Born into a prosperous family of textile manufacturers, Maurois came under the influence of the French philosopher and teacher Alain (Émile-Auguste Chartier). He was a liaison officer in the British army during World War I, and his first literary success was a humorous commentary on warfare and the British character in Les Silences du Colonel Bramble (1918; The Silence of Colonel Bramble). His novels, including Bernard Quesnay (1926) and Climats (1928; Whatever Gods May Be), focus on middle-class provincial life, marriage, and the family. As a historian he demonstrated his interest in the English-speaking world with his popular histories: Histoire de l'Angleterre (1937; “History of England”) and Histoire des États-Unis (1943; “History of the United States”). In 1938 he was elected to the Académie Française.

Among Maurois's many biographies, praised for their clear and graceful prose and their penetrating analyses of character, are works on Percy Bysshe Shelley (Ariel, 1923), Lord Byron (Byron, 1930), Victor Hugo (Olympio, 1954), George Sand (Lélia, 1952), and Honoré de Balzac (Prométhée, 1965; Prometheus, the Life of Balzac). À la Recherche de Marcel Proust (1949; The Quest for Proust) is considered his finest biography.