French writer, known for his novels of character. He was by profession an engineer and ended his career as inspector general of telegraphs. He was elected (1923) to the Académie Française.

A theme recurrent in the 12 novels of Estaunié is expressed by the title of one of them, La Vie Secrète (1908; “The Secret Life”): each man's outward life masks another, ill-understood, different, and usually much more important life which may break through the mask unexpectedly to take temporary control of him. The novels gain distinction from their profound and detailed psychological analysis. The more important of them are L'Empreinte (1895), Les Choses voient (1912), L'Ascension de Monsieur Baslèvre (1920), and L'Appel de la route (1922).