Auguste-Maurice Barrès (August 19, 1862 – December 4, 1923) is a French novelist, journalist and politician.
Spending some time in Italy, he becomes a figure in French literature with the release of his work The Cult of the Self in 1888.
In politics, he is first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1889 as a Boulangist and will play a prominent political role for the rest of his life.
Barrès is associated in his literary works with Symbolism, a movement which has equivalence with British Aestheticism and Italian Decadentism; indeed he is a close associate of Gabriele d'Annunzio representing the latter.
As the name of his trilogy suggests, his works glorify a humanistic love of the self.
He also flirts with occult mysticisms in his youth.
The Dreyfus affair sees an ideological shift from a liberal individualism rooted in the French Revolution to a more collectivist and organic concept of the nation.
Advocating for corporatism and an organic society, he also becomes a leading anti-Dreyfusard, popularizing the term nationalisme to describe his views.
He stands on a platform of "Nationalism and Protectionism."
Politically, he becomes involved with various groups such as Paul Déroulède's Ligue des Patriotes, of which Barrès becomes the leader in 1914.
Barrès is close to Charles Maurras, the founder of Action Française, a monarchist party. \
Despite the fact that he remains a republican, Barrès will have a strong influence on various following French monarchists, as well as various other figures.
During the First World War, he is a strong supporter of the Union Sacrée political truce.
In later life, Barrès returns to the Catholic faith and is involved in a campaign to restore French church buildings and helps establish June 24 as a national day of remembrance for St. Joan of Arc.
