Robert Brasillach is a part of France's cultural heritage. A patriot and child prodigy who aroused envy and jealousy even in those famed authors to which he is sometimes compared (Céline and Drieu de la Rochelle), yet who has not enjoyed the same treatment as them. A finalist for the Prix Goncourt in 1939, his pen, however sublime his writing and his sensibility, is not as well known as the shadows and controversies that surrounded him. A film critic, he was also responsible for the literary chronicle of Action Française, an author of novels and a collection of fantastic poems, and from 1939 onwards he edited the combative newspaper Je suis partout. Six years later, after a short trial because of his collaboration with the Nazis, he was condemned to death, although intellectuals of all political persuasions signed a petition asking General de Gaulle to commute his sentence.