Georges Bernanos – författare

A moving spiritual masterpiece that shows the true meaning of divinity in a hostile world A young, shy, sickly priest is assigned to his first parish, a sleepy village in northern France. Though his faith is devout, he finds nothing but indifference and mockery. The children laugh at his teachings, his parishioners are consumed by boredom, rumours are spread about him and he is tormented by stomach pains. Even his attempts to clarify his thoughts in a diary fail to deliver him from worldly concerns. Yet somehow, despite his suffering, he tries to find love for his fellow humans, and even a state of grace. Translated by Howard Curtis

A moving spiritual masterpiece that shows the true meaning of divinity in a hostile world A young, shy, sickly priest is assigned to his first parish, a sleepy village in northern France. Though his faith is devout, he finds nothing but indifference and mockery. The children laugh at his teachings, his parishioners are consumed by boredom, rumours are spread about him and he is tormented by stomach pains. Even his attempts to clarify his thoughts in a diary fail to deliver him from worldly concerns. Yet somehow, despite his suffering, he tries to find love for his fellow humans, and even a state of grace. Translated by Howard Curtis

Georges Bernanos was the author of the modern literary and religious classic, Diary of a Country Priest, in which he explored the Christian mystery of redemption through love. According to Hans Urs von Balthasar, Bernanos is a key figure for our times in the relationship between theology and literature. In this selection of Bernanos' most significant works — Joan: Heretic and Saint, Sermon of an Agnostic on the Feast of St Thérèse, and Dialogues of the Carmelites — we find theological and psychological insight interwoven with a profound sense of historical drama: a masterly exploration of heroic innocence in a group of extraordinary Christian women.

The Impostor is a searching account of the torment that besets Father Cénabre, historian of mysticism and controversial star of the Parisian clergy, when his faith suddenly deserts him. As the priest struggles to cope secretly, he crosses paths with associates on the complex margins of a Church facing modern politics in the early twentieth century. Georges Bernanos's compelling and dark portraits of that shadowy world's inhabitants throw into stark relief the determination of a humble priest, Father Chevance, who alone knows Cénabre's secret and struggles to save him. By turn touching and scathing, The Impostor explores the delicate balance between redemption and damnation and illuminates the fragility of our constructed selves. Georges Bernanos (1888–1948), one of the twentieth century's most powerful and idiosyncratic writers, was also the most original Roman Catholic writer of his time. The Impostor, the second of his novels published in French, is the last to be translated into English.

In a small village in northern France, Monsieur Ouine, a retired professor, is taken in by the dull local squire, Anthelme de Néréis, and soon rules the life of both Anthelme and his wife, Ginette. A fourteen-year-old fatherless boy, Philippe Dorval, flees home and, on impulse, follows Madame de Néréis to her château. There the squire, who is dying, tells the boy that his father is actually alive and well—that despite what Philippe's mother had told him, his father had not died in World War I. The forsaken boy finds himself on that fatal evening succumbing to Monsieur Ouine's embrace after falling into a drunken sleep in the old professor's bed. The events of the tempestuous night lead to upheaval in the village the next morning, when, at dawn, a boy's body is found afloat in a stream near the château.

A young priest taking over a rural parish tries to discharge his duties even as he struggles to relate to the congregation and the cold realism of his nearest colleagues, all the while, coping with a mysterious stomach ailment.Though little known or discussed in English speaking countries, French author Georges Bernanos made a critical impact, inspiring several films in France, most notably by director Robert Bresson.This novel (his 3rd) deserves a place beside even Dostoyevsky''s most psychological novels. Though often dismissed as a ''merely Catholic'' writer, Bernanos'' humanism and touching portraits of compassion, doubt and suffering at its limits are sure to captivate both secular and religious readers.André Malraux rated the works of Georges Bernanos even above Sartre, Camus and Gide.Also of note: Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) recently wrote and directed the 2018 film "First Reformed" which is loosely based on both this book as well as the film by Robert Bresson of the same title...

The work as a whole may seem wildly surreal and devilish, much like the works of Catalonian native Salvador Dali, whose work was also touched by the Spanish Civil War under General Franco. Read in that vein, the work perhaps retains some historical importance; afterall, Spain was only a prelude to the horrors and genocides to come as all of Europe descended into the chaos of total war.When Bernanos is dealing with facts and first-hand accounts of the political purges in Spain he is at his best, and at times feels reminiscent of the diaries of George Orwell or the works of Solzhenitsyn.At other times the reader will be at pains to recognize anything of the tender and beloved author of Diary of a Country Priest in the pedantic and obsessive screeds and jeremiads of Bernanos contained in this diary. He reminds one of Joseph de Mastre; surely the world was plunging headlong into a kind of madness, if even it’s best and most thoughtful writers were possessed with the general delirium of the times.