The Bernanosian Synthesis

Abstract

The coexistence in Georges Bernanos′ novels of detailed external description and non-realistic forms of discourse has often been noted. Max Milner’s observation that the ‘metaphysical’ landscape of his first novel is not ’dénué de réalisme’¹ is balanced by Philippe le Touzé’ view of his last as ‘à la fois réaliste et fantastique’.² Henri Debluë has shown the predominance of dream in the whole of the Bernanos corpus,³ and J. C. Whitehouse the close link between natural and supernatural worlds in Bernanos’ ‘amalgame de spiritualité et de réalisme’.⁴ Among novelists, François Mauriac, who often admitted the difficulty of reconciling the description of grace with that of fallen nature, commented generously on Bernanos’ great gift: ‘de rendre le surnaturel naturel, d’introduire à cette vie de la grâce qui est pour lui l’unique réalité’. Bernanos’ art, Mauriac went on, ’se rattache au naturalisme car c’est en ne quittant pas un instant la nature d’un pas qu’il se heurte à chaque instant au surnaturel.’⁵ As these comments suggest, Bernanos’ work represents the union of the two currents explored in this present book. The expression of his Catholic vision of the world turned on his adaptation of the Realist modes which had come to represent the norm for practitioners of the novel.