François Mauriac was a member of the Académie Française. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature (1952) “for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life”.
He had the knack of putting his characters in inexplicable situations and observing their reactions under the strain in minute details. The characters sometimes crack down, leading to dramatic results. In “Le baiser au lépreux” (Grasset, 1922), republished in Le Livre de Poche (1991), Mauriac builds a story around an ugly 23-year-old man who is convinced no one will ever love him. He is small, with “sa pauvre mine, les joues creuses, un nez long, au bout pointu, rouge et comme usé, pareil à ces sucres d’orge qu’amincissent, en les suçant, de patients garçons” (page 29). He has a wrinkled brow, bad teeth and a poorly-shaved jaw. His self-esteem is low: “jamais il ne se fût tant haï” (p 29).
A suffocating relationship
Jean Pélouyere’s mother died of tuberculosis. He wonders if the woman he had never known loved him. His father is ill. On his death the inheritance might go to his sister and nephew. Jean often ruminates over “le désert de sa vie” (p 34). Religion is his refuge. He is haunted by an immense sense of complex and believes “tout son être était construit pour la défaite” (p 36). The word “cloporte” (p 38) used to describe him brings to our mind a shellfish living preferably under rocks and in darkness. He feels he is the object of mockery.
Noémi, 17, is beautiful. The priest arranges a marriage between Jean and this “ange” (p 42). The family needs an heir. Jean feels unworthy though he longs for human warmth and companionship. Here is an opportunity “pour rompre sa chaîne, devenir un homme” (p 49). According to the priest, Jean “manquait un peu d’apparence” (p 55) but was intelligent. Shy by nature and circumstances and “accoutumé à se tapir loin du monde” (p 54), he is torn between remaining single and embarking on a married life. He is painfully aware that he is “impropre à l’état de mariage” (p 55). The girl has no choice: one does not turn down the son of a wealthy family. Her parents, of modest means, believe in the marriage.
It turns out that the wife cannot hide her disgust. She avoids him in subtle ways: “Noémi fuyait Jean, ou plutôt le corps de Noémi fuyait le corps de Jean” (p 74), hinting at sexual dissatisfaction. Jean, too, “fuyait le dégoût de Noémi” (p 74). The wife pretends to be happy but at the bottom is not. Jean leaves for Paris on the pretext to study. She feels released. In short, “chacun veillait à ne pas toucher la blessure de l’autre” (p 77). Jean, guilt-ridden, heart-broken, will die of tuberculosis. A young doctor will show interest in the widow. She is attracted, too. However, she cannot get re-married or else she will lose the inheritance. Caught in a nasty situation, she decides to lead a religious life.
One may find the text quite gloomy. The incompatibility foreshadows a dramatic ending. A lack of communication complicates the plot. A lot goes on within the protagonists. They suffer inwardly. In spite of being together they are lonely. They are often at a loss, not understanding what is happening to them. Jean’s loneliness is contrasted with “les cigales autour de la maison crépitaient”, “les coqs ne cessent de chanter”, “les déchirantes plaintes des porcelets” (p 42). Normal morning activities are pitted against “un silence solennel” (p 30) of the house.
Infatuation
In “Le désert de l’amour” (Grasset, 1925) 35-year-old Raymond Courrèges sees a 44-year-old woman in a bar. This chance meeting stirs up excruciating memories. He was 18, she was 27. He had developed a crush on her. Her husband was no more, her son was dead. Raymond and this woman were regular travellers in a tramway. Dirty things were circulating about the woman in the village. One day the boy visits her place (the woman considers him “un enfant”) and unexpectedly pushes her towards a couch. Shocked, she treats him as a “sale gosse”, “faune maladroit” (p 139) and orders him out. The boy’s ego is so hurt that, instead of apologizing, he treats her as “catin” (p 141) or trollop (prostitute).
Mauriac depicts sexual awakening insightfully. We witness an adolescent’s typical tactlessness, impulsive nature and immaturity. He had assumed that she would be easy to seduce. He had taken the rumours about her as true. He is good at jumping to conclusions. Just because she invites him to her place, it does not mean she is an easy woman. The boy has a high opinion of himself, which means that his ego is strong. Because of this ego, he will remember for a lifetime how he had been repudiated. No matter how many girls he will have one day in his life, this minute of “brûlure de cette humiliation première” (p 159) will remain etched in his mind. Ashamed, he vows to take vengeance. Furthermore, he is unable to face his own blunder. Typically childish is his living from age 18 to age 35 with the idea of settling scores with Maria Cross when the truth is that he is to blame.
To complicate matters, his father, a doctor, also loves this woman. To understand this, we must look at the family situation. There is a widening gap between the doctor and his wife Lucie. The mother-in-law admits Lucie “ne me dis jamais rien” (p 28). The wife “ne savait lui donner que des blessures” (p 28). She reproaches her husband “Tu n’as aucune confiance en moi”, “tu ne me dis rien” (p 30). The doctor pretends not to hear. Father and son are not always on good terms. The point Mauriac may be making is that had there been a strong and steady emotional bond among the family members, no one would have felt the need to stray. Disharmony in a family can be debilitating; when a relationship is strained, the members feel inadequate, bored and miserable. They seek emotional bonding or satisfaction elsewhere.
Parallels
In “La fin de la nuit” (Grasset, 1935) Thérèse Desqueroux lives in a closed world. She has a maid to whom “elle s’est raccrochée, comme elle avait toujours fait, à la première créature venue” (p 12). She is scared of loneliness and middle age. One day, Georges, her would-be son-in-law, reveals to her that “Personne au monde ne m’intéresse que vous”, “c’est que je vous aime” (p131). We are plunged in a surreal world. The woman is shocked. She has a dark past: she tried to kill her husband and she still has psychological problems.
The three books are all marked by a search for love and disappointment. Estrangement and shame often overlap. Their lives are like a desert. The protagonists often survive in a heavy atmosphere. Their sentimental lives are a failure. We find a pattern in the books: because of a sense of complex or overwhelming shame, characters want to hide or escape. On the brink of despair, they contemplate suicide. Jean sees a well in which, years ago, old shepherds suffering from a mysterious disease, used to throw themselves. Jean, too, “aurait voulu étreindre cette terre avare qui l’avait pétri à sa resemblance et finir étouffé par ce baiser” (p 75). Raymond Courrèges, the misfit at school, who cannot socialize, is depressed and ashamed, wishes to kill himself in a well: “les mousses enlaceraient ses jambes, qu’il ne pourrait se dépêtrer de cette eau bourbeuse (…) et que nul ne le verrait plus” (p 28). Thérèse has had suicidal tendencies too.
Unlikely relationships inevitably engender conflict. And conflict is the lifeblood of any story.