Textual Hauntings: Studies in Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Mauriac's Thérèse DesqueyrouxUniversity Press of America, 2005 - 134 pages ThZr_se Desqueyroux, Fran_ois Mauriac's stark and introspective 1927 novel, appears to be quite a different tale from Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert's succ_s de scandale published exactly seventy years earlier. Yet upon closer scrutiny, the two novels' similarities become undeniable. The preponderance of parallelisms surely cannot be attributed to happenstance, nor can one agree with the contention that Mauriac must have been inspired, unconsciously and unbeknownst to him, by the literary model of Madame Bovary. Textual Hauntings opens with an overview of the strikingly similar plot, characters, and themes in the best-known novel of each of these important modern authors. Subsequent chapters, noting both differences as well as similarities, look specifically at the issues of gender and sexuality, the uses of religion and the role of the clergy, the function of uncertainty (both as a narrative technique in Flaubert and as a thematic element in Mauriac), the role of minor characters and their relationships to the two eponymous heroines, and finally, the use by each novelist of photographs in order to undercut, rather than to underscore, any affection felt for the person whose image has been preserved. While surely borrowing from his nineteenth-century precursor, Mauriac, like Flaubert, created a remarkably powerful novel. Just as each novelist offers the reader a hauntingly memorable heroine, Flaubert's celebrated masterpiece Madame Bovary haunts the pages of Nobel laureate Mauriac's ThZr_se Desqueyroux. Edward Gallagher's examination and reflections on these two novels in tandem lead to a deeper appreciation and a better understanding of each novel. |
From inside the book
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Page 51
... religious faith is thrown into high relief as Mauriac compares Thérèse to a bull at the en- trance to the arena : ... Un pilier la rendit invisible à l'assistance ; en face d'elle , il n'y avait rien que le choeur . Cernée de toutes ...
... religious faith is thrown into high relief as Mauriac compares Thérèse to a bull at the en- trance to the arena : ... Un pilier la rendit invisible à l'assistance ; en face d'elle , il n'y avait rien que le choeur . Cernée de toutes ...
Page 54
... religious conversion in the after- math of the putative divine intervention which stays her self - destruction . Yet , while , as he writes in his preface to the novel , he would have liked to see her as " Sainte Locuste , " the ...
... religious conversion in the after- math of the putative divine intervention which stays her self - destruction . Yet , while , as he writes in his preface to the novel , he would have liked to see her as " Sainte Locuste , " the ...
Page 63
... religion pas plus que la chirurgie ne paraissait le secourir , et l'invincible pourriture allait montant toujours des extrémités vers le ventre " ( 243 ) . Bad medicine and superstitious religious bargaining are both dismissed as ...
... religion pas plus que la chirurgie ne paraissait le secourir , et l'invincible pourriture allait montant toujours des extrémités vers le ventre " ( 243 ) . Bad medicine and superstitious religious bargaining are both dismissed as ...
Contents
the Altered Self | 7 |
Flauberts Madame Bovary and Mauriacs | 13 |
Gender and Sexuality | 29 |
Copyright | |
9 other sections not shown
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Textual Hauntings: Studies in Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Mauriac's Thérèse ... Edward Joseph Gallagher No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
Anne Anne's Argelouse aurait autre Bernard Berthe bien Bournisien Bovary and Thérèse Bovary's c'est c'était Catholic Chapter Charles Charles's Christ Clara's coeur simple complètes contre Corpus Christi critics curate curé d'une Dacia Maraini daughter described deux doute elle Emma Emma Bovary Emma's Emma's death enfant enfin été être Eucharist Eugène de Rastignac eût faisait fait Félicité femme final Flaubert's Madame Bovary François Mauriac French Studies Gustave Flaubert Holy Spirit Homais homme imagine jamais Jean Azévédo Jean Lacouture l'autre Larroque Le père Goriot Léon Loulou Madame Bovary Madame Homais Mario Vargas Llosa married Mary Orr maternal Mauriac's Thérèse Desqueyroux mère mother narrative narrator nisien noir Paris passage passion père personality peut-être Phèdre poison prêtre priest qu'il reader rien Rodolphe role Roman Rouen sacrament scene Seuil seule sexual sous story tante tête Thérèse Desqueyroux title character tout Trave underscore Vaubyessard voir woman yeux Yonville