Mario Vargas Llosa (left) with Daniel Rondeau (right), before his admission ceremony at the French Academy. EMMANUEL DUNAND (AFP)
The Spanish-Peruvian writer and Nobel Prize for Literature Mario Vargas Llosa enters the French Academy today, where he will occupy the 18th seat. This is one of the most important events in the cultural life of the country and also in the history of the institution, founded by Richelieu in 1635: never before has anyone been allowed to enter who has not published a single book in the French language, whose defense and preservation is the organization's raison d'être.
Among those attending the event, is the emeritus king of Spain, Juan Carlos I, personally invited by the writer himself.
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The entrance ceremony of Mario Vargas Llosa in the French Academy |
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Mario Vargas Llosa, during the ceremony, this Thursday in Paris. Photo: Emmanuel Dunand (AFP)
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Vargas Llosa will thus become
immortal,
as the 40 members of the conclave in charge of "defending the French language" and preserving its "immortality" are known.
The candidacy, as the novelist himself explained in November 2021, arose from a conversation in Paris with his friend, the writer and academic Daniel Rondeau.
“We had a coffee.
And he was with another academic with us, ”he recalled.
“And suddenly they told me that the French Academy was waiting for me.
And there they practically set up an ambush from which I have turned out to be a French academic”.
The
perpetual secretary
of the institution, Hélène Carrère d'Encausse, 93, defended this week the choice of the author of
The City and the Dogs,
The Feast of the Goat
or
Conversation from The Cathedral
, despite the fact that he has never written in French:
“I don't know anyone who speaks as highly of Flaubert as he does.
He has helped French culture more than many French writers.
King Emeritus Juan Carlos and Infanta Cristina arrive at the event in Paris this Thursday.
SARAH MEYSSONNIER (REUTERS)