L'ÉPÉE DE FEU: ""The Sword of Fire

In the school established by the most important French writers today, Du Gard, Duhamel, Jules Romains, etc., is this discerning and forceful study of the stagnant world of the French bourgeoisie, the problem of the ""man of good will"" -- seeking an answer to present day unrest. Through the eyes of one family, the Deaucourts, this struggle is presented -- and each source of possible security is tapped, religion, home, political faith. There is the father, cold materialist, who has long since given up searching. There are the three children, Jean Louis, who had left home to become immersed in radical activities, only to find that the paradoxes and violence of party measures are anti-humanitarian. There is Sylvie, the girl, who alone finds a partial solution in returning to the Catholic Church. And the youngest, Abel, is left adrift. A fine piece of portraiture, of family dissolution, of social decay -- of youth struggling ""between two worlds, one dead, one powerless to be born.