Prix Goncourt

Prix Goncourt
Awarded for	"the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"
Date	November, annual
Country	France
Presented by	Académie Goncourt
Reward(s)	€10
First awarded	1903
Website	academie-goncourt.fr

The Prix Goncourt (French: Le prix Goncourt, IPA: [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.^[1] 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.^[1]

Edmond de Goncourt, a successful author, critic, and publisher, bequeathed his estate for the foundation and maintenance of the Académie Goncourt.^[2] 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.^[2] The jury that determines the winner meets at the Drouant restaurant in November to make its decision.^[3] 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).^[2]

The award was initially established to provide talented new authors with a monetary award that would allow them to write a second book.^[4] 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."^[5] Hervé Le Tellier's The Anomaly, which won the Goncourt in 2020, exceeded a million copies in less than a year after its publication.^[6]

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.^[7]

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.^[8]

Some choices have been controversial, a famous example was Marcel Proust in 1919; it was met with indignation by the public since many believed that the prize should have gone to Roland Dorgelès for Les Croix de bois, a novel about the First World War.^[9][10] 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.^[9][10]

In 1921, Rene Maran won the Goncourt with Batouala, veritable roman negre, the first French novel to openly criticize European colonialism in Africa.^[11] The novel caused "violent reactions" and was banned in all the French colonies.^[11]

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.^[12] The voting process became the basis of the 1992 book Goncourt 32 by Eugène Saccomano.^[13]

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.^[14] The Académie Goncourt awarded the prize to Ajar without knowing his real identity.^[14] A period of literary intrigue followed. Gary's cousin's son Paul Pavlowitch posed as the author for a time. Gary later revealed the truth in his posthumous book Vie et mort d'Émile Ajar.^[14]

In September 2021, the Goncourt attracted controversy after the jury decided, by a vote of 7 to 3, to include Les enfants de Cadillac by François Noudelmann on its 2021 list of finalists. Noudelmann is the partner of Camille Laurens, who is a member of the prize's jury. Laurens voted in favor of her partner's book.^[15] 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.^[16]

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.^[17]

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 12:45 p.m., the Secretary General, currently 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.^[18]

Prix Goncourt winners^[19]

Year		Author	French title	English title	Transl. year	Film title	Film year	Notes	Publisher (x time)
1903		John Antoine Nau	Force ennemie	Enemy Force	2010	—	—		La Plume
1904		Léon Frapié	La Maternelle	—	—	La Maternelle	1933		Albin Michel
1905		Claude Farrère	Les Civilisés	—	—	—	—		Paul Ollendorff
1906		Jean and Jérôme Tharaud	Dingley, l'illustre écrivain	—	—	—	—		Édouard Pelletan
1907		Émile Moselly	Le Rouet d'ivoire and Jean des Brebis ou le livre de la misère	—	—	—	—	[n 1]	Plon
1908		Francis de Miomandre	Écrit sur de l'eau...	—	—	—	—		Édition du Feu, later Émile-Paul Frères
1909		Marius-Ary Leblond	En France	—	—	—	—		Fasquelle
1910		Louis Pergaud	De Goupil à Margot	—	—	—	—		Mercure de France
1911		Alphonse de Châteaubriant	Monsieur des Lourdines	The Keynote	1912	Monsieur des Lourdines	1943		Grasset
1912		André Savignon	Les Filles de la pluie	—	—	—	—		Grasset (2)
1913		Marc Elder	Le peuple de la mer	—	—	—	—		Calmann-Lévy
1914		Adrien Bertrand	L'Appel du Sol	The Call of the Soil	1919	—	—	[n 2]	Calmann-Lévy (2)
1915		René Benjamin	Gaspard	Private Gaspard	1916	—	—		Fayard
1916		Henri Barbusse	Le Feu	Under Fire	1917	—	—	[n 3]	Flammarion
1917		Henry Malherbe	La Flamme au poing	The Flame That Is France	1918	—	—		Albin Michel (2)
1918		Georges Duhamel	Civilisation	Civilization	1919	—	—		Mercure de France (2)
1919		Marcel Proust	A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs	Within a Budding Grove	1920	—	—	[n 4]	Gallimard
1920		Ernest Pérochon	Nêne	Nêne	1920	Nène[21]	1924		Plon (2)
1921		René Maran	Batouala	Batouala	1921	—	—		Albin Michel (3)
1922		Henri Béraud	Le vitriol de la lune and Le martyre de l'obèse	—	—	—	—		Albin Michel (4)
1923		Lucien Fabre	Rabevel ou Le mal des ardents	—	—	—	—		Gallimard (2)
1924		Thierry Sandre	Le Chèvrefeuille, le Purgatoire, le Chapitre XIII	—	—	—	—		Gallimard (3)
1925		Maurice Genevoix	Raboliot	—	—	Raboliot Raboliot[22] Raboliot[23]	1946 1972 2008		Grasset (3)
1926		Henri Deberly	Le supplice de Phèdre	—	—	—	—		Gallimard (4)
1927		Maurice Bedel	Jérôme 60° latitude nord	Jerome: or, The Latitude of Love	1928	—	—		Gallimard (5)
1928		Maurice Constantin-Weyer	Un Homme se penche sur son passé	A Man Scans His Past	1929	Un homme se penche sur son passé[24] Les amants de rivière rouge[25]	1958 1996		Rieder
1929		Marcel Arland	L'Ordre	—	—	L'Ordre[26]	1985		Gallimard (6)
1930		H. Fauconnier	Malaisie	The Soul of Malaya or Malaisie	1931	—	—		Stock
1931		Jean Fayard	Mal d'amour	Desire	1931	—	—		Fayard (2)
1932		Guy Mazeline	Les Loups	The Wolves	1935	—	—		Gallimard (7)
1933		André Malraux	La Condition humaine	Man's Fate	1934	—	—		Gallimard (8)
1934		Roger Vercel	Capitaine Conan	Captain Conan	1935	Capitaine Conan	1996		Albin Michel (5)
1935		Joseph Peyre	Sang et Lumières	—	—	—	—		Grasset (4)
1936		Maxence Van Der Meersch	L'Empreinte de Dieu	Hath Not the Potter	1937	—	—		Albin Michel (6)
1937		Charles Plisnier	Faux passeports	—	—	—	—	[n 5]	Corrêa
1938		Henri Troyat	L'Araigne	—	—	—	—		Plon (3)
1939		Philippe Hériat	Les enfants gâtés	—	—	—	—		Gallimard (9)
1940		Francis Ambrière	Les grandes vacances	The Long Holiday	1948	—	—	[n 6]	Nouvelle France
1941		Henri Pourrat	Vent de Mars	—	—	—	—		Gallimard (10)
1942		Marc Bernard	Pareil à des enfants	—	—	—	—		Gallimard (11)
1943		Marius Grout	Passage de l'Homme	When the Man Passed By	1962	—	—		Gallimard (12)
1944		Elsa Triolet	Le premier accroc coûte 200 Francs	A Fine of Two Hundred Francs	1947	—	—		Denoël
1945		Jean-Louis Bory	Mon village à l'heure allemande	—	—	—	—		Flammarion (2)
1946		Jean-Jacques Gautier	Histoire d'un Fait divers	—	—	—	—		Julliard
1947		Jean-Louis Curtis	Les Forêts de la Nuit	The Forests of the Night	1950	—	—		Julliard (2)
1948		Maurice Druon	Les grandes familles	The Rise of Simon Lachaume	1952	The Possessors Les grandes familles[27]	1958 1989		Julliard (3)
1949		Robert Merle	Week-end à Zuydcoote	Week-end at Zuydcoote	1950	Weekend at Dunkirk	1964		Gallimard (13)
1950		Paul Colin	Les jeux sauvages	Savage Play	1953	—	—		Gallimard (14)
1951		Julien Gracq	Le Rivage des Syrtes	The Opposing Shore	1986	—	—	[n 7]	José Corti
1952		Béatrix Beck	Léon Morin, prêtre	The Priest (UK), The Passionate Heart (US)	1953	Léon Morin, Priest Léon Morin, prêtre[28]	1961 1991		Gallimard (15)
1953		Pierre Gascar	Les Bêtes	—	—	—	—		Gallimard (16)
1954		Simone de Beauvoir	Les Mandarins	The Mandarins	1957	—	—		Gallimard (17)
1955		Roger Ikor	Les eaux mêlées	—	—	Les eaux mêlées[29]	1969		Albin Michel (7)
1956		Romain Gary	Les racines du ciel	The Roots of Heaven	1957	The Roots of Heaven	1958		Gallimard (18)
1957		Roger Vailland	La Loi	The Law	1958	The Law	1959		Gallimard (19)
1958		Francis Walder	Saint-Germain ou la négociation	—	—	—	—		Gallimard (20)
1959		André Schwarz-Bart	Le dernier des Justes	The Last of the Just	1960	—	—		Seuil
1960		Vintilă Horia	Dieu est né en exil	God Was Born in Exile	1961	—	—		Fayard (3)
1961		Jean Cau	La pitié de Dieu	The Mercy of God	1963	—	—		Gallimard (21)
1962		Anna Langfus	Les bagages de sable	The Lost Shore	1964	—	—		Gallimard (22)
1963		Armand Lanoux	Quand la mer se retire	—	—	Quand la mer se retire[30]	1963		Julliard (4)
1964		Georges Conchon	L'Etat sauvage	—	—	The Savage State	1978		Albin Michel (8)
1965		Jacques Borel	L'Adoration	The Bond	1968	—	—		Gallimard (23)
1966		Edmonde Charles-Roux	Oublier Palerme	To Forget Palermo	1968	Dimenticare Palermo	1990		Grasset (5)
1967		André Pieyre de Mandiargues	La Marge	The Margin	1970	The Margin	1976		Gallimard (24)
1968		Bernard Clavel	Les fruits de l'hiver	The Fruits of Winter	1969	—	—		Robert Laffont
1969		Félicien Marceau	Creezy	Creezy	1970	Creezy	1974		Gallimard (25)
1970		Michel Tournier	Le Roi des Aulnes	The Erl-King (UK) or The Ogre (US)	1972	The Ogre	1996		Gallimard (26)
1971		Jacques Laurent	Les Bêtises	—	—	—	—		Grasset (6)
1972		Jean Carrière	L'Epervier de Maheux	—	—	—	—		Pauvert
1973		Jacques Chessex	L'Ogre	A Father's Love (1975) or The Tyrant (2012)	1975	—	—	[n 8]	Grasset (7)
1974		Pascal Lainé	La Dentellière	A Web of Lace (1976) or The Lacemaker (2008)[31]	1976	The Lacemaker	1977		Gallimard (27)
1975		Émile Ajar (Romain Gary)	La vie devant soi	Momo (1978) or The Life Before Us (1986)	1978	Madame Rosa The Life Ahead	1977 2020	[n 9]	Mercure de France (3)
1976		Patrick Grainville	Les Flamboyants	—	—	—	—		Seuil (2)
1977		Didier Decoin	John l'enfer	—	—	—	—		Seuil (3)
1978		Patrick Modiano	Rue des boutiques obscures	Missing Person	1980	—	—		Gallimard (28)
1979		Antonine Maillet	Pélagie-la-Charrette	Pélagie: The Return to Acadie	1982	—	—		Grasset (8)
1980		Yves Navarre	Le Jardin d'acclimatation	Cronus' Children	1986	—	—		Flammarion (3)
1981		Lucien Bodard	Anne-Marie	—	—	—	—		Grasset (9)
1982		Dominique Fernandez	Dans la main de l'Ange	—	—	—	—		Grasset (10)
1983		Frédérick Tristan	Les égarés	The Lost Ones	1991	—	—		Balland
1984		Marguerite Duras	L'Amant	The Lover	1986	The Lover	1992		Minuit
1985		Yann Queffélec	Les Noces barbares	The Wedding	1987	The Cruel Embrace	1987		Gallimard (29)
1986		Michel Host	Valet de nuit	—	—	—	—		Grasset (11)
1987		Tahar Ben Jelloun	La nuit sacrée	The Sacred Night	1989	La Nuit sacrée[32]	1993		Seuil (4)
1988		Érik Orsenna	L'Exposition coloniale	Love and Empire	1991	—	—		Seuil (5)
1989		Jean Vautrin	Un grand pas vers le Bon Dieu	—	—	—	—		Grasset (12)
1990		Jean Rouaud	Les Champs d'honneur	Fields of Glory	1992	—	—		Minuit (2)
1991		Pierre Combescot	Les Filles du Calvaire	—	—	—	—		Grasset (13)
1992		Patrick Chamoiseau	Texaco	Texaco	1998	—	—		Gallimard (30)
1993		Amin Maalouf	Le Rocher de Tanios	The Rock of Tanios	1994	—	—		Grasset (14)
1994		Didier Van Cauwelaert	Un Aller simple	One-Way	2003	One Way Ticket[33]	2001		Albin Michel (9)
1995		Andreï Makine	Le Testament français	Dreams of My Russian Summers	1998	—	—		Mercure de France (4)
1996		Pascale Roze	Le Chasseur Zéro	—	—	—	—		Albin Michel (10)
1997		Patrick Rambaud	La Bataille	The Battle	2000	—	—		Grasset (15)
1998		Paule Constant	Confidence pour confidence	Trading Secrets	2001	—	—		Gallimard (31)
1999		Jean Echenoz	Je m'en vais	I'm Gone (US) or I'm Off (UK)	2001	—	—		Minuit (3)
2000		Jean-Jacques Schuhl	Ingrid Caven	Ingrid Caven	2004	—	—		Gallimard (32)
2001		Jean-Christophe Rufin	Rouge Brésil	Brazil Red	2004	—	—		Gallimard (33)
2002		Pascal Quignard	Les Ombres errantes	The Roving Shadows	2011	—	—		Grasset (16)
2003		Jacques-Pierre Amette	La maîtresse de Brecht	Brecht's Lover (US) or Brecht's Mistress (UK)	2005	—	—		Albin Michel (11)
2004		Laurent Gaudé	Le Soleil des Scorta	The House of Scorta (US 2006) The Scortas' Sun (UK 2007)	2006	—	—		Actes Sud
2005		François Weyergans	Trois jours chez ma mère	—	—	—	—		Grasset (17)
2006		Jonathan Littell	Les Bienveillantes	The Kindly Ones	2009	—	—		Gallimard (34)
2007		Gilles Leroy	Alabama Song	—	—	—	—		Mercure de France (5)
2008		Atiq Rahimi	Syngué Sabour: La pierre de patience	Stone of Patience (UK) or The Patience Stone (US)	2010	The Patience Stone	2012		P.O.L
2009		Marie NDiaye	Trois femmes puissantes	Three Strong Women	2012	—	—		Gallimard (35)
2010		Michel Houellebecq	La Carte et le territoire	The Map and the Territory	2012	—	—		Flammarion (4)
2011		Alexis Jenni	L'Art français de la guerre	The French Art of War	2017	—	—		Gallimard (36)
2012		Jérôme Ferrari	Le Sermon sur la chute de Rome	The Sermon on the Fall of Rome	2014	—	—		Actes Sud (2)
2013		Pierre Lemaitre	Au revoir là-haut	The Great Swindle	2015	See You Up There	2017		Albin Michel (12)
2014		Lydie Salvayre	Pas pleurer	Cry, Mother Spain	2016	—	—		Seuil (6)
2015		Mathias Énard	Boussole	Compass	2017	—	—		Actes Sud (3)
2016		Leïla Slimani	Chanson douce	Lullaby (UK) The Perfect Nanny (USA)	2018	Perfect Nanny	2019		Gallimard (37)
2017		Éric Vuillard	L'Ordre du jour	The Order of the Day	2018	—	—		Actes Sud (4)
2018		Nicolas Mathieu	Leurs enfants après eux	And Their Children After Them	2019	And Their Children After Them	2024		Actes Sud (5)
2019		Jean-Paul Dubois	Tous les hommes n'habitent pas le monde de la même façon	Not Everybody Lives the Same Way	2022	—	—		L'Olivier
2020		Hervé Le Tellier	L'Anomalie	The Anomaly	2021	—	—		Gallimard (38)
2021		Mohamed Mbougar Sarr	La plus secrète mémoire des hommes	The Most Secret Memory of Men	2023	—	—	[n 10]	Philippe Rey / Jimsaan
2022		Brigitte Giraud	Vivre Vite	—	—	—	—		Flammarion (5)
2023		Jean-Baptiste Andrea	Veiller sur elle	Watching Over Her	2025	—	—		L'Iconoclaste (1)
2024		Kamel Daoud	Houris	—	—	—	—		Gallimard (39)

In addition to the Prix Goncourt for a novel, the Academy awards four other awards, for first novel, short story, biography and poetry.

As of March 2009, the académie changed the award name by dropping "bourses" ("scholarship") from the title.^[35][36] The prefix "prix" can be included or not, such as "Prix Goncourt de la Poésie" (Goncourt prize for Poetry) or "Goncourt de la Poésie" (Goncourt of Poetry). For example: "Claude Vigée was awarded a Goncourt de la Poésie in 2008". Or, "Claude Vigée won the 2008 prix Goncourt de la Poésie".

The award titles are:

The winners are listed below.^[37]

Goncourt Prize for biography. Awarded in partnership with the city of Nancy. The prize was renamed officially in 2017 the Prix Goncourt de la Biographie Edmonde Charles-Roux, after a former president of the Goncourt Academy.

Goncourt Prize for short stories. Begun in 1974 in the form of scholarships. Awarded in partnership with the city of Strasbourg since 2001.

Goncourt Prize for debut novel. Awarded in partnership with the municipality of Paris.

Goncourt Prize for poetry. Established through the bequest of Adrien Bertrand (Prix Goncourt in 1914). The award is for the poet's entire career work. The prize was officially renamed in 2012 the Prix Goncourt de la Poésie Robert Sabatier, after the poet.

Goncrout Prize for children's literature. Awarded in partnership with the municipality of Fontvieille. Discontinued after 2007.

• 1999 – Claude Guillot and Fabienne Burckel, Le fantôme de Shanghai
• 2000 – Eric Battut, Rouge Matou
• 2002 – Fred Bernard and François Roca, Jeanne and le Mokélé and Jesus Betz
• 2003 – Yvan Pommaux, Avant la Télé
• 2004 – Jean Chalon and Martine Delerm, Un arbre dans la lune
• 2005 – Natali Fortier, Lili Plume
• 2006 – Bernard du Boucheron and Nicole Claveloux, Un roi, une princesse and une pieuvre
• 2007 – Véronique Ovaldé and Joëlle Jolivet, La très petite Zébuline

• Prix Renaudot – announced at the same ceremony as the Prix Goncourt, it has become something of a second-place prize.
• Prix Goncourt des Lycéens
• Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française
• List of French literary awards

For a more comprehensive overview a list of literary awards is available.

Notes

References