Paul Claudel en guerre (1914-1918)

A diplomat and civil servant for the ministry for war, a Catholic poet, and a dramatist, Claudel made his writing serve the cause of France and Catholicism. His Catholic patriotism inscribed itself perfectly in the ­culture of war which was dominant in France from 1914 to 1918. His engagement was, however, more ­complex: it led the man of politics to revise his prejudices against social and economic modernity, and the man of faith to define the mystic signification which war must take.