Which French novelist won the 1937 Nobel Prize in Literature for the novel cycle Les Thibault?

Roger Martin du Gard won the 1937 Nobel Prize in Literature for the novel cycle Les Thibault. The Swedish Academy praised its artistic power and truthful depiction of human conflict and contemporary life.

Les Thibault follows a bourgeois French family across the years leading to the First World War. The cycle examines family loyalty, religion, politics, class, pacifism and the pressures placed on individuals by social change. Its central figures include the brothers Antoine and Jacques Thibault, whose sharply different temperaments drive much of the story.

The work was published over many years, beginning in 1922. The Nobel citation referred to its then-seven-part form; an eighth and final part was published later. That long structure is why the work is often described as a roman-fleuve, or “river novel.”

The other listed names are major French writers, but none won the 1937 Literature Nobel for Les Thibault. André Gide won in 1947, while François Mauriac won in 1952.