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Mauriac has never been known as a particularly "angelic" writer. For many of his fellow Catholics, his works deserved to be put on the Church's Index of forbidden or dangerous books even though, paradoxically, Mauriac never wavered from his openly proclaimed Catholic faith and can surely be counted among the major Catholic writers of this or any century.

From his earliest childhood, Mauriac was brought up in a strict, provincial and somewhat Jansenistic version of catholicism, with its accent on man's penchant for sin and on the dangers of the flesh, as he notes in Dieu et Mammon : "Ne rien concéder à la chair, c'est la vraie loi chrétienne qui te fut enseignée dès que tu commenças de comprendre" (VII, 293).1 The spirit and the flesh are seen as separate and antagonistic aspects of the self. The Christian is called to deny the flesh and to become, as it were, an angel, a purely spiritual being, : "C'est l'esprit qui atteint Dieu, et la chair assouvie qui nous sépare de lui infiniment" (VII, 294). If the extremity of the opposition sounds Pascalian, it is with good reason, for he was one of the formative influences on the young Mauriac:

"Que le Dieu des chrétiens exige tout, je le savais. Qu'il ne fasse pas sa part à la chair, que la nature et la grâce soient deux mondes ennemis, Pascal me l'enseignait avec une excessive et injuste rigueur et cela m'apparaissait d'une terrible évidence" (VII, 289).

As obvious as this opposition may have seemed, it is far from obvious to conform one's life and work to such a rigorous--and limited--view. Mauriac would learn, through painful experience and sharp observation, that human beings are not--and are not intended to be-- angels, but are rather a scandalous mixture of spirit with flesh and blood, a mixture which, tradition tells us, so scandalized the archangel Satan that he revolted against God's plan to endow such a lowly material creature with His own spirit.

Try as he might to be purely spiritual and angelic, Mauriac the Christian remains a very unangelic human being. So, too, do his characters:

"<<Il suffit de purifier la source>>, disais-je, croyant mettre enfin d'accord, dans ma vie, le romancier avec le chrétien. C'était oublier que, purifiée, la source garde encore en son fond la boue originelle où plongent les secrètes racines de mon œuvre. Même dans l'état de grâce, mes créatures naissent du plus trouble de moi-même. Elles se forment de ce qui subsiste en moi malgré moi" (VII, 269).

For Mauriac, the novelist's characters are "la part la plus vivante de nous-mêmes" (Dieu et Mammon , VII, 308). The failure of the majority of novelists who have portrayed saints may be due to their trying to paint sublime, angelic, inhuman beings, whereas their only chance of succeeding would have been to try to show the "miserably human" element which subsists even in saints, for this element is the novelist's own sphere (Dieu et Mammon , VII, 316-317). It is precisely in this sphere that Mauriac excels.

Fallen Angels

It is no doubt this "miserably human," non-angelic side of Mauriac's characters which gave him such a dubious if not downright scandalous reputation among his fellow Catholics. There are no angels, in the normal sense of the word, in Mauriac's novels. The most frequent "angelic" presence or action in Mauriac's novels is that of the fallen angels, of Satan and his cohorts.

In the preface to his 1931 Souffrances et bonheur du chrétien , Mauriac portrays the demonic counterpart to each believer's gardian angel: "Même les plus ordinaires fidèles ont vite fait de connaître le fardeau qui leur est réservé, la croix à leur mesure; chacun traîne, depuis qu'il est au monde, un ange familier, un ange de Satan qui le soufflette" (VII, 228). For Mauriac himself, clearly, evil is not an abstraction, or simply the absence of good: "L'enfer n'est pas inerte: il est subtil esprit. Le démon" (VII, 246).

Satan and his angels are indeed present in Mauriac's works, albeit invisibly, and the effect of their presence and action are palpable to character and reader alike. At times, there is a mere allusion to such demonic action, as when Alain, in Un Adolescent d'autrefois wonders: "Peut-être le mal est-il quelqu'un" (174). In Les Anges noirs , however, we see a full-blown confrontation between the demonic and the angelic. Gabriel Gradère, who ironically bears the name of the archangel of the Annunciation, appears angelic as a young man, even among his fellow seminarians:

"Jamais je n'ai eu un visage aussi pur que durant ces années-là. Au milieu des petits séminaristes mal tenus, je m'élevais comme un lis. <<Le petit Gradère? un ange...>>" (V, 151).

Yet his appearance is a mere mask, which he knows how to use to his advantage. He is already in league with the devil, from whom he has received the inner assurance that he will succeed in all his earthly pursuits: ""Pourtant, j'avais déjà reçu une promesse, une promesse intérieure: tout devait me réussir sur la terre (vous allez me croire fou)" (V, 157). Gabriel knows himself to be "strangely protected" (V,163). Recalling to Alain one time in his life in which he did not do evil, he states that it was "malgré moi... malgré un autre aussi" (V, 161). Throughout his life of degradation and crime--rape, murder, bribery--, Gradère has felt himself to be aided and supported: "il se sentait sûr de la victoire, éprouvant avec plénitude le sentiment d'être dirigé, soutenu" (V, 238). After strangling his former mistress, Aline,

"Gradère use ses dernières forces... comme si quelqu'un l'avait mené jusque-là[... ]Seul! qu'est devenue cette présence brûlante en lui? Où donc ce guide obscur, cette voix insidieuse, ce conseil toujours présent? Jusque-là il avait été comme un aveugle: il serrait fort la laisse et le chien tirait" ( V, 281).2

Although most people do not even know that the devil exists, Alain knows just who is doing this leading: "Et voici qu'un être invisible a reçu le pouvoir de brasser cette matière affreuse-- un archange! (et la plupart des hommes ignorent même qu'il existe...)." He prays that God not let his enemy, "le prince de ce monde" take advantage of human solitude to lead his creatures to perdition (V, 272).3

Counterbalancing the "black angels" and their destructive actions, however, are those like Alain Forcas who pray the rosary, the prayer of the faithful Archangel Gabriel (III, 202). He is the "confident à la fois angélique et fraternel" whom Gradère has long been seeking (III, 145): a curious double whose vocation has overcome the temptations to which Gradère gives free rein. Alain helps to bring Gradère to belief in God before his death, pointing out that if Satan exists--as Gradère well knows--, then God exists too: "s'il existe, cet ennemi de Dieu et des hommes, tout le reste existe aussi" (III, 290). On his deathbed, having confessed his many sins and found peace, Gradère, like a well-fed baby, "souriait aux anges" (III, 337).

Deceptive ''Angels''

There are several other characters in Mauriac's novels whose angelic appearance, like Gradère's, hides a definitely unangelic, carnal nature. In Destins, Bob Lagave's angelic face brings him easy popularity and sexual conquests, but leads to his downfall and degradation: "Son tendre visage avait été sa condamnation. Il ne faut pas que les anges soient visibles; malheur aux anges perdus parmi les hommes!" (I, 489). Finally, just before death, Bob Lagave is reconciled with God: "[...] la mort seule avait pu rendre vivant cet ange charnel" (I, 525).

Thérèse Desqueyroux, who has tried to poison her husband, recalls the angelic purity of her youth, which obscured her passionate inner being: "Pure, je l'étais; un ange, oui! mais un ange plein de passions" (III,184).

In Galigaï , Gilles Salone's apparently angelic being--"sombrement angélique" (XII, 115)-- is a sort of mask, hiding his real nature and hiding God from his friend Nicolas. It is "[...]cette créature éphémère qui lui cachait Dieu" (XII, 124). In his Afterword to the novel in the Œuvres complètes, Mauriac comments on this case: "Il fallait d'abord que fût abattue l'idole: Gilles Salone; il fallait que Nicolas se détachât des apparences et de cette fausse image de lui-même" (XII, 166).

In Le Désert de l'amour Maria Cross is attracted by the apparent innocence and purety of the doctor's son, but the narrator points out the danger of judging by exterior appearance:

"Elle tremblait devant ce juge qui lui paraissait angélique; elle ne discernait pas l'ange de l'impureté, ne savait pas que le printemps est souvent la saison de la boue et que cet adolescent pouvait n'être que souillure" (II, 80).

Pure ''Angels''

Mauriac seems to associate real angels, in the normal sense of the word, principally with purity and innocence, especially those of childhood. As he notes in Le Mystère Frontenac, "un pieux enfant est toujours porté par les anges..." (IV, 23). In Les Anges noirs, Gradère contrasts his deceitful self, even as a youngster, with "ces petits dont les anges voient le Tout-Puissant face à face" (V, 160).

Xavier, the principal character in L'Agneau , is surely one of the most angelic characters Mauriac has created. He has a deep life of prayer, including the rosary,"l'oraison angélique" (XII, 317), and as the title indicates, relives the role of the Lamb of God, offering his life for others. There are perhaps other, darker possibilities in Xavier's character, however, hidden beneath the surface. His relationship with Mirbel is not without ambiguity. Mauriac underlines, in his preface, the contradictory aspects of his portrayal of human nature, which scandalized many critics of this (and other) novels:

"Cette confrontation, qui a paru horrible à la plupart des critiques, d'une humanité jugée morbide et immonde (que ne se regardent-ils!) et de la Grâce, les scandalisait. Pour eux, je compose un mélange sacrilège du plus trouble de l'être humain et du plus pur de la révélation chrétienne.

Or la vérité que je crois connaître, une vérité que je possède non par intuition mais par l'expérience que j'ai des êtres et pas seulement de moi-même, tient justement dans cette <<interpénétration>> de la chair et du sang d'une part et d'autre part de la Grâce. La Grâce, je l'ai vue, reconnue, touchée dans les êtres les plus déchus. Et que d'abîmes, parfois, dans des créatures angéliques!

C'est parce qu'elles sont des anges que se révèlent leurs abîmes" (XII, xiv).

It is interesting to note here that flesh and blood and the spirit are no longer purely antagonistic and incompatible, but interpenetrating human realities. It is the supernatural light of grace which allows one to recognize the darkness for what it is, in oneself or in others.

The angel of darkness appears behind the scenes in L'Agneau as the opponent, the temptor, with whom Xavier jousts for the soul of the despairing pastor who has lost his faith. Could the devil also have had a hand in Xavier's death, which could appear to have been a suicide? The pastor tells Mirbel that even a saint "peut être abandonné, le temps d'un éclair, à celui qui attend tout de notre désespoir" (XII, 317). Given the transforming effect which Xavier's life and death have on Jean de Mirbel, however--and perhaps on the curé as well--, we may well interpret his death as a voluntary sacrifice rather than as an act of despair. Mauriac himself reads it thus in the preface (XII, xv).

Beyond Angels

In Mauriac's last novel, Un Adolescent d'autrefois , angelic innocence and purity are portrayed as excessive or abnormal for flesh and blood human beings. Alain not only appears but is all too angelic, and suffers from what he perceives as an abnormality, especially his inability to deal with girls. To Simon, who kids him about being an angel, or at least "moitié-démon, moitié-ange," Alain tries to explain why he's different--not really angelic, but frightened: "Moi, je suis né différent... Je suis dégoûté... Non pas angélique, comme vous croyez... Mais je vais vous étonner: peureux jusqu'à la lacheté" (73).

Alain and Marie banter back and forth about the angelic side of Alain, which is making life difficult for him:

--Je ne vous appelais pas. Les jours où vous ne veniez pas, je me disais: << l'ange n'est pas venu aujourd'hui...>> [...]

--Les filles n'aiment pas les garçons angéliques, dis-je[...] Elles ont raison d'ailleurs.

--Parce qu'il y a de mauvais anges? demanda Marie[...]

--Non, un mauvais ange, elles l'aimeraient, elles souffriraient par lui[...]" (94)

Though Alain is not a "bad angel," the two fall in love and Alain notices the welcome change, even in his appearance, effected by his developing relationship with Marie: "Je me regardais dans les vitrines. Je ne ressemblais plus à un ange mais à un garçon qu'une fille aimait" (104).

Alain gradually moves away from his overly angelic innocence: "[...]par degrés Marie fit de l'ange-enfant un être pareil aux autres hommes, mais l'enfant survivait à ces actes[...]" (128). He feels that his angelic self was in fact a monster, an aberration due to a prolonged childhood: "Où est le mérite d'avoir eu cette enfance prolongée jusqu'à devenir ce monstre que tu appelles un ange?" (135).

The suffering engendered by their difficult relationship ages Marie, whereas Alain retains his youthful and angelic appearance: "Cette souffrance la vieillissait, enfin lui rendait son âge alors que moi, selon elle, je gardais mon aspect angélique--les ailes pas même fripées, disait-elle, moqueuse et douleureuse" (150-151).4

Although their relationship does not last, Alain underlines the fact that it has changed his life and given it meaning. The night they first made love was, in fact, graced: "une nuit de péché et pourtant une nuit de grâce" (131). Human love is here no longer seen as that which keeps one from God, but rather as the image, the prefiguration of God's love for us:

"Ce fut cette nuit-là, l'heure de nos vies où peut-être nous approchâmes le plus de la vérité pressentie par nous deux[...] que l'amour humain est la préfiguration de celui qui nous a créés,--mais que quelquefois, comme cette nuit pour nous deux, et si coupable qu'il fût, il ressemblait à cet amour que la créateur voue à sa créature, et la créature à son créateur, et que le bonheur dont nous débordions Marie et moi était comme un pardon donné à l'avance" (132).

We are obviously light years away from the earlier Jansenist dichotomy between disembodied spirit and sinful flesh, between the angelic and the human: the purely angelic has given way to fully human, incarnate love. It is the concrete experience of this love which communicates the gospel message, the Good News, of God's love and forgiveness.

Events as messengers

For Mauriac, experiences and events, like angels, can thus also be messengers. Louis says as much in Le Nœud de vipères : " [...]les événements, surtout dans l'ordre des cœurs, sont peut-être des messagers dont il faut interpréter le secret" (III, 386). Thus, for example, when Louis is about to use Marinette to take revenge on his wife Isa, he hears steps in an alleyway. He remembers what the young abbé had said to him ("Vous êtes très bon"[III, 528]), and brings Marinette back from the darkness into the light--an image of his own return from evil intention to upright action (III, 425).

The abbé, along with Luc and Marie, is an "angelic" figure of purity and innocence, despite his fall from grace in the eyes of his superiors--a fall into humanity, as it were, which, in fact, endears him to Louis. Marinette's son, Luc, by his simple piety and unaffected ways, also touches deeply the old crocodile (cf. III, 436-7), as does his daughter, Marie. Her suffering and death, offered for the sake of her father (III, 427-428), are the key to his eventual conversion and redemption. Her mysterious presence at various moments throughout his life, reinforced by several other experiences, is thus a "message" which he is finally able to receive:

"Ne savais-je déjà que je me trompais moi-même, ce soir de la fin du dernier siècle, sur la terrasse de Calèse, lorsque l'abbé Ardouin m'avait dit: <<Vous êtes très bon...>> ? Plus tard, je me suis bouché les oreilles pour ne pas entendre les paroles de Marie agonisante. A ce chevet, pourtant, le secret de la vie et de la mort m'a été livré... Une petite fille mourait pour moi... J'ai voulu l'oublier. Inlassablement, j'ai cherché à perdre cette clef qu'une main mystérieuse m'a toujours rendue, à chaque tournant de ma vie (le regard de Luc après la messe, dans ces matinées de dimanche, à l'heure de la première cigale... Et ce printemps encore, la nuit de la grêle...)" (III, 528-529).

Such are the experiences, events, encounters, woven into the fabric of everyday life, which can function as messengers. Mauriac's world is decidedly not angelic, in any normal sense of the word. It is not even visited by angels, except those long since expelled from the heavenly hosts. It includes the lowest forms of human beings and the most despicable actions; occasional "angelic" appearance among humans as often as not hides less lofty realities.

Still, it is a world shot through with grace. His early religious education notwithstanding, Mauriac is very much a novelist of the Incarnation. Grace works in and through the material world. The human body itself is no longer merely an occasion of sin or the prison of the soul, but, for Alain Forcas, the proof of the existence of God:

"[...] ce que j'éprouvais à la contempler, et sans doute qui ne vaut que pour moi, et que me donne toujours la vue d'un jeune corps s'il est beau, c'est l'évidence que Dieu est. Dieu existe, vous le voyez bien" (166).

Human beings, the human body in all its materiality, can thus become the "messenger" of God. Human beings do not have to become angels. And Mauriac, in his own unangelic way, also bears a powerful and lasting message for his--and our--unangelic times.

Brian Thompson

University of Massachusetts at Boston

[This text was published as "Mauriac's 'Angels'," Claudel Studies , vol. XVII, no. 2 (1990), 50-56]

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NOTES

1 Mauriac's works will be cited in the body of the text, by volume and page number, from the Œuvres complètes in the Bilbliothèque Bernard Grasset published by Arthème Fayard, except for Un Adolescent d'autrefois, edited by J.E. Flower in the collection "Textes français classiques et modernes," University of London Press, 1972 (cited by page number alone).

2 There are a number of other indications of Gradère's relationship to the "black angels". He is preternaturally aged (III, 160), never feels cold , and walks with a peculiar "almost winged" gait (III, 180, 184). He feels watched by an invisible presence (III, 180,194, 200), and hears an inner voice egging him on (III, 174).

3 Despite the actions of Satan, Alain reflects that it is man, in fact, who chooses evil:

"Chaque fois que nous faisons le bien, Dieu opère en nous et avec nous; chaque mauvaise action, en revanche, n'appartient qu'à nous. Pour le mal, nous sommes en quelque sorte des dieux...

--Cet homme, ce Gradère, a choisi d'être un dieu..." (III, 273)

The formulation recalls the serpent's temptation of Eve in the garden: "You will be like gods."

4 The language recalls a scene in Genetrix in which the angel-faced Jean, returning from his regular nocturnal escapades, is seen by his sister Mathilde as a "wrinkled angel": "Elle accueillait sans un reproche mais avec une moquerie sèche cet ange fripé du petit jour" (I,334).

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