Belle du Seigneur: A Novel [Hardcover]

Albert Cohen (Author), David Coward (Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1996

Set largely in Geneva in the mid 1930's, this novel is a commentary on middle-class manners. At its centre is Solal, an idealistic, unsuccessful Jewish man who turns his back on the world. His affair with Ariane Deume proves to be his greatest disappointment which leads him to his fate.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

First published in Paris in 1968, Belle du Seigneur is considered the masterpiece of Albert Cohen, a Jew who served the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, who became Israel's first Prime Minister, and worked for the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees after World War II. This tortuous love story revolves around an adulterous affair between Sola, the ostentatious son of the Chief Rabbi of Cephalonia and Ariane d'Auble, a beautiful, blonde, Protestant aristocrat. Threatened by impending war and the growing anti-Semitism of Europe in the mid-1930s, the two struggle to keep passion alive. While Ariane molds herself into the perfection of femininity, Sola takes on a bitter cruelty that translates into revenge against the ostracism of himself and his people.

From Publishers Weekly

A vast, astonishing satire of modern life, Cohen's continuously digressive comic novel, set in Geneva in the 1930s, skewers, above all else, the emptiness of middle-class existence, its worship of power and money. Its antihero is Solal, Under-Secretary of the League of Nations, who risks his reputation over an obsessive love affair with the rebellious, bored wife of a pompous League official. Like Cohen himself, Solal is a Mediterranean Jew, an outsider. He mocks his own deep religious faith and expresses skepticism about the League's idealistic internationalism?which he nevertheless makes his personal mission. Tracing Solal's path, Cohen swings from slang to grandiloquence and pure stream-of-consciousness, mixing low farce, high comedy, rapturous erotica and acid satire on the rise of fascism. His gleefully observed gallery of fools exposes a catalogue of human failings?pretense, envy, snobbery, machismo, conformity?all typified by the man Solal cuckolds, Adrien Deume, a hypocritical, bigoted bureaucrat whose narrow-mindedness contrasts with the League's grand ambitions. Bumbling through this sprawling canvas, meanwhile, are "the Valiant," five picturesque cousins from Corfu whose Chaplinesque antics and open embrace of their Jewish roots counterpoint Solal's brooding. Cohen takes in his giant stride such themes as the psychological battlefield of marriage, humanity's bestiality beneath its civilized veneer, the persecution of Jews across the ages and the terrible brevity of each life. Readers of this magnificent conclusion to a trilogy that also includes Solal (1930) and Mangeclous (1938) will understand why, upon its publication in 1968 in France, it won the French Academy's Grand Prix du Roman, and why it has gone on to sell more than one million copies in Europe alone.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 992 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1St Edition edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067082187X
• ISBN-13: 978-0670821877
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,173,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE story of love and life. The best 20th century novel., August 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Belle du Seigneur (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) (Paperback)

This magnificent opus of Albert Cohen is much more than The story of love. It is the story of the dream of love (not only personal, but also in its abstract form) and its impossible realization. It offers an original view of both male and female human nature in matters of love and life. It also contains some of the funniest chapters describing bourgeois society (Swiss, French, Belgian, German, Jewish - you name it) and its values and prejudices, and diplomatic life. Some may find it exaggerated and longwinded, but others will enjoy every single word, and re-read this book every so often. If you can't read it in the original French, don't miss this opportunity and read the English translation.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, hard to forget this one!, May 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Belle du Seigneur (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) (Paperback)

Albert Cohen's masterpiece is intimidating both for its size and chapter-long sentences. But, please, do not be discouraged. This is one of the most insightful novels I have read. It delves into the bureacratic labyrinth of international institutions, mocks their functionaries, and is a haunting critique of European virtues on the eve of the Second World War. (Particularly funny for those familar with the World Bank, UN, or government anywhere).

But, most importantly, it portrays the relationship between men and women in a profound yet comic way. The book's difficulty is quite worth the struggle, especially when you reach the chapter where Solal seduces his beloved. A chapter that is hard for me to forget, for it shows just how stupid and cruel we are.

This is not for the lazy readers, but if you have any guts, read this one. Its worth the while.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sigh..., February 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Belle du Seigneur (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) (Paperback)

What an amazing book. I can't think of many books that can trace the story of a love affair the way this book does. Like an arc, it starts with animosity and goes through flirtation, infatuation, love, obsession, and descends into distate, resentment, morbidity. This book exhausts emotionally and absorbs intellectually. Solal and Ariane are so complicated and interesting as characters; and what an utter twit Ariane's husband is!