Editing Maurice Barrès (section)

===Early years===
[[File:Maurice Barrès' Picture.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|Portrait of a young Maurice Barrès]]
[[File:Page de titre - Barrès - Les Déracinés.jpeg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|''[[Les Déracinés]]'', published in 1897]]
Born at [[Charmes, Vosges]], he received his secondary education at the ''[[lycée]]'' of [[Nancy, France|Nancy]], attending there the lessons of [[Auguste Burdeau]], later pictured as social climber Paul Bouteiller in ''[[Les Déracinés]]''. In 1883 continued his legal studies in Paris. Establishing himself at first in the {{Lang|fr|[[Quartier Latin]]|italic=no}}, he became acquainted with [[Leconte de Lisle]]'s [[cenacle]] and with the [[Symbolism (arts)|symbolist]]s in the 1880s, even meeting [[Victor Hugo]] once.<ref name=Academie/><ref name=Nancy/> He had already started contributing to the monthly periodical, ''Jeune France'' (''Young France''), and he now issued a periodical of his own, ''Les Taches d'encre'', which survived for only a few months. After four years of journalism he settled in Italy, where he wrote ''Sous l'œil des barbares'' (1888), the first volume of a ''trilogie du moi'' (also called ''Le Culte du moi'' or ''[[The Cult of the Self]]''), completed by ''Un Homme libre'' (1889), and ''Le Jardin de Bérénice'' (1891). ''The Cult of the Self'' trilogy was influenced by [[Romanticism]], and also made an apology of the pleasure of the senses.

He supplemented these apologies for his narcissism with ''L'Ennemi des lois'' (1892), and with an admirable volume of impressions of travel, ''Du sang, de la volupté, de la mort'' (1893). Barrès wrote his early books in an elaborate and often very obscure style.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The [[Comédie Française]] produced his play ''Une Journée parlementaire'' in 1894. A year after establishing himself in [[Neuilly-sur-Seine|Neuilly]], he began his trilogy in 1897, ''Le Roman de l'énergie nationale'' (''Novel of the National Energy''), with the publication of ''Les Déracinés''.<ref name=Nancy>[http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/ia54//SaulxuresBarres/Maurice_Barres.htm Biographical notice] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930023532/http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/ia54//SaulxuresBarres/Maurice_Barres.htm |date=30 September 2007 }} French National Education website (Nancy) {{in lang|fr}}</ref> In this second major trilogy, he superated his early individualism with a patriotic fidelity to the fatherland and an [[organicist]] conception of the [[nationalism|nation]].<ref name=Academie/> Affected by the [[Dreyfus Affair]], and finding himself on the side of the Anti-Dreyfusards, Barrès played a leading role alongside [[Charles Maurras]], which initiated his shift to the political right; Barrès oriented himself towards a lyrical form of nationalism, founded on the cult of the earth and the dead ("''la terre et les morts''", "earth and the dead"—''[[#Political activism|see below for details]]'').<ref name=Academie/>

The ''Roman de l'énergie nationale'' trilogy makes a plea for local patriotism, [[militarism]], the faith to one's roots and to one's family, and for the preservation of the distinctive qualities of the [[provinces of France|old French provinces]]. ''Les Déracinés'' narrates the adventures of seven young [[Lorraine (province)|Lorrainers]] who set out to conquer fortune in Paris. Six of them survive in the second novel of the trilogy, ''L'Appel au soldat'' (1900), which gives the history of Boulangism; the sequel, ''Leurs figures'' (1902), deals with the [[Panama scandal]]s. Later works include:
*''Scènes et doctrines du nationalisme ''(1902)
*''Les Amitiés françaises'' (1903), in which he urges the inculcation of patriotism by the early study of national history
*''Ce que j'ai vu à Rennes'' (1904)
*''Au service de l'Allemagne'' (1905), the experiences of an Alsatian conscript in a German regiment
*''Le Voyage de Sparte'' (1906).

He presented himself in 1905 to the [[Académie française]], but was supplanted by [[Etienne Lamy]]. He then tried again, but inclined himself before the candidacy of the former Minister [[Alexandre Ribot]]. But he was finally elected the next year, gaining 25 voices against 8 to Edmond Hauraucourt and one to Jean Aicart on 25 January 1906.<ref name=Academie/>

Barrès was also a friend since his youth of the occultist [[Stanislas de Guaita]], and was attracted by Asia, [[sufism]] and [[Shia Islam|shi'ism]]. But he returned in his later years to the Catholic faith, engaging in ''[[L'Echo de Paris]]'' a campaign in favour of the restoration of the churches of France. His son [[Philippe Barrès]] followed him in a journalism career.