Mouchette

 General Description:

One of the great mavericks of French literature, Georges Bernanos combined raw realism with a spiritual focus of visionary intensity.

Mouchette stands with his celebrated Diary of a Country Priest as the perfection of his singular art. "Nothing but a little savage" is how the village school-teacher describes fourteen-year-old Mouchette, and that view is echoed by every right-thinking local citizen. Mouchette herself doesn't bother to contradict it; ragged, foulmouthed, dirt-poor, a born liar and loser, she knows herself to be, in the words of the story, "alone, completely alone, against everyone." Hers is a tale of "tragic solitude" in which despair and salvation appear to be inextricably intertwined. 

Bernanos' uncompromising genius was a powerful inspiration to Flannery O'Connor, and Mouchette was the source of a celebrated movie by Robert Bresson.

A Tiber River reviewer hasn't written a review for this book yet.
Sign up as a Tiber River reviewer and see your review here!
(Apart from fame, you can also can get free stuff and gift certificates.)

 Browse For Similar Items In

• Catholic Books > Literature / Fiction Books

Related Articles

1. About Muriel Spark 04/22/2009

2. The Ignatius Critical Editions 11/25/2008