Editing Paul Claudel

{{Short description|French diplomat, poet and playwright (1868–1955)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. --> 
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| imagesize     = 
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| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1868|8|6|df=yes}}
| birth_place   = [[Villeneuve-sur-Fère]], France
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1955|2|23|1868|8|6|df=yes}}
| death_place   = Paris, France
| resting_place = 
| occupation    = 
| language      = French
| citizenship   = 
| education     = [[Lycée Louis-le-Grand]]
| alma_mater    = [[Paris Institute of Political Studies]]
| period        = 
| genre         = [[Verse drama]]
| subject       = 
| movement      = 
| notableworks  = 
| spouse        = Reine Sainte-Marie Perrin
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| children      = 
| relatives     = [[Camille Claudel]] (sister)
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| signature     = Paul Claudel signature 1914.jpg
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'''Paul Claudel''' ({{IPA|fr|pɔl klodɛl|lang}}; 6 August 1868 – 23 February 1955) was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor [[Camille Claudel]]. He was most famous for his [[verse drama]]s, which often convey his devout [[Catholicism]].

==Early life==
He was born in [[Villeneuve-sur-Fère]] ([[Aisne]]), into a family of farmers and government officials.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Paul Claudel, Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/french-literature-biographies/paul-claudel|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=2020-05-10}}</ref> His father, Louis-Prosper, dealt in mortgages and bank transactions. His mother, the former Louise Cerveaux, came from a Champagne family of Catholic farmers and priests. Having spent his first years in [[Champagne (province)|Champagne]], he studied at the ''[[lycée]]'' of [[Bar-le-Duc]] and at the [[Lycée Louis-le-Grand]] in 1881, when his parents moved to Paris.
[[File:Augustins - Paul Claudel à seize ans - Camille Claudel RA 941.jpg|thumb|left|140px|''Paul Claudel, age sixteen'', by his sister, [[Camille Claudel]], modeled in 1884 and cast in 1893]]
An unbeliever in his teenage years, Claudel experienced a conversion at age 18 on Christmas Day 1886 while listening to a choir sing [[Vespers]] in the cathedral of [[Notre-Dame de Paris]]: "In an instant, my heart was touched, and I believed." He remained an active Catholic for the rest of his life. In addition, he discovered [[Arthur Rimbaud]]'s book of poetry ''Illuminations''. He worked towards "the revelation through poetry, both lyrical and dramatic, of the grand design of creation".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Paul Claudel, French author|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Claudel|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-05-10}}</ref>

Claudel studied at the [[Sciences Po|Paris Institute of Political Studies]].

==Diplomat==
The young Claudel considered entering a monastery, but instead had a career in the French diplomatic service, in which he served from 1893 to 1936.

Claudel was first vice-consul in New York (April 1893),<ref name=":1" /> and later in [[Boston]] (December 1893). He was French [[Consulate general|consul]] in China during the period 1895 to 1909, with time in [[Shanghai]] (June 1895). On a break in 1900, he spent time at  [[Ligugé Abbey]], but his proposed entry to the [[Benedictine Order]] was postponed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ubersfeld |first1=Anne |title=Paul Claudel, Partage de midi: autobiographie et histoire |date=1999 |publisher=Presses Univ. Franche-Comté |isbn=978-2-913322-48-6 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_iVgXjiOYDwC&pg=PA10 |language=fr}}</ref> 

Claudel returned to China as vice-consul in [[Fuzhou]] (October 1900). He had a further break in France in 1905–6, when he married. He was one of a group of writers enjoying the support and patronage of [[Philippe Berthelot]] of the Foreign Ministry, who became a close friend; others were [[Jean Giraudoux]], [[Paul Morand]] and [[Saint-John Perse]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Neil |first1=Mary Anne |title=Twentieth-century French Dramatists |date=2006 |publisher=Thomson Gale |isbn=978-0-7876-8139-5 |page=219|volume=321 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nelis |first1=Jan |last2=Morelli |first2=Anne |last3=Praet |first3=Danny |title=Catholicism and Fascism in Europe 1918 - 1945 |date=1 May 2015 |publisher=Georg Olms Verlag |isbn=978-3-487-15243-1 |page=184 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YWtmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA184 |language=en}}</ref> Because of his position in the Diplomatic Service, at the beginning of his career Claudel published either anonymously or under a pseudonym, "since permission to publish was needed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Vagianos|first=Sylvia Caides|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uBi199W0tbIC&q=Paul+Claudel&pg=PA51|title=Paul Claudel and La Nouvelle Revue Française (1909-1918)|date=1979|publisher=Librairie Droz|isbn=978-2-600-03573-6|language=en}}</ref><sup>:11</sup> 

For that reason, Claudel remained rather obscure as an author to 1909, unwilling to ask permission to publish under his own name because the permission might not be granted.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:11</sup> In that year, the founding group of the ''[[Nouvelle Revue Française]]'' (NRF), and in particular his friend [[André Gide]], were keen to recognise his work. Claudel sent them, for the first issue, the poem ''Hymne du Sacre-Sacrement'', to fulsome praise from Gide, and it was published under his name. He had not sought permission to publish, and there was a furore in which he was criticised. Attacks based on his religious views were in February also affecting the production of one of his plays.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:15–17</sup> Berthelot's advice was to ignore the critics.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:18 note 42</sup> The affair began a long collaboration of the NRF with Claudel.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:12</sup>

Claudel also wrote extensively about China, with a definitive version of his ''Connaissance de l'Est'' published in 1914 by [[Georges Crès]] and [[Victor Segalen]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hsieh |first1=Yvonne Ying |title=From Occupation to Revolution: China Through the Eyes of Loti, Claudel, Segalen, and Malraux (1895-1933) |date=1996 |publisher=Summa Publications, Inc. |isbn=978-1-883479-13-8 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxrS3LwrMdsC&pg=PA34 |language=en}}</ref> In his final posting to China, he was consul in [[Tianjin]] (1906–1909).

In a series of European postings to the outbreak of [[World War I]], Claudel was in [[Prague]] (December 1909), [[Frankfurt am Main]] (October 1911), and [[Hamburg]] (October 1913). At this period he was interested in the theatre festival at [[Hellerau]], which put on one of his plays, and the ideas of [[Jacques Copeau]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vagianos |first1=Sylvia Caides |title=Paul Claudel and La Nouvelle Revue Française (1909-1918) |date=1979 |publisher=Librairie Droz |isbn=978-2-600-03573-6 |pages=113–114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uBi199W0tbIC&pg=PA113 |language=en}}</ref>

Claudel was in Rome (1915–1916), ''ministre plénipotentiaire'' in [[Rio de Janeiro]] (1917–1918), [[Copenhagen]] (1920), ambassador in Tokyo (1921–1927),<ref name=":1" /> Washington, D.C. (1928–1933, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in 1933)<ref>{{cite news|date=1 March 2013|title=Deans of the Diplomatic Corps|work=[[Bureau of Public Affairs]], [[U.S. Department of State]]|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/cpr/rls/93591.htm|access-date=24 September 2018}}</ref> and [[Brussels]] (1933–1936).<ref name=":1" /> While he served in Brazil during [[World War I]] he supervised the continued provision of food supplies from South America to France. His secretaries during the Brazil mission included [[Darius Milhaud]],  who wrote [[incidental music]] to a number of Claudel's plays.
[[File:Paul Claudel on TIME Magazine, March 21, 1927.jpg|thumb|Cover of ''Time Magazine'' (21 March 1927)]]

==Later life==
[[File:08 - Le château de Brangues (38510), propriété de Paul Claudel.jpg|thumb|The château of Brangues, 2009 photograph]]
In 1935 Claudel retired to [[Brangues]] in [[Dauphiné]], where he had bought the [[château]] in 1927. He still spent winters in Paris.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nichols |first1=Aidan |title=The Poet as Believer: A Theological Study of Paul Claudel |date=28 June 2013 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-1-4094-8148-5 |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hfqhAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA16 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Werner |first1=Roberta |title=Reaching for God: The Benedictine Oblate Way of Life |date=2013 |publisher=Liturgical Press |isbn=978-0-8146-3551-3 |page=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aMq-YRcvZ9wC&pg=PA8 |language=en}}</ref>

During [[World War II]] Claudel made his way to [[Algeria]] in 1940, after the [[Battle of France]], and offered to serve [[Free France]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Majault |first1=Joseph |title=Littérature de notre temps |date=1966 |publisher=Casterman |page=88|volume=I |language=fr}}</ref> Not having a response to the offer, he returned to Brangues. He supported the [[Vichy regime]], but disagreed with Cardinal [[Alfred Baudrillart]]'s policy of collaboration with [[Nazi Germany]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Michlin |first1=Gilbert |title=Of No Interest to the Nation: A Jewish Family in France, 1925-1945 |date=17 September 2004 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-3848-3 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x3pcaWqPOvMC&pg=PA124 |language=en}}</ref>

Close to home, [[Paul-Louis Weiller]], married to Claudel's daughter-in-law's sister, was arrested by the Vichy government in October 1940. Claudel went to Vichy to intercede for him, to no avail; Weiller escaped (with Claudel's assistance, the authorities suspected) and fled to New York. Claudel wrote in December 1941 to [[Isaïe Schwartz]], expressing his opposition to the [[Statut des Juifs]] enacted by the regime.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pryce-Jones |first1=David |title=Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews (Large Print 16pt) |date=February 2011 |publisher=ReadHowYouWant.com |isbn=978-1-4587-3170-8 |pages=59–60 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EM0BW8P8qM0C&pg=PA5 |language=en}}</ref> The Vichy authorities responded by having Claudel's house searched and keeping him under observation. 

Claudel was elected to the [[Académie française]] on 4 April 1946, replacing [[Louis Gillet]]. It followed a rejection in 1935, considered somewhat scandalous, when [[Claude Farrère]] was preferred.<ref>{{cite web |title=Paul Claudel, Académie française |url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/paul-claudel |website=www.academie-francaise.fr}}</ref> He was nominated for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in six different years.<ref>Nobel Prize.org: "[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=1831 Paul Claudel (Nomination Database)]".</ref>

==Work==
{{Main|List of works by Paul Claudel}}
Claudel often referred to [[Stéphane Mallarmé]] as his teacher.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Erwin |first1=John F. |title=Claudel and the Lesson of Mallarmé: The Theme of Absence |journal=L'Esprit Créateur |date=1973 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=44–54 |jstor=26279825 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26279825 |issn=0014-0767}}</ref> His poetic has been seen as Mallarmé's, with the addition of the idea of the world as a revelatory [[religious text]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bush |first1=Christopher |title=Ideographic Modernism: China, Writing, Media |date=1 February 2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-974139-7 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8l1X3MwBXRkC&pg=PA48 |language=en}}</ref> He rejected traditional [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosody]], developing the ''verset claudelien'', his own form of [[free verse]]. It was within the orbit of experimentation by followers of [[Walt Whitman]], impressive for Claudel, of whom [[Charles Péguy]] and [[André Spire]] were two others working on a form of ''verset''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Erkkila |first1=Betsy |title=Walt Whitman Among the French: Poet and Myth |date=14 July 2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5454-7 |page=138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=drn_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA138 |language=en}}</ref> The influence of the Latin [[Vulgate]] has been disputed by [[Jean Grosjean]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dethurens |first1=Pascal |title=Claudel et l'avènement de la modernité: création littéraire et culture européenne dans l'œuvre théâtrale de Claudel |date=1996 |publisher=Presses Univ. Franche-Comté |isbn=978-2-251-60601-9 |page=219 and note 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3pzpTZCEnmgC&pg=PA219 |language=fr}}</ref>

The best known of his plays are ''Le Partage de Midi'' ("The Break of Noon", 1906), ''L'Annonce faite à Marie'' ("The Tidings Brought to Mary", 1910) focusing on the themes of sacrifice, oblation and sanctification through the tale of a young medieval French peasant woman who contracts [[leprosy]], and ''Le Soulier de Satin'' ("[[The Satin Slipper]]", 1931). The last is an exploration of human and divine love and longing, set in the [[Spanish Empire]] of the [[siglo de oro]]. It was staged at the [[Comédie-Française]] in 1943. ''[[Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher]]'' ("Joan of Arc at the Stake", 1939) was an [[oratorio]] with music by [[Arthur Honegger]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smither |first1=Howard E. |title=A History of the Oratorio |date=1 September 2012 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-0-8078-3778-8 |page=661|volume=4: The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qh_QfteHVEC&pg=PA661 |language=en}}</ref> The settings of his plays tended to be romantically distant, medieval France or sixteenth-century Spanish South America. He used scenes of passionate, obsessive human love. The complexity, structure and scale of the plays meant that a positive reception of Claudel's drama by audiences was long delayed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Dennis |title=The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance |date=26 August 2010 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-957419-3 |page=123 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXCcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 |language=en}}</ref> His final dramatic work, ''[[L'Histoire de Tobie et de Sara]]'', was first produced by [[Jean Vilar]] for the [[Festival d'Avignon]] in 1947.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hartnoll |first1=Phyllis |title=The Oxford Companion to the Theatre |date=1983 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0192115464 |page=182 |edition=4th}}</ref>

As well as his verse dramas, Claudel also wrote [[lyric poetry]]. A major example is the ''Cinq Grandes Odes'' (Five Great Odes, 1907).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hellerstein |first1=Nina S. |title=Mythe et structure dans les Cinq grandes odes de Paul Claudel |date=1990 |publisher=Presses Univ. Franche-Comté |page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ir72om2EYEC&pg=PA27 |language=fr}}</ref>
[[Boštjan Marko Turk]]'s doctoral thesis examined the influence of medieval philosophy on Paul Claudel's poetic work, particularly ''Les Cinq Grandes Odes''. He summarized his findings in the monograph ''Paul Claudel et l'Actualité de l'être'' (2011),<ref>{{cite book | last = Turk | first = Boštjan Marko | author-link = | title = Paul Claudel et l'Actualité de l'etre, L'INSPIRATION THOMISTE DANS L'OEUVRE CLAUDELIENNE | publisher = P. Téqui | year =2011 | location =Paris| isbn = 978-2-7403-1464-7 | page = |language=French | url =https://www.librairietequi.com/paul-claudel-et-l-actualite-de-l-etre.html | access-date = 2024-10-17}}</ref> which was
recognized by {{ill|Dominique Millet-Gérard|fr}}, his doctoral advisor, for its contribution to understanding Claudel's work in the French-speaking world.


==Views and reputation==
Claudel was a conservative of the old school, sharing the [[antisemitism]] of conservative France. He addressed a poem ("Paroles au Maréchal," "Words to the Marshal") after the defeat of France in 1940, commending [[Marshal Pétain]] for picking up and salvaging France's broken, wounded body. As a Catholic, he could not avoid a sense of satisfaction at the fall of the [[anti-clerical]] [[French Third Republic]].

His diaries make clear his consistent contempt for Nazism (condemning it as early as 1930 as "demonic" and "wedded to Satan," and referring to [[communism]] and [[Nazism]] as "[[Gog and Magog]]"). He wrote an open letter to the World Jewish Conference in 1935, condemning the [[Nuremberg Laws]] as "abominable and stupid." His support for [[Charles de Gaulle]] and the Free French forces culminated in his victory ode addressed to de Gaulle when Paris was liberated in 1944.

The British poet [[W. H. Auden]] acknowledged the importance of Paul Claudel in his poem "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" (1939). Writing about Yeats, Auden says in lines 52–55 (from the originally published version, then excised by Auden in a later revision):

{{quote|<poem>Time that with this strange excuse
Pardoned Kipling and his views,
And will pardon Paul Claudel,
Pardons him for writing well
</poem>}}

[[George Steiner]], in ''The Death of Tragedy'', called Claudel one of the three "masters of drama" in the 20th century, with [[Henry de Montherlant]] and [[Bertolt Brecht]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Steiner |first1=George |title=The Death of Tragedy |date=1 January 1996 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-06916-7 |page=xii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZA3_bYqHOegC&pg=PR12 |language=en}}</ref>

==Family==
While in China, Claudel had a long affair with Rosalie Vetch née Ścibor-Rylska (1871–1951), wife of Francis Vetch (1862–1944) and granddaughter of [[Hamilton Vetch]]. Claudel knew Francis Vetch through his diplomatic work, and had met Rosalie on a sea voyage out from [[Marseille]] to [[Hong Kong]] in 1900. She had four children, and was pregnant with Claudel's child when the affair ended in February 1905. Francis Vetch and Claudel had caught up with Rosalie at a railway station on the German border in 1905, a meeting at which Rosalie signalled that her relationship with Claudel was over.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stevens |first1=Keith |title=Henri Vetch (1898-1978): Soldier, Bookseller And Publisher |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch |date=2006 |volume=46 |page=118 |jstor=23890010 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23890010 |issn=1991-7295}}</ref> She married in 1907 Jan Willem Lintner.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stevens |first1=Keith |title=Henri Vetch (1898-1978): Soldier, Bookseller And Publisher |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch |date=2006 |volume=46 |pages=103 and 111|jstor=23890010 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23890010 |issn=1991-7295}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Castel |first1=Yves |title=Histoire de familles des Mascareignes |year=2021 |page=171 |publisher=TheBookEdition |isbn=9782957766802 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LW5HEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA171}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url=https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-theatre-et-balagan/20110608.RUE1298/la-pleiade-leve-le-voile-sur-rosalie-grand-amour-de-claudel.html | title=La Pléiade lève le voile sur Rosalie, grand amour de Claudel | date=2017-01-24 | first=Jean-Pierre|last=Thibaudat | publisher=[[L'Obs]] | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508213426/https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-theatre-et-balagan/20110608.RUE1298/la-pleiade-leve-le-voile-sur-rosalie-grand-amour-de-claudel.html | archive-date=2021-05-08 | access-date=2021-05-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Claudel |first1=Paul |title=Partage de Midi. Crisi di Mezzogiorno |date=2 July 2014 |publisher=EDUCatt - Ente per il diritto allo studio universitario dell'Università Cattolica |isbn=978-88-6780-435-1 |pages=12 and 13 notes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GbTvAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 |language=it}}</ref> Louise Marie Agnes Vetch (1905–1996), born in Brussels, was Claudel's daughter by Rosalie.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stevens |first1=Keith |title=Henri Vetch (1898-1978): Soldier, Bookseller And Publisher |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch |date=2006 |volume=46 |pages=110 and 113 |jstor=23890010 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23890010 |issn=1991-7295}}</ref>

Claudel married on 15 March 1906 Reine Sainte-Marie Perrin (1880–1973). She was the daughter of {{Ill|Louis Sainte-Marie Perrin|fr}} (1835–1917), an architect from [[Lyon]] known for completing the [[Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière]].<ref>Ayral-Clause, Odile, ''Camille Claudel, A Life'', pp. 167–168</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gide |first1=André |last2=Schlumberger |first2=Jean |title=Correspondance: 1901-1950 |date=1993 |publisher=Gallimard |isbn=978-2-07-073122-0 |page=226 |language=fr}}</ref> They had two sons and three daughters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kohler |first1=Sue A. |title=Sixteenth Street Architecture |date=1978 |publisher=Commission of Fine Arts |page=443 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3QUGMtW3dIC&pg=PA443 |language=en}}</ref>

===Treatment of his sister Camille===
[[File:Camille Claudel.jpg|thumb|[[Camille Claudel]]]]
Claudel committed his sister [[Camille Claudel|Camille]] to a psychiatric hospital in March 1913, where she remained for the last 30 years of her life, visiting her seven times in those 30 years.<ref>Ayral-Clause, Odile, p. 217, 222, 225, 242, 245, 250</ref> Records show that while she did have mental lapses, she was clear-headed while working on her art. Doctors tried to convince the family that she need not be in the institution, but still they kept her there. 

The story forms the subject of a 2004 novel by [[Michèle Desbordes]], ''La Robe bleue'', ''The Blue Dress''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.liberation.fr/livres/2004/04/01/folle-claudel_474659/ | title=Folle Claudel | date=2004-04-01 | author=[[Jean-Baptiste Harang]] | publisher=[[Libération]] | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508194737/https://www.liberation.fr/livres/2004/04/01/folle-claudel_474659/ | archive-date=2021-05-08 | access-date=2021-05-08}}</ref> [[Jean-Charles de Castelbajac]] wrote a song "La soeur de Paul" for [[Mareva Galanter]], 2010.

==See also==
* [[Camille Claudel (film)|''Camille Claudel'']], 1988 film
* ''[[Camille Claudel 1915]]'', 2013 film
* ''[[L'Annonce faite à Marie]]'', film adaptation
* ''[[L'Histoire de Tobie et de Sara]]''
* [[Lycée Claudel]], a French language high school in [[Ottawa]], Canada, named after him
{{-}}
==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* Thody, P.M.W. "Paul Claudel", in ''The Fontana Biographical Companion to Modern Thought'', eds. Bullock, Alan and Woodings, R.B., Oxford, 1983.
* Ayral-Clause, Odile, ''Camille Claudel, A Life'', 2002.
* Ashley, Tim: "[https://www.theguardian.com/arts/critic/feature/0,1169,1282766,00.html Evil Genius]", ''The Guardian'', 14 August 2004.
* Price-Jones, David, "Jews, Arabs and French Diplomacy: A Special Report", ''Commentary'', 22 May 2005, https://web.archive.org/web/20051218141558/http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/15043
* ''Album Claudel''. Iconographie choisie et annotée par Guy Goffette. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Éditions Gallimard, 2011. {{ISBN|9782070123759}}. (Illustrated biography.)

==External links==
* {{wikiquote-inline}}
* {{Wikisource author-inline}}
* {{Commonscatinline}}
* [http://www.paul-claudel.net/ Paul-claudel.net] (in French)

{{Paul Claudel}}
{{Académie française Seat 13|state=expanded}}
{{Camille Claudel}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Claudel, Paul}}
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