UNDER SATAN'S SUN

First published in 1926 and long unavailable in English translation, this vivid debut novel by the eminent French Catholic author (1888–1948) is a solid stepping-stone pointing toward the greater achievements of Bernanos's Diary of a Country Priest and The Impostor. It examines the fervent religiosity of a rural cleric given to self-flagellation and delusions of godlike powers—in his dealings with a farm girl betrayed into prostitution, a dying child, and, in its astonishing central section, Satan himself (in the guise of a garrulous horse-trader). Episodic, indifferently constructed, and often hyperbolic, yet suffused with a dramatic intensity that makes one understand why Bernanos has sometimes been likened to Dostoevsky. Not all readers will agree, but Under Satan's Sun should not be missed.