Customer Reviews (1)

In Search of a Sacrifice
On his way to enter a seminary in Paris as the first step towards becoming a priest, 22-year-old Xavier Dartigelongue looks out of the window of his train. On the platform a youngish couple are saying farewell, the woman crying helplessly, the man apparently indifferent. When the man, Jean de Mirbel (a character from François Mauriac's earlier novel, A WOMAN OF THE PHARISEES), enters his compartment and openly challenges his faith, Xavier believes that the encounter is an indication of his sacred duty to rescue Mirbel and reconcile him with his wife. Accordingly, after a night wandering the streets of Paris, he abandons the seminary and returns with Mirbel to Larjuzon, his home near Bordeaux.

In doing so, Xavier is aware of his besetting temptation, to involve himself in the lives of others. He is a redeemer looking for someone to redeem, a lamb in search of a sacrifice. His Director of Conscience had warned him: "Everything pleasurable comes from you, and its origin is suspect. [...] The flesh can profit from everything, can even take profit from a state of grace. The saints themselves are not saints because of their ecstasy, but despite their ecstasy." *

At Larjuzon, Xavier meets Mirbel's wife, Michèle. He also encounters her step-mother, the formidable ultra-religious Brigitte Pian, and Briitte's secretary, a young schoolteacher named Dominique, who quickly falls in love with him. For a while he wonders if it was because of her that God guided him away from the seminary, but then he meets the ten-year-old orphan boy Roland, adopted on a trial basis by the childless couple but now a thorn in their flesh. Xavier realizes that his true mission is to save Roland from Mirbel's hate, serving as substitute victim if necessary.

Coincidentally, I have just been watching the DVD of THE END OF THE AFFAIR by Graham Greene, a contemporary of Mauriac's who also wrote as a devout Catholic. But while Greene sneaks up on religious revelation in the unlikely contexts of a novel about adultery, a crime story, or a political thriller, Mauriac's Catholicism is overt. He draws numerous parallels, for example, between Xavier and Jesus Christ, as when he hauls a ladder half a mile over rough ground in his personal procession to Calvary, or when Dominique washes his wounded feet. When I first read this book fifty years ago, I was inspired (like Xavier himself) by this example of godliness. Now, though, I see that Mauriac leaves the matter much more open. In the tangle of passions simmering at Larjuzon, the spiritual all too easily gets confused with the erotic, and sacrifice must compete with lust for power. It is up to the reader to decide whether Xavier is truly a saint or merely a fool, and in this conundrum lies the novel's principal strength.

* The translation is mine, since I read the book this time in French. But the classic version by Gerard Hopkins deserves a reprint! ... Read more

Product Description
During World War II when France was occupied by Germany, many French authors were persecuted and exiled by the Vichy regime. It was during this period that the Librairie de France, the renowned Rockefeller Center French book store, decided to offer artistic refuge to those writers that came to the United States in search of freedom of expression.
Thus was born Editions de la Maison Francaise (the name of the building in Rockefeller Center where the bookstore had been from 1935-2009).
Each of these works is printed on special highest quality vellum (parchment) paper that has not yellowed with age. Many of them are limited-edition numbered copies. The paper is in the uncut format so typical of French publishing until the post-war years. All are completely out of print, in new condition, and most are unavailable anywhere in the world except at the Librairie de France.
Prices $50.00 to $250.00 each.
-Textes Sacres de la Liberte -France, Prends Garde de Perdre ton Ame (Cahiers du Temoignage Chretien) -France Forever (l'Effort de la France)

-Agadjanian, George & Robert Solo Valle des Ombres
-Aglion, Raoul L'Epopee de la France Combattante
-Aragon, Louis
Le Crevecoeur
Les Yeux d'Elsa
-Archeveque Spellman Agis Aujourd'hui
-Aron, Raymond L'Homme contre les Tyrans
-Beer, Max La Guerre n'a pas eu Lieu
-Beirne Lay Jr., Col Merci, Paysans de France
-Benda, Julien La Grande Epreuve des Democraties
-Bernanos, Georges
Lettre aux Anglais
Monsieur Ouine
-Bory, Jean-Louis Mon Village a l'Heure Allemande (Prix Goncourt 1945)
-Chantal, Suzanne Dieu ne Dort Pas (Roman)
-Cheradame, Andre La Clef du Monde et La Victoire
-Cohen, Gustave La Grande Clarte du Moyen-Age
-Coindreau, Maurice E La Farce est Jouee
Collection Claire:
Le Tombeau des Amants Inconnus
Education Barbare

Collaborations:
-Les Dix Commandements
-Le Droit Raciste a l'Assaut de la Civilisation
-Devant la Crise Mondiale

-Corcos, Fernand Auto-Reforme
-Cot, Pierre Le Proces de la Republique, 2 vols.
-Crew, Joseph Dix Ans au Japon, 2 vols.
-Curie, Eve Voyage parmi les Guerriers, 2 vols.
-David, Andre Amour Charnel de la Patrie
-de Kerillis, Henri Francais, Voici la Verite
-de Lanux, Pierre France dans ce Monde

-Dekobra, Maurice
Seot ans Chez les Hommes Libres
Satin Refuse du Monde

-Ducatillon, JV La Guerre cette Revolution
-Fleury, Jean-Gerard Sud-Amerique

-Georges-Michel, Michel
Nulle Part dans le Monde (Il est Grand d'etre a Miami)
Star
La Boheme a New York
Chefs-d'Oeuvres de Peintres Comtemporains, Illus.
Nulle Part dans le Monde (Le Dernier Bateau)

-Goffin, Robert
La Nouvelle-Orleans, Capitale du Jazz
Le Nouveau Sphinx (Roman Mystere)
La Colombe de la Gestapo (Roman Mystere)
Sabotages dans le Ciel (Roman Mystere)
Le Fusille de Dunkerque (Roman Mystere)
Le Roi des Belges a-t-il Trahi?
Cavaliers de la Deroute
Passeports pour L'Au-dela (Roman Mystere)
Le Chat sans Tete (Roman Mystere)

-Green, Julien Varouna
-Gurvitch, Georges La Declaration des Droits Sociaux

-Hekking, Francis
Point d'Administratioon, Point de France (Vol.2 of Reflexions…)
Reflexions sur la Mecanique Administrative (Vol.1 of Point d'Ad…)
-Hubert-Robert, Mme La Louisiane Francaise
-Joffe, Constantin Les Enterres Vivants
-Kernan, Thomas Etoile du Matin (Roman)
-Labarthe, Andre Retour au Feu
-Lakhovsky, George La Civilisation et la Folie Raciste
-Lewison, Richard La Guerre sans Mystere
-Linne, Andre & Nessler, Edmond Champs Secrets
-Lippmann, Walter La Politique Etrangere des Etats-Unis

-Ludwig, Emil
La Mediterranee, 2 vols.
Les Allemands: Double histoire d'une Nation
Beethoven
Staline: Essai Biographique
Coment Traiter les Alle ... Read more