Nobel winner Mario Vargas Llosa joins Academie Francaise

Peruvian Nobel-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa joined the fabled Academie Francaise in Paris on Thursday, the first member never to have written a book in French.

The 86-year-old novelist, who also has Spanish citizenship, controversially invited the former king of Spain, Juan Carlos, to his inauguration ceremony.

The ex-monarch has lived in exile since 2020 in the United Arab Emirates after a series of scandals, including claims he harassed a former mistress and revelations about his lavish lifestyle and an elephant hunt in Botswana.

Established under King Louis XIII in 1635, the Academie Francaise is meant to guard “pure” French, which has faced a constant onslaught from English in recent decades.

Last year, it bemoaned the widespread use of imported phrases like “big data” and “drive-in” and took umbrage with the common practice by French businesses of using English-sounding brand names, such as train operator SNCF’s low-cost service Ouigo (pronounced “we go”).

Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010 and is the first holder of the award at the Academie Francaise since Francois Mauriac, laureate in 1952.

He is considered among the most influential Latin American writers, often taking a sharp look at the region’s politics and history with novels such as “The Time of the Hero” (1963), “The Feast of the Goat” (2000), and continuing through to 2021’s “Harsh Times”.

He took a pot-shot at Russian President Vladimir Putin in his inauguration speech, saying “totalitarian countries” can only produce novels that have been “mutilated” by censorship.

“And we see him attack the unfortunate Ukraine only to receive the surprise of the century when this nation resists him,” Vargas Llosa said in French.

“As in novels, the weak are triumphing over the strong, because the justice of their cause is infinitely greater.”

Vargas Llosa is not the first foreigner inducted into the Academie.

The first was an American, Julien Green, in 1971, who never took French citizenship, while Canadian-HaitianDany Laferriere joined in 2013.

But Vargas Llosa — who worked for AFP’s Spanish desk in his youth — has only ever written professionally in Spanish.

– Pro-capitalist views –

He is now a member of three linguistic academies, having joined the Peruvian Academy of Language in 1977 and the Royal Spanish Academy in 1994.

The writer has stirred controversy in Latin America with his pro-capitalist views, often criticising the many socialist governments across the region.

The 40-member Academie Francaise has struggled to find members of late — there are currently five vacant positions — but has never relaxed its exacting standards.

“We cannot congratulate the Academy enough for not being, like so many other constituted bodies, absolutely hostile to superiority, and for not including only imbeciles,” quipped one member, Jean Dutourd, in a recent essay.