THE ROYAL HUNT

High in the French Alps Henri Guifred and his friend Philippe come seasonally to hunt- and their friendship, while unequal in years, is based on the solidarity of this exclusive passion which for Henri has outstripped all others. But Philippe, also sensitive to the beauty and immobility of the forest, the vigilant hope of the hunter and the elation of the kill, still follows the phantom image of the love he hopes to find but has never possessed. It now appears once again in Helene Servance, who lives there alone in a baronial house with her mother, dedicated to the death of her father, and an aunt. To the excitement of wild boar- and deer- there is added a new fever as poachers violate their forests, and a stag, a royal beast; for Philippe, this does not override his desire for Helene from which he is ready to turn away until her aunt intercedes and reconciles the lovers.... An idyll, shadowed by the lonely grandeur of the mountain world and shaded by a symbolism which is not hard to reduce to common experience. The publishers suggest Hemingway but M. Moinot's talent is far more lyrical and less physical.