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.
“LES TENEBRES” by Georges Bernanos (first published in 1928). Published in English in 1948 under the name Joy, which was the name that Bernanos originally thought should be the name
The French title of this novel, Les Tenebres, means The Darkness which forbodes something unpleasant or what is not clear. Why then was the English translation called Joy? Let me say the obvious. This novel is one of the most difficult novels I have ever read. It is written mainly as either conversations between two earnest people, or written in terms of the ideas that are going in the head of one character. Sometimes what they say or think can be almost cryptic. What is darkness? What is joy? Ideas can lead us either way.
The setting is a wealthy mansion in Normandy, but it is falling to shabbiness. The father of the house is Monsieur de Clergerie who is an historian or at least fancies himself as one. His wife Louise has died and he is thinking of getting married again. His mother is a very old woman, mainly bed-ridden and often called Mama or “Granny”. His daughter Chantal has been taught in a convent. Monsieur de Clergerie wants her to organise things until he is married again. The family is of course Catholic and the priest who often visits them is Abbe Cenabre, but Monsieur de Clergerie also converses with the family’s doctor La Perouse who is sceptic and puts his faith in science... and basically Monsieur de Clergerie goes the same way. In many ways it is a very unhappy family, their lives not fulfilled, and there is a large dramatis personae downstairs – Fernande the cook, a formidable woman; the unreliable maid Francine; and more fearful is Francois Fiodor who is Russian. He has escaped from the wars in Russia [for the record many “White Russians” headed for France when the Bolsheviks took over]. Fiodor does many odd jobs, but he also acts as chauffeur for Chantal - and he seems to have an unhealthy eye for her.
The focus of the novel is on the intellectual duels between Chantal, her father Monsieur de Clergerie, Abbe Cenabre and sometimes La Perouse. While Chantal is likely to be well off, she is often unhappy and sometimes she is tired and sick. She always remembers the wisdom she had learned from old Father Chevance when she was at the convent. Father Chevance always preached the need for charity. The old priest is now dead. Her father sees the ideas of Chevance as outdated, the thoughts of a foolish old man and unreal. So father and daughter debate. Says the narrative “ When Monsieur de Clergerie had insisted on his daughter’s taking charge of his household as soon as she left the convent, he did not realize what a weight such a responsibility was on such shoulders, nor that the daily supervision of six or seven servants, collected from the Devil where knew, and discharged as casually, was a rude and perilous school for a seventeen-year-old girl who would never be altogether the dupe of her own candour, more often hurt by what she guessed than by what she saw. But she had protected herself in her own way by a miraculous goodness, quietly and without any visible effort that can attract attention or inspire either praise or blame…” And later when Chantal looks over her lot, she is “Too sensible to indulge in vain regret that would only tighten her bonds, she only longed to take up her daily tasks again, the exercise of her household duties –simple, categorical, authentic - and, mortified, to re-enter that the universal asylum and only refuge for saints and sinners, a disciplined life, where she looked to find peace, like a lamb lost in a storm…”
While her father believes in science he has taken in many crank ideas. At one point he tells his daughter that human beings will soon be able to live for ever. Chantal trumps him by saying says to him “Heavens, I should be happy to be old! I should love to be an old woman with spectacles and a stick, quite, close to the cemetery and the little grave, knitting a woollen stocking with a wicked twinkle in her eye.” The fact is that she love life, not speculations about life. Her father wants her to either marry or go into a convent, neither of which she wants to do; and he keeps thinking about the woman he hopes to marry, a rich baroness. Chantal, though she is thoughtful and devout, is not sure of the advice given by the family’s priest Abbe Cenabre. She can think for herself.
So she goes walking around the estate, looking at nature, and she thinks about how she could do better in her relationship with her father while still keeping her integrity. For a brief moment she thinks of running away…. At which very point her Grandmother bursts through the bushes and runs into Chantal. Granny was supposed to have been looked after by the unreliable maid Francine who should have been giving Granny her daily walk in a wheel- chair. Chantal calms Granny, though she does think it is a bit of a chore. The old woman is not really thankful for Chantal’s help. Instead she talks about how the estate has been gone to the dogs over the years and she is still angry about the death of Chantal’s mother. Yet, chore though it was, Chantal has an odd feeling of joy in looking after her grandmother, even if she is a crotchety, grumbling old woman. She has a purpose in life. To her Grandmother , she says “Don’t be afraid… now I am strong enough to carry you. I wish you were heavy, much heavier, as heavy as all the sins in the world. You see, I have just discovered something I have never known: we can no more escape from one another than we can escape from God. We have something in common, and that is sin.” Once again, Bernanos is telling us that the human species is very flawed in what Christians call Original Sin.
Meanwhile downstairs the “help” are quarrelling and speculating about the family. The formidable cook Fernande is worried that Fiodor is somehow corrupting the unreliable maid Francine. Fiodor shouts back. In fact he says that everything is in a mess in this mansion and things will only be better when Chantal is in charge… though it is clear that he wants to be partly in charge himself.
And that is the first part of the novel.
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Part Two begins with Chantal’s father being unsure that he really wants to marry again and he still has ideas for Chantal which she does not want. Monsieur de Clergerie is, however less sure about his own beliefs. ‘His Entire work with its costly and deceptive bibliographic arsenal, his table, his outlines, his statistics, had probably all had their source in the ruminations of a timid and dreamy adolescent, incapable of overcoming the terrors, desires and disgusts of puberty…” Perhaps his daughter was right. At last Monsieur de Clergerie comes to understand what sort of a man he himself really is. The doctor and sceptic La Perouse tells him about the way young women behave... or at least that is what he thinks he knows.
La Perouse has a long conversation with the Russian Fiodor. It is obvious that Fiodor wants to influence Chantal. La Perouse tells him that he is a fool and he will probably commit suicide when his grandiose ideas come to nothing. At which point Granny rushes about saying that “a girl” had hurt her and slapped her around the face. She is referring to Chantal. Chantal is able to explain that she had to slap the old lady when she had become hysterical and she had calmed her down. Granny still thinks that she is in charge of the house and she has kept keys which she thinks make her the owner of the house. Chantal is able to persuade Granny to hand the keys over to her and she puts Granny peacefully to bed. By this stage even her father understands that Chantal is the best keeper of the house. There follows a long conversation between Chantal and La Perouse about how she should have dealt with the old lady. La Perouse introduces many ideas coming from Freud. Chantal deals with charity and real situations.
Yet in all this Chantal understands that Fear is worse than Death, for she has gone through a time of real fear and has been unsure about her beliefs. Fear wears you down and makes you too ready to give in to foolish ideas and destructive ideas simply because they are popular. She understands that one has to take risks, seeing the best in people and being aware of those who do not mean well. She is not naïve. When she talks with the house priest Abbe Cenabre she is aware that he is only half interested in his work, even almost half-way to being sceptical when he speaks of religion. The family now think matters in the house are now in order. But there is no happy ending in this novel. Crazy Fiodor kills Chantal before he commits suicide.
So, you immediately may ask, how is there Joy in this novel? And here you have to think carefully. The family too often think of Joy in terms of hedonistic good times and a life of ease. But in her own terms, Chantal sees Joy as keeping her integrity, keeping her beliefs and not destroyed the lives of other people. This is true joy.
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Forgive me for making a rather crude comment that I sometimes feel like saying when I read some French literature. This does not mean all French novels, but it does apply to some French novels. Often intellectual French novelists like to have long discourses about ideas and philosophy in the midst of a narrative. This, I think, is true of Les Tenebres / Joy.
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