François Mauriac

1 9.3

A French writer who wrote novels about desire and religious faith and won the Nobel Prize in Literature

proper noun
/frɑ̃swa mɔʁjak/

: François Mauriac

François Mauriac often depicted the struggles between personal desire and religious morals in his stories.

Examples

François Mauriac received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1952 for his deeply spiritual novels.
Did you read François Mauriac's novel 'Thérèse Desqueyroux'?
Many critics admire the psychological depth found in the works of François Mauriac.
The works of François Mauriac often delve into deep moral questions.
François Mauriac is celebrated for his exploration of the tension between faith and human desire in his literary works.
François Mauriac won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novels that examine the intersection of spirituality and personal conflicts.
François Mauriac's narratives often reflect his concern with the moral dilemmas faced by his characters.

Surface Forms

François Mauriac main

Morphology

François + Mauriac

This is a proper name referring to a specific individual; knowing the constituent names 'François' and 'Mauriac' does not allow a B1 learner to infer the biographical meaning (French novelist, Nobel laureate). Proper names are referential and largely arbitrary across languages, so the expression's meaning is not derivable from its parts without prior knowledge.

Etymology

François Mauriac is the name of a French writer who often wrote about people pulled between 'desire' and 'religious faith'. Imagine someone with one hand on their heart and the other on a church — that simple picture helps you remember his stories about inner moral conflict.