Drieu, the brilliant son of a middle-class family, attended the École des Sciences Politiques with the intention of entering diplomatic service. His plans, however, were interrupted by World War I, in which he fought and was wounded. Like many others of his generation, he emerged from the war disillusioned, and he began a lifelong search for a sound moral and philosophical approach to life. He briefly became involved in the Surrealist movement. Characteristic novels of this period include his first novel, L'Homme couvert de femmes (1925; “The Man Covered With Women”), and Le Feu follet (1931; The Fire Within, or Will o' the Wisp; filmed by Louis Malle in 1963). Le Feu follet is the story of the last hours in the life of a young bourgeois Parisian addict who kills himself. In one fashion or another, the subject of decadence and the general loss of moral fibre in postwar French society was to remain a subject of major concern throughout his life.

His later works include La Comédie de Charleroi (1934; The Comedy of Charleroi and Other Stories), a memoir of the war; Rêveuse bourgeoisie (1937; “Dreamworld Bourgeoisie”); and, perhaps his best known novel, Gilles (1939). Having worked through several political ideologies, Drieu eventually settled on fascism. He collaborated with the Vichy government during World War II, and, shortly after the liberation of France, he committed suicide. His Récit secret (1961; Secret Journal and Other Writings) and Mémoires de Dirk Raspe (1966) were among a number of his works that were published posthumously.