ABSTRACT
For anyone believing that modern French fiction is either chillingly theoretical or pointlessly narcissistic, Albeit Cohen's monumental novel, Belle du Seigneur, will come as a shock. Exile, incidentally, not only from one's native country but also from one's religion, social milieu and even the natural world, forms a compelling theme of Belle du Seigneur. In the novel, Cohen contrasts a quest for purity, humaneness, and spiritual salvation with the vanity, pettiness, incompetence, and moral emptiness of international civil servants more intent on furnishing their offices than on solving the world's problems. In this masterful reworking of the Don Juan archetype, Solal incarnates brutal truths, yet he also becomes an all-too-human lover secretly tormented by an overwhelming need for consolation. Cohen meticulously demonstrates what happens to human beings who put their faith - when seemingly nothing else can be given credence - in the ephemeral lures of beauty.
