A WOMAN OF THE PHARISEES

by Francois Mauriac ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 1946

One of the most distinguished French novelists of the last thirty years, whose work has been qualified by a very marked Catholic conscience, a concern for the spiritual as well as the psychological, presents here a portrait of a woman whose virtuousness was so vigilant, so vicious, that she ruined the lives with which she came in contact. This is the story of Mme. Brigitte Pian, as told by her stepson, Louis, as through her sense of duty and of God, and without love or compassion, she helped to doom the young schoolmaster who married against her approval, as she broke up the very young love affair of her stepdaughter Michele with Jean. Jean, considered incorrigible by his family, is placed in the care of a curate who hopes- through gentler ways- to save him. But separated from Michele, Jean indulges the instability always attributed to him, ruins the curate as well who is denounced by church and community and Mme. Pian... A portrait of self-righteousness and self-love at its most vindictive, of public humanitarianism and private inhumanity, this is a suggestive, subtle study- if presumably too refined, too alien, for a popular American public.

Pub Date: Oct. 14, 1946

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1946

Categories: FICTION