Background
Georges Bernanos, born in Paris, France on February 20, 1888, spent his childhood in a small village in the north of France.
( In a small village in northern France, Monsieur Ouine, ...)
In a small village in northern France, Monsieur Ouine, a retired professor, is taken in by the dull local squire, Anthelme de Néréis, and soon rules the life of both Anthelme and his wife, Ginette. A fourteen-year-old fatherless boy, Philippe Dorval, flees home and, on impulse, follows Madame de Néréis to her château. There the squire, who is dying, tells the boy that his father is actually alive and wellthat despite what Philippes mother had told him, his father had not died in World War I. The forsaken boy finds himself on that fatal evening succumbing to Monsieur Ouines embrace after falling into a drunken sleep in the old professors bed. The events of the tempestuous night lead to upheaval in the village the next morning, when, at dawn, a boys body is found afloat in a stream near the château.
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(Joy is the story of Chantal de Clergerie, a young woman a...)
Joy is the story of Chantal de Clergerie, a young woman and visionary who lives a life defined by innocence and purity in the midst of a tangle of insanity, and Abbé Cénabre, a priest grappling with apostasy. In keeping with the other great works of award-winning author Georges Bernanos, Joy is a captivating, insightful, and profound look into the depths of the interior life. In 1929, Joy was awarded the Prix Femina, a literary prize given to what is deemed the best French novel of the year. To this new edition of Joy, Andrew T.J. Kaethler, Ph.D., has contributed an insightful Introduction and collection of Notes for the Reader that deftly describe Bernanoss style and influences as well as unfold the nuances of the craft on display in the novel.
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(Under the Sun of Satan, Georges Bernanoss powerful debut...)
Under the Sun of Satan, Georges Bernanoss powerful debut novel, throws the reader headlong into the mystery of evil and the drama of salvation. Saturated with dramatic intensity and marked with Bernanoss inimitable fitful style, the novel follows young Fr. Donissan, a man of fervent faith but limited intelligence, striving to serve the Lord in his rural ministry. The priests ability to plumb the depths of his flocks inner lives, along with his awareness of Satan on the prowl, grant him formidable opportunities of gracewith a girl fallen prey to prostitution, with a child on the cusp of death, and with his fellow priests struggling with doubt. Meditative, keenly insightful, at times alarming, Under the Sun of Satan displays the masterful scope of Bernanoss artistic vision, a vision which only grew in clarity with his later works.
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(Though written independently of each other, these works s...)
Though written independently of each other, these works share a common theme - Bernanos's deep conviction that what will save our world is not intellectual achievement, political effort, technological progress, or theological acumen, but the heroism of innocence. In these stories Bernanos portrays very young women, including Joan of Arc, as embodiments of the power of Christian innocence.
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(One of the great mavericks of French literature, Georges ...)
One of the great mavericks of French literature, Georges Bernanos combined raw realism with a spiritual focus of visionary intensity. Mouchette stands with his celebrated Diary of a Country Priest as the perfection of his singular art. Nothing but a little savage is how the village school-teacher describes fourteen-year-old Mouchette, and that view is echoed by every right-thinking local citizen. Mouchette herself doesnt bother to contradict it; ragged, foulmouthed, dirt-poor, a born liar and loser, she knows herself to be, in the words of the story, alone, completely alone, against everyone. Hers is a tale of tragic solitude in which despair and salvation appear to be inextricably intertwined. Bernanos uncompromising genius was a powerful inspiration to Flannery OConnor, and Mouchette was the source of a celebrated movie by Robert Bresson.
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(First published in 1939, Georges Bernanoss Saint Dominic...)
First published in 1939, Georges Bernanoss Saint Dominic is the foundation for this small volume on the saint whose Order of Preachers recently celebrated its 800th Jubilee. Famous for his novels Diary of a Country Priest, Mouchette, and Joy, Bernanos brings the touch of the novelist to the much-neglected art of Christian hagiography, with St. Dominic as his subject. Under the deft touch of Giambrones translation, the bold, brash grammar of Bernanoss sketch of the Preacher of Grace is brought to life for the first time in English. To accompany Bernanoss work, Giambrone has also translated and introduced True Devotion to Saint Dominic, by Marie-Étienne Vayssière, O.P., as well as compiled a postlude of prayers and hymns to Saint Dominic and his Order.
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( The Impostor is a searching account of the torment that...)
The Impostor is a searching account of the torment that besets Father Cénabre, historian of mysticism and controversial star of the Parisian clergy, when his faith suddenly deserts him. As the priest struggles to cope secretly, he crosses paths with associates on the complex margins of a Church facing modern politics in the early twentieth century. Georges Bernanoss compelling and dark portraits of that shadowy worlds inhabitants throw into stark relief the determination of a humble priest, Father Chevance, who alone knows Cénabres secret and struggles to save him. By turn touching and scathing, The Impostor explores the delicate balance between redemption and damnation and illuminates the fragility of our constructed selves. Georges Bernanos (18881948), one of the twentieth centurys most powerful and idiosyncratic writers, was also the most original Roman Catholic writer of his time. The Impostor, the second of his novels published in French, is the last to be translated into English.
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Georges Bernanos, born in Paris, France on February 20, 1888, spent his childhood in a small village in the north of France.
Between 1906 and 1913 he studied in Paris for degrees in arts and law.
Bernanos worked as a journalist for the extreme right-wing newspaper Action Francaise. He joined the army at the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and fought in the trenches.
In the years after the war Bernanos suffered financial hardship, and only in his late 30's did he publish his first novel, Sous le soleil de Satan (1926; Under the Sun of Satan). This immediately successful novel deals with the struggles of a priest, Father Donissan, against the evil and temptation in the world around him and against his conviction of his own inadequacy. Further novels and polemical essays followed, the best-known being the novel Journal d'un curé de campagne (1936; The Diary of a Country Priest). In this book Bernanos treats the theme of saintliness. A young priest, living in poverty and slowly dying, remains faithful to his vocation despite his lack of success in fighting sin and evil in his parish. By complete self-sacrifice he achieves a degree of greatness of soul clearly regarded as saintly in quality.
During the 1930's Bernanos went to live on the Spanish island of Majorca, and during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 he bitterly attacked the atrocities committed by the fascist side.
In 1938 he left Europe for Paraguay and later Brazil, where he spent the years of World War II helping the cause of France with further books of political essays. In 1943 he published his last important novel, M. Ouine (The Open Mind). By now Bernanos's vision had become more violent, and the novel presents a somewhat incoherent picture of the corrupting influence of the schoolteacher Ouine, who is almost a personification of evil.
In 1945 Bernanos returned to Paris, where he lived until his death in 1948.
(Though written independently of each other, these works s...)
(Joy is the story of Chantal de Clergerie, a young woman a...)
( In a small village in northern France, Monsieur Ouine, ...)
( The Impostor is a searching account of the torment that...)
(First published in 1939, Georges Bernanoss Saint Dominic...)
(Under the Sun of Satan, Georges Bernanoss powerful debut...)
(One of the great mavericks of French literature, Georges ...)
A Roman Catholic with monarchist leanings, he was critical of bourgeois thought and was opposed to what he identified as defeatism.
Bernanos's books draw their strength from his passionate sense of commitment and his refusal to compromise with complacent bourgeois attitudes. In his contempt for conformity and traditional values, he can be seen as a revolutionary - but of a very special kind, since his aims are not political but religious. His vision of a world corrupted by sin and dominated by evil is necessarily one of somewhat narrow appeal, and the hysteria and exaggeration that sometimes break through the surface of his religious novels give them an uneven quality which offsets their intensity.