My friend and colleague Alain Viala, who has died aged 73 of a heart attack, was emeritus professor of French literature at Oxford University. Alain was celebrated for his work on early modern France and his 20 books, 150 articles and seven CD audio box sets spanning his country’s literary history.
Alain was born in Saint-Affrique in the Aveyron region of south-western France into a family of limited means. His parents, Marie (nee Maurel) and Ernest Viala, were smallholders. Alain excelled at his state boarding school, the Lycée Ferdinand Foch in Rodez, which had running water and provided regular meals. Later in life, sitting before the remains of a plentiful meal in his Oxford college, he would quietly aver that “nothing should be wasted”.
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