[2][3] Merle used his experiences at Dunkirk in his 1949 novel Week-end at Zuydcoote, which became a "sensational success" and won the Prix Goncourt.

A 1964 feature film adaptation, Weekend at Dunkirk, was directed by Henri Verneuil and starred Jean-Paul Belmondo.

In 1965 Merle wrote Moncada: premier combat de Fidel Castro and Ahmed Ben Bella, and around this time translated the diaries of Che Guevara.

A "genuine scholar of language", Merle wrote the novels using many of the appropriate French speech rhythms and idioms of the historical period.

[2][3][5] The series made Merle a household name in France, with the author repeatedly called the Alexandre Dumas of the 20th century.

[2][3][6] Kirkup called the Fortune de France series "spectacular" and dubbed it Merle's "major achievement".

[3] The series made Merle a household name in France, and he has been repeatedly called the Alexandre Dumas of the 20th century.

"[5] Toby Clements of The Telegraph wrote, "There are set-piece discussions on the dilemmas of faith that are informative if not the stuff of high drama, and passages on the history of France that can only be made sense of with the aid of a map and a memory for names.