Françoise Chandernagor
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Françoise Chandernagor is a French writer, born June 15, 1945. She is the daughter of André Chandernagor. She is a former student of the National School of Administration - École nationale d'administration, and she became a member of the Council of State in 1969.
In 1991, Françoise Chandernagor produced the report of the Council of State on judicial public rights.
She left the administration and abandoned her career as a civil servant in 1993, to dedicate her time to writing. She is a member of the Académie Goncourt.
She was born to a family of masons related to the descendants of an Indian free slave (hence her name). She married Philippe Jurgensen and is the mother of three children. Françoise Chandernagor divided her life between Paris and France's central region.
After receiving a diploma from the institute of political studies of Paris and a master's degree in public rights, she entered at the age of twenty-one the National School of Administration - École nationale d'administration (ÉNA), finishing two years later at the head of her department, the first woman to reach this position.
In 1969 she entered the State Counsel where she exercised different jurisdictional functions, most notably as Attorney-General.
She also occupied several positions in the foreign administrations, both in the cultural and economic sectors, and assumed responsibilities as a volunteer in charitable organizations, notably as the vice president of the France Foundation until 1988 and as the vice president of Aguesseau Foundation.
In 1991, she composed the annual report of the Council of State on the "sécurité juridique" (The protection of the rights of the citizen in the judicial system).
Since 1981, when she published The King's Way (memories of Madam de Maintenon - Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, the second wife of Louis XIV, Françoise Chandernagor wrote six novels and a play (Brussels in 1993-1994 and to Paris in 1994-1995). Several of her novels were translated in fifteen languages, and two of them were the object of television adaptations.
Françoise Chandernagor presides the John Giono Prize, and is currently the administrator of the Foundation of the Castle of Maintenon, Corporation of the readers of the World, and Century. She is member of the Académie Goncourt since June 1995.
[edit] Anecdote
Rumor has it that Françoise Chandernagor, during her "big speech" of entry to the ENA, answered the question of the jury: " What difference do you make between a lover and a husband? " by this answer for the less daring: - "it is day and night"!
[edit] Works
- L'Allée du Roi (1981)
- Leçons de ténèbres
- La Sans Pareille (1988)
- L'Archange de Vienne (1989)
- L'Enfant aux loups (1990)
- L'Ombre du Soleil (monologue théâtral d'après L'Allée du Roi, 1994)
- L'Enfant des Lumières (1995)
- La Première épouse (1998)
- Maintenon (en collaboration avec Georges Poisson, 2001)
- La Chambre (2002)
- Couleur du temps (2004)
