François Mauriac: A Study Of The Writer And The Man
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
At the crossroads of faith, politics, and literary genius stands François Mauriac — Nobel Prize-winning novelist, Catholic moralist, and one of the most towering figures of twentieth-century French letters — and Robert Speaight's penetrating study brings this complex man into vivid focus. François Mauriac: A Study of the Writer and the Man chronicles the life and creative vision of a writer whose brooding, psychologically charged novels — among them Thérèse Desqueyroux and The Knot of Vipers — laid bare the hypocrisies of provincial French Catholicism with a precision that unsettled readers and critics alike. Speaight maps the terrain of Mauriac's inner world with authority, tracing the fault lines between spiritual conviction and literary ambition that animated his entire career. Drawing on his own deep familiarity with Catholic intellectual life in Europe, the author presents a portrait that is as much a spiritual biography as it is a work of literary criticism. Speaight writes with the assured elegance of a man who knew his subject's world intimately — as a biographer, actor, and Catholic thinker of considerable standing himself — and his prose illuminates Mauriac's significance not merely as a French author but as a universal voice wrestling with sin, grace, and the human condition. The study situates Mauriac within the broader tradition of French Catholic literature alongside figures such as Georges Bernanos and Paul Claudel, arguing for his enduring relevance in an increasingly secular age. Rich in critical insight and biographical detail, this volume raises a question that lingers long after the final page: can a writer remain both an honest artist and a faithful believer — or does one always devour the other?
Author: Robert Speaight
Format: Hardback
Published: 1976, Chatto & Windus
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
At the crossroads of faith, politics, and literary genius stands François Mauriac — Nobel Prize-winning novelist, Catholic moralist, and one of the most towering figures of twentieth-century French letters — and Robert Speaight's penetrating study brings this complex man into vivid focus. François Mauriac: A Study of the Writer and the Man chronicles the life and creative vision of a writer whose brooding, psychologically charged novels — among them Thérèse Desqueyroux and The Knot of Vipers — laid bare the hypocrisies of provincial French Catholicism with a precision that unsettled readers and critics alike. Speaight maps the terrain of Mauriac's inner world with authority, tracing the fault lines between spiritual conviction and literary ambition that animated his entire career. Drawing on his own deep familiarity with Catholic intellectual life in Europe, the author presents a portrait that is as much a spiritual biography as it is a work of literary criticism. Speaight writes with the assured elegance of a man who knew his subject's world intimately — as a biographer, actor, and Catholic thinker of considerable standing himself — and his prose illuminates Mauriac's significance not merely as a French author but as a universal voice wrestling with sin, grace, and the human condition. The study situates Mauriac within the broader tradition of French Catholic literature alongside figures such as Georges Bernanos and Paul Claudel, arguing for his enduring relevance in an increasingly secular age. Rich in critical insight and biographical detail, this volume raises a question that lingers long after the final page: can a writer remain both an honest artist and a faithful believer — or does one always devour the other?