The Peruvian writer, who is already in Paris with his family, will receive his sword this afternoon as a member of the academic entity in a private ceremony at the Gallimard publishing house.
Spanish-Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa will enter the French Academy tomorrow in a solemn ceremony that will take place in this institution founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu during the reign of Louis XIII and whose mission is to ensure the French language. Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, will receive his sword this afternoon as a member of the French Academy in a private ceremony that will take place at the headquarters of the Gallimard publishing house, which publishes its books in France. Traditionally, the hilt of the sword bears the symbols representing the life and work of the future academic.
Born in Arequipa (Peru) and a Spanish citizen, the writer was elected a member of the French Academy on November 25, 2021, despite the fact that he has not written any books in French and is over the age set in the regulations of this institution (75 years ) to become a member. The 86-year-old writer will occupy the 18th chair, which became vacant after the death in 2019 of the French philosopher Michel Serres.
His public “installation” as a member of the French Academy will take place under the umbrella of this institution that was founded four centuries ago and is the equivalent in Spain of the Royal Spanish Academy of Language.
The author of “Pantaleon and the visitors” will be part of the select club of “the immortals”, the name given to the guardians of the language of Molière. They are named after the motto “Towards Immortality” which appears on the emblem of the institution, created in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, which in reality refers to the French language, not to academics.
Among those invited to the ceremony stands out the Emeritus King Juan Carlos I of Spain, who personally invited Vargas Llosa to the ceremony. The former monarch, in exile in the United Arab Emirates since 2020, made him Marquis in 2011.
In the French capital there are also the three children of the writer (Gonzalo, Álvaro and Morgana) and his ex-wife Patricia Llosa, whom he divorced as a result of his infamous affair with Isabel Presley. The writer and the ‘queen of the press of hearts’ separated at the end of 2022.
Varga Llosa will wear for the first time at the ceremony the famous black frock coat, embroidered with green and gold olive branches, worn by French academics during official ceremonies. True to tradition, the author of “The city and the dogs” and “La fiesta del Chivo” will read a speech in honor of Michel Serres, his predecessor in the chair.
With his entry into the French Academy, Vargas Llosa returns to Paris, the city where he lived between 1956 and 1966 and where, he says, he was forged as a writer and where he met many Latin American writers such as Julio Cortázar, Alejo Onder others Carpentier, Jorge Edwards and Jorge Luis Borges.
The new “Immortal”, who speaks French, is an outspoken Francophile. Despite writing in Spanish, his work was heavily influenced by French literature, which he devoured from an early age. One of the French novels that made the greatest impression on him was “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert, founder of the modern novel. His son, Álvaro Vargas Llosa, tweeted a video on Dec. 30 of the writer reading a first edition (1857) of “Madame Bovary” to say goodbye to the year.
The writer, who has won the Cervantes Prize in addition to the Nobel Prize, has also been a member of the Peruvian Language Academy since 1975 and of the Royal Spanish Academy since 1994. In 2016, Vargas Llosa became the first living non-French writer published in the select collection of La Pléiade classics.
Source: La Verdad
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