Jean Raspail (French pronunciation:[ʒɑ̃ʁaspaj], 5 July 1925 – 13 June 2020) was a French explorer, novelist, and travel writer. Many of his books are about historical figures, exploration and indigenous peoples. He was a recipient of the prestigious French literary awards
Grand Prix du Roman and
Grand Prix de littérature by the
Académie française. The French government honoured him in 2003 by appointing him to the
Legion of Honor, with the grade of Officer.[1][2] Internationally, he is best known for his controversial 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints, which is about mass
third-worldimmigration to Europe.
His
traditional Catholicism serves as an inspiration for many of his
utopian works, in which the ideologies of
communism and
liberalism are shown to fail, and a
Catholic monarchy is restored. In his 1990 novel Sire a French king is crowned in
Reims in February 1999, the 18-year-old Philippe Pharamond de
Bourbon, a direct descendant of the last French kings.
In his best known work, The Camp of the Saints (1973), Raspail predicts the collapse of
Western civilization from an overwhelming "tidal wave" of
Third Worldimmigration. The "hordes" of the world rise and, in the words of playwright Ian Allen, "destroy the white race."[6] The book has been translated into English, German, Spanish, Italian, Afrikaans, Czech, Dutch, Polish, Hungarian and Portuguese, and as of 2006 it had sold over 500,000 copies.[7] After The Camp of the Saints Raspail wrote other novels, including North, Sire, and The Fisher's Ring. Raspail reiterated these views in a co-written 1985 article ("Will France Still Be French in 2015?") for Le Figaro magazine, where he stated "the proportion of France's non-European immigrant population will grow to endanger the survival of traditional French culture, values and identity".[8]
Raspail was a candidate for the French Academy in 2000, for which he received the most votes,[9] yet did not obtain the majority required for election to the vacant seat of
Jean Guitton.
Sept cavaliers (2008–2010), comic book in three volumes by
Jacques Terpant
Le Royaume de Borée (2011–2014), comic book in three volumes by Jacques Terpant
Quotations
"One cannot be a man, fully, from the moment one admits that others exist. For one is no more than a copy, a vague facsimile drawn from a billion examples. One mustn't know anything about others, or at least by ruthless choice, unless it is how to invent oneself on one's own, – everything has been so repeated."[17]
"Your universe has no meaning to them. They will not try to understand. They will be tired, they will be cold, they will make a fire with your beautiful oak door."[18]
^Raspail, Jean (2022).
Septentrion. Sunny Lou Publishing.
^Raspail, Jean (1973). The camp of the saints. Éditions Robert Laffont.
Sources
Jarvis GE. Raspail, racism, and migration: Implications for radicalization in a polarizing world. Transcultural Psychiatry. 2021;58(5):616-631. doi:10.1177/1363461520930921