LEVY, BERNARD-HENRI

LEVY, BERNARD-HENRI (1948– ), French writer, philosopher, and essayist. Levy was born in Algeria, and brought up and educated in Paris. Graduating in philosophy, he was active in both thought and action, producing essays, novels, films, and newspaper articles. Fiercely critical of fascist and Marxist totalitarianism in La Barbarie à visage humain (1977), he found in biblical monotheism the answer to the totalitarian challenge (Le Testament de Dieu, 1979). His book on the roots of French fascism (L'Idéologie Française, 1981) provoked an important public debate. Present in Bangladesh already in the early 1970s, and in Yugoslavia 20 years later, he was deeply committed to the Bosnian cause and sensitive to the ordeal of the city of Sarajevo. His biography of Jean-Paul Sartre, Le Siècle de Sartre (2000), was highly acclaimed. (Nelly Hansson (2nd ed.)