Under Satan's Sun

by Georges Bernanos

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This new translation marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of Georges Bernanos's first novel, Under Satan's Sun, a powerful account of intense spiritual struggle that reflects the author's deeply-felt religion. The work develops a theme that persistently inspired Bernanos: the existence of evil as a spiritual force and its dramatic role in human destiny. nbsp; This haunting novel follows the fortunes of a young, gauche, and fervent Catholic priest who is a misfit in the world and in his show more church, creating scandal and disharmony wherever he turns. His insight into the inner lives of others and his perception of the workings of Satan in the everyday are gifts that fatefully come into play in the priest's chance encounter with a young murderess, whose life and emotions he can see with a dreadful clarity, and whose destiny inexorably becomes entangled with his own. show less

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5 reviews
Expérience mystique
Il y a des fois où on se demande pourquoi on s'inflige certaines lectures. Celle-ci compte parmi celles-là. C'est à coup de pénibles pages que j'ai réussi à terminer ce livre qui peut se résumer en un mot : lourd!
C'est sûr que le sujet lui-même ne fait pas partie de mes favoris, mais le mysticisme catholique est toujours pour moi source d'intérêt. Là, je n'ai pu que m'accrocher aux longues descriptions (lues en diagonal) en espérant dénicher l'os qui éveillerait ma curiosité.
Je pense que c'est de ces livres qui a trop mal vieilli, issu des grandes moralités d'avant guerre que le modernisme n'avait pas encore touché.
Il paraît que le film est bon. Je ne peux pas dire que je suis tentée.
> Premier roman de Bernanos, Sous le soleil de Satan est, de par son style lyriquement salutaire, de par son engagement forcené sur les étemelles questions du bien, du mal et de la foi, un incontournable de la littérature française du XXe siècle, un livre à la folle puissance, un miroir des âmes qu’illustre ce combat mené par un jeune prêtre tourmenté et qui reste toujours aussi déstabilisant pour le lecteur d’aujourd'hui.
Stanislas Rigot, Librairie Lamartine à Paris (75)

> Publié en 1926, Sous le soleil de Satan stupéfia ses lecteurs par son lyrisme, par son extraordinaire puissance imaginative. Un livre violent, enveloppé de ténèbres qui nous raconte l'éternel combat du bien contre le mal.
Le Livre de show more Poche show less

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107+ Works 4,011 Members
A novelist and essayist, Georges Bernanos was interested in the struggle between good and evil within saintly individuals. He was born in Paris in 1888. He studied at the Sorbonne where he received a degree in law and in literature in 1909. He served in the military from 1909 to 1910 and again during World War I. After the war, Bernanos worked as show more an inspector for an insurance company. Bernanos's first major success as a writer came in 1926 with the publication of the novel Under the Sun of Satan. His well-known work The Diary of a Country Priest followed in 1936. Both novels traced the unknowing submission of characters, after some early disappointing experience, to the forces of Satan and the subsequent destruction of their moral selves. From 1930 to 1932, Bernanos wrote for Le Figaro. In his articles and essays, Bernanos pleaded for a renewed spirituality in France and a renewed moral integrity. Mouchette, a short novel set in a bleak village untouched by the twentieth century was published in 1937. As was The Diary of a Country Priest, Mouchette was made into a film by Robert Bresson. The writings of Georges Bernanos are concerned with the struggle between pride and innocence that lies within every individual. They treat spiritual concerns and the mystery of Christianity. Bernanos is considered among the most original of Roman Catholic novelists. Bernanos died of cancer in Paris on July 5, 1948. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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Canonical title
Under Satan's Sun
Original title
Sous le soleil de Satan
Original publication date
1926
Original language
French

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
DDC/MDS
843.912Literature & rhetoricFrench LiteratureFrench fiction1900-20th Century1900-1945
LCC
PQ2603 .E5875 .S613Language and LiteratureFrench, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literaturesFrench literatureModern literature1900-1960
BISAC

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81,376
Reviews
3
Rating
(3.80)
Languages
9 — English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Slovenian, Spanish
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
40
ASINs
27