When the writer Drieu-La Rochelle unfolds his apocalypse under the Norman skies of Boudin

This article is from the Figaro Special Edition "Eugène Boudin, the father of Impressionism." Discover the life, work, and art of the man Corot nicknamed "the king of the skies," in a beautifully illustrated 160-page issue .

Since the liberation of Paris, Drieu has been wondering why he should continue writing. On August 11, 1944, his Journal ended with the decision not to "run away." Switzerland, Spain, Sigmaringen—they were not for him. To flee his responsibilities would be to betray the political faith that had conditioned them. "I stay and I do what I always told myself I would do." Religion, writing, and his friends kept him afloat over the following months, a flight conducive to self-analysis and the resumption of the Journal on October 11. Wanted and, he believed, condemned by the ongoing purge, Drieu recorded his remorse less in it than his fears.

Some go back a long way. On January 18, 1945, it was the voice of the heart that spoke, the voice of origins.