French publisher Gallimard on Tuesday said that it is halting the sale of books by a writer accused of raping children.
France’s most prestigious publishing house said that it was the first time in its 140-year history that it had taken such a radical step.
Award-winning essayist Gabriel Matzneff is under investigation after a leading French editor detailed in print how he abused her when she was 14.
Gallimard said it would recall all the works the 83-year-old had written under its imprint since 1990.
The author dismissed Gallimard’s move, saying it would “calm the excited ones” and denounced a “wave of neo-puritanism.”
“I find it stupid, extravagant that in 2020 I am facing grief for books I wrote more than 40 years ago,” Matzneff said.
French Minister of Culture Franck Riester waded into the debate this week, saying that the writer should lose his special state pension.
Riester told reporters Matzneff could also be stripped of his two major state honors — Officer of Arts and Letters, and Knight of the Order of National Merit.
Weekly magazine Le Point has dropped him as a columnist.
Matzneff has never made any secret of his sexual preference for adolescent girls and boys, and it did not stop him winning the Renaudot prize in 2013.
In Les Moins de Seize Ans, which was published in 1974 and reissued in 2005, he was frank about indulging his obsession for underage partners and sex tourism.
Police opened a formal investigation into Matzneff last week after publisher Vanessa Springora described her tortured relationship with the writer in a book titled Consent.
In it she described how Matzneff, then in his 50s, would wait for her outside school and then take her to his home for sex.
“At 14 you are not supposed to be picked up from school by a man of 50 and find yourself in his bed with his penis in your mouth [instead of a biscuit] at teatime,” Springora wrote.
Matzneff denies any wrongdoing, insisting there was an “exceptional love” between him and Springora.
He claimed she tried to portray him as “a pervert, a manipulator and a predator.”
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS