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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
., April 9, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: L'Abbe C (Paperback)
Bataille's L'Abbe C provides you with a reading atmosphere of unsettling density akin to that of the more famous Story of the Eye, while lacking the flood of relentless pornographic imagery that can be witnessed in that novel. The book can be tedious and pretentious at times (as with anything by Bataille), but it remains a rather fascinating literary diversion. The story, which seems to concern the muddled web of feelings existing between a pair of brothers who are in love with the same mysterious woman, is presented in too surreal a fashion to be particularly coherent; however, the most immediately accessible merits of Bataille's literature have less to do with understanding specifically what is happening, and more to do with the dream-like sense (or rather nightmare-like sense) of profundity provoked. Think of one of David Lynch's better films in the form of a french novel from the early part of the century, and you'll be on the right track. L'abbe C isn't as compulsively readable as the disturbing pornographic masterpiece Story of the Eye, but will still provide the patient reader with numerous rewards. The mad priest's diary, at the end of the novel, is of particular interest.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Morally candid, but overdone., December 18, 2002
This review is from: L'Abbe C (Paperback)
"L'Abbe C" is the story of Robert, a priest who is so upstanding he is called "L'Abbe" ("the abbot"), and his twin brother Charles, a "libertine" (i.e., a playboy, or man of loose morals). Charles has a sexual relationship with Eponine, a woman whose morals approach his, but Eponine is attracted to Robert, making for sexual tension. Worse, Robert is secretly attracted to Eponine, making for psychological tension. We learn early in the book that the story will turn out badly for all parties involved, each suffering in their own way, so it is not revealing a secret to say the tensions in this multi-faceted relationship do not lead to a healthy outcome. The story is told mostly from Charles's point of view. Robert breaks down psychologically, fainting at a church service he is attempting to deliver with Eponine in the congregation. Robert begins drinking heavily, and begins stalking Eponine's home in the dead of night, leaving behind sick signs of his presence. He can no longer discern good from evil, nor morality from immorality, and eventually cracks altogether, leaving town for a hotel on the outskirts, where he stays with two semi-professional ladies of looser morals than Eponine's. The novel twists a few more times from there, then resolves itself tragically. The book is essentially a reflection on morality and cowardice, the latter being the human element required for maintaining morality, but also for being true to one's self, which can sometimes oppose what we believe to be moral. While it has an interesting theme, it is written almost entirely for shock value (or at least what passes for shock value for an author born in 1897, and writing in 1950), but does not convincingly expound upon or communicate its theme to the reader. For one instance, we are never convinced Robert was so pious to begin with. He does not earn his title "L'Abbe" in our eyes, so we are not affected by his supposed turning away from piety during the book. Bataille has written this book in an old-fashioned style, almost Victorian, using wrenching emotional adjectives, and over-romanticized means of communicating inner thoughts. It is a bit overdone for the "been there, done that" reader of today, and not handsome enough for the admirer of 19th-century literature. (Also, there is some reference to Nazis near the end of the story. Judging from another Bataille book, "Blue of Noon", Bataille seems to throw Nazis into the bargain when he can no longer figure out where to go, and when he needs to show someone else as depraved as his other characters. The reference to Nazis is unecessary and superficial.) This is a very short work, 158 pages, written in a halting diarized style in most parts. It's almost a pamphlet, hardly a full book. In the final analysis, this is a sexually frank and morally candid tale, but one that is philosophical and even memorable. It may not be great literature, the ending may be a bit incongruous, and it may read as though it is fifty years older than it really is, but it was an interesting little volume nonetheless. I subtract a star, however, because it is a tiny little book at a full-size price.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Portrait of Projection, Deception, and Deceit ..., June 5, 2008
This review is from: L'Abbe C (Paperback)
Our story begins in the voice of the editor as he explains how he received a mysterious and unfinished manuscript from his acquaintance, Charles. This manuscript depicts the untold events of Charles' Brother Robert and his final days. Charles and Robert are identical twins, and as in many stories of this nature, they are complete opposites, or so it appears on the surface. Charles denies himself nothing, and Robert is a priest. One might assume that this would be a story of conflicting principles or maybe even a story of dysfunctional sibling rivalry ... but no, this story is much more corrupt than that, for it is a story of perception, projection, and deceit. True to form, Bataille offers us, not just a grazing of the skin, but a deep penetration into the void of depravation and obscenity. His style is that of a clinical master, as he dissects the bloody entrails of human desire, selfishness, conceit, and delusion. Charles is written as an open wound, and he bleeds his confession onto the pages. But as we have come to expect from Bataille, the prose is restrained, the imagery subtle and often obscured by the characters' emotions. He leaves the details to the imagination and focuses purely on the internal emotional turmoil of the characters. Those emotions are bludgeoning in their corruption and confusion. Charles, upon finding that his brother is ill, sets out to prove a theory. Charles has been convinced all his life that his brother Robert is a fraud. That his piety is a masterful deception and that Robert, beneath the cassock and his own flesh, is exactly like Charles himself. He conspires with his mistress, the local whore, to seduce Robert. The whore is willing to oblige, as she has been in love with Robert since childhood. She is wounded and vengeful. She and Robert had been close at one time, but her chosen lifestyle of sexual and moral freedom caused Robert to completely extricate her from his life. His rejection was so final and so complete that she vowed an eternal pledge to destroy him, and Charles is more than willing to help in order to satisfy his own demented curiosity and emotional needs. During the story, events unfold as one would assume, but they gradually build to an unexpected and blinding conclusion, exposing a truth about Robert that Charles cannot comprehend nor deal with. This is not a story about Robert, and the whore is merely a catalyst ... This is a portrait of Charles and his unrealized and unreconciled need to not only compare himself to his brother but his need to reduce an ideal he feels convinced is false and yet cannot and will not face the undeniable truth of his own theory. What happens when a man realizes his ideal is a lie? This is by far Bataille's best story ... deftly portrayed, the portraits of these two men and their relationship is left raw and uncompromising. Deeply emotional and psychologically devastating, this is what discerning readers have come to expect from Bataille, the seamless merging of fiction, psychology, and philosophy. Deviant and Damaged is Bataille's speciality, and with each book, he leaves the reader wanting for more. If you have only read 'Story of The Eye', do not expect the same blunt and vulgar prose from this book, 'Eye' was a deviation from Bataille's norm - equally exceptional but very different in its intent. One of the true masters of the Novella form, Bataille's stories require a bit of effort from the reader, but the treasure discovered, humanity's sense of self, is well worth that effort.
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