Something Old

Not everything worth reading is hot off the press. In this section, we recommend "something old" that is still well worth reading. "Something Old" can mean anything from a venerable and antique classic to a good book first published year or two ago.    

“L'ESPOIR” by Andre Malraux [first published in French in 1938; published in various English language translations as either Days of Hope or Man’s Hope ]

 

            In two of his first three novels, Les Conquerants and La Condition Humaine, Malraux wrote about upheavals in China in the 1920s. They very much aspired to be partisan reportage. [His other early novel La Voie Royale was more in the nature of an existential adventure story.] While Les Conquerants was written in straight-forward language, La Condition Humaine was marred by Malraux’s tendency to insert pseudo-philosophical passages where characters vented their vague ideas. L’Espoir was also in the nature of reportage, but this time the prose was very much matter-of-fact. Certainly characters discussed their ideas, but not with the vagueness of Malraux at his worst. Why should this be so different from the blurred prose of La Condition Humaine? My hunch is that this time Malraux was deeply involved in what he was writing about – not trying to deal with a country which he did not fully know. L’Espoir is set in the Spanish Civil War. Still more-or-less a very left-wing thinker, Andre Malraux went to Spain to fight against Franco’s military uprising. He put together a flying squadron to assist the official Republican air-force and he acted as a gunner [not as a pilot] in many sorties. One of the main characters  - Magnin – is obviously based on Malraux himself and L’Espoir is the longest novel Malraux ever wrote, maybe because he wanted to chronicle all the things he had seen or heard in Spain. It is worth noting than Malraux’s whole experience was in the early part of the Spanish Civil War – about 9 months – but the war itself dragged on for three years (1936-39). By the time L’Espoir was published in 1938, it was clear that Franco’s forces were well on the way to winning the war, so there is a certain irony in the novel’s title.  There was espoir [hope] in the early part of the civil war when the Republic believed it could defeat Franco… but by 1938, espoir was becoming a faltering hope.

            Synopsis: this long novel is divided into three Parts, with the first Part itself divided in two. I use here the headings as given in the English translation I read.

            Part One – First part: “Careless Rapture” – the time when those opposing Franco think they will easily defeat him. Across Spain, many railways and railway stations have been taken over by Franco’s forces. Magnin is putting together his squadron. Franco’s forces appear to be marching towards Madrid. Magnin’s squadron attempts to forestall the enemy by bombing a Francoist column at Medalline… but they are aware that the [Nazi] German planes, lent to Franco by Hitler, are better than the planes that the Republican air-force has. The squadron has some victories… but this is only because Nazi Germany is not yet fully armed. At this stage, some of Magnin’s colleagues are sceptical about the quality of the Republican Army. Two characters [Manuel and Ramos] rudely refer to the Republican Army as “a comic opera army”… but then, world-wide, army, air-force and navy tend to boast about how much better they are than other parts of their own forces. Nevertheless, it is true that the official Republican Army is aware that to some extent they will have collaborate with various left-wing groups – Socialists, Communists, Anarchists etc. But, for Magnin and his men, the problem is discipline. So many of these groups are disorderly.  

Part One – Second part: “Prelude to Apocalypse”. The scene moves to Tolado, where the Alcazar, the fortress held by Francoist forces, is being besieged by Republican forces. The matter of discipline is once again raised – and this is where Malraux pens many conversations. The Socialists tend to stand with the official army. The Anarchists and Anarcho-Syndicalists believe that separate groups would work best. The Anarchist Negus says that the Communists only pretend to be interested in the welfare of Spaniards as a ruse to take over the country. The Communist Manuel insists that there has to be severe discipline if anything is to be achieved and there should be one unified army. [Towards the  end of the Spanish Civil War, the Communists turned on the Anarchists and the P.O.U.M. and “purged” them… which was one of the reasons that Malraux began to shift away from the Far Left… but that was in the future at the time this novel is set.] Despite his authoritarian attitudes, Manuel has a long conversation with Ximenes,  a Republican Army Officer who is fighting against Franco, but who is also  a committed Catholic. In a peasant town, Ximenes asserts the need for the church, but also understands why the peasants have turned against the priests who have bullied them. There is a brief truce, when the garrison holding the Alcazar is able to get some provisions. Sometimes the Republicans and Francoists shout curses at one another. The Republican air-force bombs the Alcazar, artillery is fired at the Alcazar, and sappers tunnel in, attempting to blow up the Alcazar – but the Alcazar is never captured. By this time Franco’s army is approaching… and there is an awareness that some Republican soldiers are preparing to desert to Franco’s side. So Toledo is lost and the Republican army and its allies retreat back to Madrid. There is much brutality. A character called Hernandez has treated well the Francoist garrison when there was a truce. He chooses to stay in Toledo, even though he knows that Francoist soldiers will recognise him as a “Red” when they take over Toledo – and they will put him in front of a firing squad.

Part Two “The Nanzanares” So the anti-Franco forces head desperately back to Madrid, with many troops deserting on the way and understanding that Franco’s army is reinforced with Moors. What is hope now? The hope that Madrid will hold as a bastion, especially as the International Brigades (volunteers from many nations) have arrived to protect Madrid. Some volunteers are regarded as unable to really fight, but the Communist volunteers are the most disciplined. [The reality was that the International Brigades were largely run by Communists.] The Republican government leaves Madrid and sets itself up in Valencia. Malraux now cuts back to Magnin’s squadron. Magnin is still in charge but one pilot, Leclerc, is lowering morale by telling other pilots that their planes are very inferior and no match for the German and Italian planes. Magnin has to fire Leclerc. Meanwhile, it dawns on some that many people in Madrid are really on Franco’s side. [Malraux never uses the term, but this refers to what some would later call the “Fifth Column”.] Meanwhile Nazi planes bomb the Basque town Guernica…. At this stage Malraux inserts a long conversation with a Catholic man who is opposed to Franco and the more intransigent members of the Catholic hierarchy, but who points out that in Madrid there are many compassionate priests who are helping the wounded and sick and they are very much needed in the city…. There is also a long passage wherein people discuss the merit of Italian painting…. But the Moors are coming and the Francoists are coming and hell breaks loose. Much of Madrid is overwhelmed and the Moors almost take over the university city, but they are repelled. Francoists take over the central hospital as it is an excellent place for them to snipe from… so the sappers dynamite it. There are fires everywhere, fire-fighters climbing up or falling off ladders and much panic. But on the other side of Madrid, Franco’s tanks advance but they are destroyed… and more enemy troops are pushed back to the Sierra. At which point a squadron of Soviet planes fly in, their appearance more-or-less saving the day. Madrid is saved.

By this stage you might have noticed that this novel is more a panorama than anything else. There is no one central character, but there are many characters – perhaps inspired by the popular 1930s  idea that history is built on groups of people - “the people” and solidarity – rather than individuals. Characters come and go… and in the parts dealing with Madrid, we sometimes hear the dispatches of an American journalist called Slade.

 

And so to Part Three “The Peasants” In the south of Spain, peasants are attempting to escape further north as Franco’s forces move in.  But there is a great boost of morale when the Republic wins the Battle of Guadalajara. Mussolini wanted to reach glory by sending his forces to Spain , but his army was easily routed by the Republic…. And, as Malraux admits in this novel, even some generals on Franco’s side were glad that Mussolini’s forces had been humiliated. They did not want another army butting into their war. The civil war goes on. Magnin’s squadron finds out where there is a hidden Francoist aerodrome. They try to bomb it but some of their own fragile planes are shot down… and some pilots who had survived joined the crowds of peasants who are trudging north. And here the novel really ends. Walking along with the peasants, even the Communist Manuel comes to understand that the desperate, humble peasants, who assisted the downed planes, do not like seeing anarchists destroying their churches. Manuel dominates the last section of the novel, resigning himself to not knowing what eventually Spain will be like but hoping for he best.

So much for my overlong synopsis which, believe it or not, misses out many characters whom Malraux had created. If enjoyed at all, it is mainly good reportage based on things that the author had either experienced or heard about. It is built mainly on action. And, greatly to his credit, Malraux admits that events in the civil war were not a matter of black and white. As he shows, not all Spanish Catholics supported Franco [though probably most did]. Not all opponents of Franco were united [there were many factions that were at odds with one another]. This was quite unlike most novels about the Spanish war that were written in that era. They were usually very partisan one way or the other – Left or Right. Of course Malraux was fighting against Franco… but he began to be very wary of Communists in particular.

At which point I step away a little from Malraux’s novel and give you some of my own reflections on the Spanish Civil War.  Throughout L’Espoir, Franco’s forces are referred to as “fascists”. But this is not exactly accurate. Just as the Republicans had factions [Constitutional-ists, moderate Socialists, Anarchists, Communists, Catalonia nationalists] so on the Franco side were there factions [conservative Royalists, most of the Catholic Hierarchy, Carlists and of course the relatively small Falange who were the only real Fascists]. To hold his forces together, Franco forced the Carlists to be integrated with the Falange and all to be under his command. Fascists there were. But as George Orwell noted in his Homage to Catalonia, Franco’s aim was to restore a very conservative Spain, more like Feudalism than Fascism. Throughout the civil war, the Left dubbed their enemy as “Fascists” while the Right dubbed their enemy as “Reds”. Nowadays, most historians refer to the opposing forces as Republicans [the Left] and Nationalists [the Right].The Spanish Civil War is one of the most mythologised wars ever written about. Both Left and Right authors have presented their side as heroic, often distorting the truth. Reading the English-language version of L’Espoir, I was amused to find on the back-cover blurb the statement that “the Alcazar was bombed to surrender”. Actually the Alcazar never surrendered, which is why the Franco-ists chalked it up as a great victory…. And so I could burble on.

For the record, you can find on this blog reviews of books related to the Spanish Civil War – The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas ; The Spanish Holocaust by Paul Preston; Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell; and if you are interested in philosophy The Tragic Sense of Life by Miguel de Unamuno. As for Andre Malraux, the Spanish war changed his perspective. While he loathed the far right, he became more sceptical of the far left. He also began to lose his interest in writing novels.