orig. Émile Herzog
born July 26, 1885, Elbeuf, France
died Oct. 9, 1967, Paris
French writer.
An officer in the British army during World War I, Maurois had his first literary success with The Silences of Colonel Bramble (1918), a humorous commentary on warfare and the British character. His novels include Bernard Quesnay (1926) and Whatever Gods May Be (1928). He is best known for biographies with the narrative interest of novels; his subjects included Percy B. Shelley , Lord Byron , Victor Hugo , and Marcel Proust .