9) 1940 Les grandes vacances The Long Holiday 1948 Nouvelle France 1941 Vent de Mars Gallimard (10) 1942 Pareil à des enfants Gallimard (11) 1943 Passage de l'Homme When the Man Passed By 1962 Gallimard (12) 1944 Le premier accroc coûte 200 Francs A Fine of Two Hundred Francs 1947 Denoël 1945 Mon village à l'heure allemande Flammarion (2) 1946 Histoire d'un Fait divers Julliard 1947 Les Forêts de la Nuit The Forests of the Night 1950 Julliard (2) 1948 Les grandes familles The Rise of Simon Lachaume 1952 The PossessorsLes grandes familles 19581989 Julliard (3) 1949 Week end à Zuydcoote Week end at Zuydcoote 1950 Weekend at Dunkirk 1964 Gallimard (13) 1950 Les jeux sauvages Savage Play 1953 Gallimard (14) 1951 Le Rivage des Syrtes The Opposing Shore 1986 José Corti 1952 Léon Morin, prêtre The Priest (UK), The Passionate Heart (US) 1953 Léon Morin, PriestLéon Morin, prêtre 19611991 Gallimard (15) 1953 Les Bêtes Gallimard (16) 1954 Les Mandarins The Mandarins 1957 Gallimard (17) 1955 Les eaux mêlées Les eaux mêlées 1969 Albin Michel (7) 1956 Les racines du ciel The Roots of Heaven 1957 The Roots of Heaven 1958 Gallimard (18) 1957 La Loi The Law 1958 The Law 1959 Gallimard (19) 1958 Saint Germain ou la négociation Gallimard (20) 1959 Le dernier des Justes The Last of the Just 1960 Seuil 1960 Dieu est né en exil God Was Born in Exile 1961 Fayard (3) 1961 La pitié de Dieu The Mercy of God 1963 Gallimard (21) 1962 Les bagages de sable The Lost Shore 1964 Gallimard (22) 1963 Quand la mer se retire Quand la mer se retire 1963 Julliard (4) 1964 L'Etat sauvage The Savage State 1978 Albin Michel (8) 1965 L'Adoration The Bond 1968 Gallimard (23) 1966 Oublier Palerme To Forget Palermo 1968 Dimenticare Palermo 1990 Grasset (5) 1967 La Marge The Margin 1970 The Margin 1976 Gallimard (24) 1968 Les fruits de l'hiver The Fruits of Winter 1969 Robert Laffont 1969 Creezy Creezy 1970 Creezy 1974 Gallimard (25) 1970 Le Roi des Aulnes The Erl King (UK) or The Ogre (US) 1972 The Ogre 1996 Gallimard (26) 1971 Les Bêtises Grasset (6) 1972 L'Epervier de Maheux Pauvert 1973 L'Ogre A Father's Love (1975) or The Tyrant (2012) 1975 Grasset (7) 1974 La Dentellière A Web of Lace (1976) or The Lacemaker (2008) 1976 The Lacemaker 1977 Gallimard (27) 1975 (Romain Gary) La vie devant soi Momo (1978) or The Life Before Us (1986) 1978 Madame RosaThe Life Ahead 19772020 Mercure de France (3) 1976 Les Flamboyants Seuil (2) 1977 John l'enfer Seuil (3) 1978 Rue des boutiques obscures Missing Person 1980 Gallimard (28) 1979 Pélagie la Charrette Pélagie: The Return to Acadie 1982 Grasset (8) 1980 Le Jardin d'acclimatation Cronus' Children 1986 Flammarion (3) 1981 Anne Marie Grasset (9) 1982 Dans la main de l'Ange Grasset (10) 1983 Les égarés The Lost Ones 1991 Balland 1984 L'Amant The Lover 1986 The Lover 1992 Minuit 1985 Les Noces barbares The Wedding 1987 The Cruel Embrace 1987 Gallimard (29) 1986 Valet de nuit Grasset (11) 1987 La nuit sacrée The Sacred Night 1989 La Nuit sacrée 1993 Seuil (4) 1988 L'Exposition coloniale Love and Empire 1991 Seuil (5) 1989 Un grand pas vers le Bon Dieu Grasset (12) 1990 Les Champs d'honneur Fields of Glory 1992 Minuit (2) 1991 Les Filles du Calvaire Grasset (13) 1992 Texaco Texaco 1998 Gallimard (30) 1993 Le Rocher de Tanios The Rock of Tanios 1994 Grasset (14) 1994 Un Aller simple One Way 2003 One Way Ticket 2001 Albin Michel (9) 1995 Le Testament français Dreams of My Russian Summers 1998 Mercure de France (4) 1996 Le Chasseur Zéro Albin Michel (10) 1997 La Bataille The Battle 2000 Grasset (15) 1998 Confidence pour confidence Trading Secrets 2001 Gallimard (31) 1999 Je m'en vais I'm Gone (US) or I'm Off (UK) 2001 Minuit (3) 2000 Ingrid Caven Ingrid Caven 2004 Gallimard (32) 2001 Rouge Brésil Brazil Red 2004 Gallimard (33) 2002 Les Ombres errantes The Roving Shadows 2011 Grasset (16) 2003 La maîtresse de Brecht Brecht's Lover (US) or Brecht's Mistress (UK) 2005 Albin Michel (11) 2004 Le Soleil des Scorta The House of Scorta (US 2006) The Scortas' Sun (UK 2007) 2006 Actes Sud 2005 Trois jours chez ma mère Grasset (17) 2006 Les Bienveillantes The Kindly Ones 2009 Gallimard (34) 2007 Alabama Song Mercure de France (5) 2008 Syngué Sabour: La pierre de patience Stone of Patience (UK) or The Patience Stone (US) 2010 The Patience Stone 2012 P. O. L 2009 Trois femmes puissantes Three Strong Women 2012 Gallimard (35) 2010 La Carte et le territoire The Map and the Territory 2012 Flammarion (4) 2011 L'Art français de la guerre The French Art of War 2017 Gallimard (36) 2012 Le Sermon sur la chute de Rome The Sermon on the Fall of Rome 2014 Actes Sud (2) 2013 Au revoir là haut The Great Swindle 2015 See You Up There 2017 Albin Michel (12) 2014 Pas pleurer Cry, Mother Spain 2016 Seuil (6) 2015 Boussole Compass 2017 Actes Sud (3) 2016 Chanson douce Lullaby (UK)The Perfect Nanny (USA) 2018 Perfect Nanny 2019 Gallimard (37) 2017 L'Ordre du jour The Order of the Day 2018 Actes Sud (4) 2018 Leurs enfants après eux And Their Children After Them 2019 And Their Children After Them 2024 Actes Sud (5) 2019 Tous les hommes n'habitent pas le monde de la même façon Not Everybody Lives the Same Way 2022 L'Olivier 2020 L'Anomalie The Anomaly 2021 Gallimard (38) 2021 La plus secrète mémoire des hommes The Most Secret Memory of Men 2023 Philippe Rey / Jimsaan2022 Brigitte Giraud Vivre Vite Flammarion (5)2023 Jean Baptiste Andrea Veiller sur elle L'Iconoclaste (1)