What do you think?
Rate this book
L'Abbé C
Told in a series of first-person accounts, L'Abbé C is a startling narrative about the intense and terrifying relationship between twin brothers. Charles is a modern libertine, dedicated to vice and depravity, while his twin Robert is a priest so devout that he is nicknamed L'Abbé'. When the sexually wild Eponine intrudes upon their suffocating relationship, anguish, delirium, and death ensue.
Other works by Georges Bataille published by Marion Boyars include Blue of Noon and My Mother Madame Edwarda and the Dead Man.
Other works by Georges Bataille published by Marion Boyars include Blue of Noon and My Mother Madame Edwarda and the Dead Man.
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
28 people are currently reading
1650 people want to read
About the author
Georges Bataille
234 books2,468 followersFrench essayist, philosophical theorist, and novelist, often called the "metaphysician of evil." Bataille was interested in sex, death, degradation, and the power and potential of the obscene. He rejected traditional literature and considered that the ultimate aim of all intellectual, artistic, or religious activity should be the annihilation of the rational individual in a violent, transcendental act of communion. Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, and Philippe Sollers have all written enthusiastically about his work.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
August 17, 2013
I couldn't spoil this plot if I tried. I would have to find the plot first. Although I found part of it which I will render as a multiple choice test.
Who left the load under the window while Charles and Eponine were having unspecified sex?
a) The priest.
b) The butcher.
c) Both of the above.
d) None of the above.
Sorry, but, well, I prefer my allegories to be not quite so shitty.
Everybody except an unnamed 'Editor' dies, but not in any cool, shocking or even interesting manner. Like the sex, it is unspecified. People get pale and weak and die. You know, in the French manner.
Bataille, at least in this novel, writes aphoristically. At the beginning of many, many sentences, you can see it coming, some statement representing absolute truth, some kitchen sampler, or at least a quote you can add to the Goodreads vault. The problem is, having read the aphorism, I couldn't sign on. Some examples:
The only way to atone for the sin of writing is to annihilate what is written.
Everything human serves as a trap for man: no matter what we do, our every thought beguiles us and persists, if we have any memory at all, only to become the instantaneous object of our laughter.
Only treachery has the excessive beauty of death.
I know. I don't know what it means either. But see what I mean: it reads like a profound statement but, upon scrutiny, is just so much word salad. Nothing I want to add to my Tony's Quotes anyhow.
Or: I was suffering, I wanted to suffer, and that painful impatience had the ugliness of nudity (the ugliness, and perhaps the enchantment as well). Maybe it loses something in translation.
Back to the load under the window: 'How very odd,' I said, 'in the dark, butchers look like priests.' Can't say I didn't give you a clue for the test question.
There was one passage which made some sense on a theme of Writing:
My absurdity imagined, as I lay somnolent, a clear way to define the problem with which literature is confronted. I pictured its object, perfect happiness, as a car speeding down a highway. I would first pull up alongside the car, on the left, and, speeding like a bullet, try to pass it. It would accelerate and, little by little, start to escape, tearing away from me with all the power its engine could provide. It is at that very moment, when the car is on the verge of getting away, making me realize that I'll never be able to pass it or even follow it, that is the image of the object pursued by the writer: in order for the object to be attained, it is necessary not that it should be seized, but that it should, at the height of the chase, escape from the axis of an impossible tension.
And escape for me it did. Which would be my fault. Except he also writes:
My narrative doesn't quite measure up to what one expects such a book to be. Far from emphasizing that which is its purpose, it somehow conceals it. If I do not get around to saying what is most important, if I insinuate it, if I speak of it -- it is, ultimately, just to leave it further in the dark.
Well, success there.
Who left the load under the window while Charles and Eponine were having unspecified sex?
a) The priest.
b) The butcher.
c) Both of the above.
d) None of the above.
Sorry, but, well, I prefer my allegories to be not quite so shitty.
Everybody except an unnamed 'Editor' dies, but not in any cool, shocking or even interesting manner. Like the sex, it is unspecified. People get pale and weak and die. You know, in the French manner.
Bataille, at least in this novel, writes aphoristically. At the beginning of many, many sentences, you can see it coming, some statement representing absolute truth, some kitchen sampler, or at least a quote you can add to the Goodreads vault. The problem is, having read the aphorism, I couldn't sign on. Some examples:
The only way to atone for the sin of writing is to annihilate what is written.
Everything human serves as a trap for man: no matter what we do, our every thought beguiles us and persists, if we have any memory at all, only to become the instantaneous object of our laughter.
Only treachery has the excessive beauty of death.
I know. I don't know what it means either. But see what I mean: it reads like a profound statement but, upon scrutiny, is just so much word salad. Nothing I want to add to my Tony's Quotes anyhow.
Or: I was suffering, I wanted to suffer, and that painful impatience had the ugliness of nudity (the ugliness, and perhaps the enchantment as well). Maybe it loses something in translation.
Back to the load under the window: 'How very odd,' I said, 'in the dark, butchers look like priests.' Can't say I didn't give you a clue for the test question.
There was one passage which made some sense on a theme of Writing:
My absurdity imagined, as I lay somnolent, a clear way to define the problem with which literature is confronted. I pictured its object, perfect happiness, as a car speeding down a highway. I would first pull up alongside the car, on the left, and, speeding like a bullet, try to pass it. It would accelerate and, little by little, start to escape, tearing away from me with all the power its engine could provide. It is at that very moment, when the car is on the verge of getting away, making me realize that I'll never be able to pass it or even follow it, that is the image of the object pursued by the writer: in order for the object to be attained, it is necessary not that it should be seized, but that it should, at the height of the chase, escape from the axis of an impossible tension.
And escape for me it did. Which would be my fault. Except he also writes:
My narrative doesn't quite measure up to what one expects such a book to be. Far from emphasizing that which is its purpose, it somehow conceals it. If I do not get around to saying what is most important, if I insinuate it, if I speak of it -- it is, ultimately, just to leave it further in the dark.
Well, success there.
July 20, 2021
It was like like an art film that the director does not care to be enjoyed by and revealed to everyone who watches it. Robert, a priest is forced into a sexual triangle by his hard living brother, Charles. Their object of affection is an alcoholic prostitute who makes love with Charles but also wants to bed Robert. It ends up destroying all of them. It was a short book. An early vividly described scene inside a lighthouse involving the three characters locked together in the triangle sort of foregrounds what would eventually become of the love triangle. Apparently lighthouses symbolize human desire and death (I googled it after wondering why the scene was set in a lighthouse of all places) Childhood trauma, religious belief, the second world war and sexual perversion are some of the themes in this short novel.
L'Abbé C/The Abbot was a novel within a novel. The hard living brother writes a book based on the triangle and hands it over to his friend to edit. So parts of the novel are told from his friend's point of view.
I didn't care much for it. It was too dreary. Apparently it's not Bataille's best. I confess I was attracted to it by the subject matter which seemed lurid. But it was full of half assed philosophical musings and not enough mayhem. Maybe I walked into the wrong bar.
L'Abbé C/The Abbot was a novel within a novel. The hard living brother writes a book based on the triangle and hands it over to his friend to edit. So parts of the novel are told from his friend's point of view.
I didn't care much for it. It was too dreary. Apparently it's not Bataille's best. I confess I was attracted to it by the subject matter which seemed lurid. But it was full of half assed philosophical musings and not enough mayhem. Maybe I walked into the wrong bar.
September 13, 2011
For those who fully commit themselves to the depths of L'abbe C,
a vexing paradox arises: the necessity of verbalizing a profound
experience and the impossibility of ever giving such profundity
a justifiable expression. Undoubtedly, L'abbe C was Bataille's compromise.
Unlike The Story of the Eye, this novel examines the links between religious and spiritual ecstasy more comparatively than subversively. As Robert's pious solitude erupts into a desire to satisfy his flesh, Charles' debauchery slowly becomesan aspiration towards absolute continuity and completion of being. Therefore, Bataille presents religious and erotic experience as two, seemingly different paths which have a common end: that is, transcendence.
In dissolving the dichotomy between the ecstasies of flesh and spirit, the text becomes unstable itself. With this division removed, the verbal expression of this perversely unified reality proves a limitation. From Charles' attempt to finish his story to the editor's struggle to simply write a preface and epilogue, the narratives tremble with how Charles' and Robert's seemingly conflicting realities merge into an unstable whole. The limitation of thought within words is not so far removed from Robert's attempt to confine his flesh within monastic solitude.
In this instabilitiy of the text, we are lead to a point of ineffability. Unlike most authors, Bataille would not have us experience the heights of divinity and depths of carnality separately. L'abbe C offers us no moment in which fleshly ecstasy is without a longing for continuity of being. Bataille reaches the ineffable only when spiritual and erotic experience are realized equally and simultaneously. Such a merging of experiences never creates a stable whole, of course; and one cannot assume that Bataille would intend or want such coherence in this strangely elevated erotica. In itself, L'abbe C is an impossibility.
a vexing paradox arises: the necessity of verbalizing a profound
experience and the impossibility of ever giving such profundity
a justifiable expression. Undoubtedly, L'abbe C was Bataille's compromise.
Unlike The Story of the Eye, this novel examines the links between religious and spiritual ecstasy more comparatively than subversively. As Robert's pious solitude erupts into a desire to satisfy his flesh, Charles' debauchery slowly becomesan aspiration towards absolute continuity and completion of being. Therefore, Bataille presents religious and erotic experience as two, seemingly different paths which have a common end: that is, transcendence.
In dissolving the dichotomy between the ecstasies of flesh and spirit, the text becomes unstable itself. With this division removed, the verbal expression of this perversely unified reality proves a limitation. From Charles' attempt to finish his story to the editor's struggle to simply write a preface and epilogue, the narratives tremble with how Charles' and Robert's seemingly conflicting realities merge into an unstable whole. The limitation of thought within words is not so far removed from Robert's attempt to confine his flesh within monastic solitude.
In this instabilitiy of the text, we are lead to a point of ineffability. Unlike most authors, Bataille would not have us experience the heights of divinity and depths of carnality separately. L'abbe C offers us no moment in which fleshly ecstasy is without a longing for continuity of being. Bataille reaches the ineffable only when spiritual and erotic experience are realized equally and simultaneously. Such a merging of experiences never creates a stable whole, of course; and one cannot assume that Bataille would intend or want such coherence in this strangely elevated erotica. In itself, L'abbe C is an impossibility.
August 14, 2023
Bataille is always going to be a controversial figure in the worlds of philosophy and literature; and certainly an acquired taste. I’ve read a fair bit about the man himself and his works, but as yet the only pieces I’ve read in their entirety are ‘Story of the Eye’, and now this, ‘L’Abbe C’. (I also have ‘Eroticism’ and ‘Literature and Evil’ sitting on my TBR shelf.)
I think anyone wanting to read Bataille for the first time should do prior background research in order to decide if it’s for you and also to give his works the necessary context.
Compared to ‘Story of the Eye’, ‘L’Abbe C’ may come across as rather tame, thinking of Bataille’s trademark use of erotica and violence. In fact it seems to be one of his least popular books, judging by GoodReads reviews. This is probably due to fans of his other, more gratuitous works seeking out more of the same; and it’s fair to say the relatively slow pace and dense prose. But it is dark. Extremely dark.
Whilst comparatively tame on the surface, there is an awful lot going on here. The story centres around adult twins, Robert and Charles, set during WWII. Robert is a priest and Charles a libertine. There is also Eponine, who is, characteristically for Bataille, sexually wild and promiscuous. Charles and Eponine have a causally sexual set up (‘relationship’ is certainly not the word), and set out to tempt Robert (the priest) into it. Whilst Robert essentially resits, the crux of the book is his maddening decent into a personal hell caused by his desires for Eponine, and the realisation that this makes him no better (in his own eyes) than his libertine twin.
As previously mentioned, there is some really dark stuff in here if you look beneath the surface, which leads to a conclusion so shocking (I thought) and unexpected that it saves this otherwise quite dense and difficult book.
As easy read it is not, and you’ll definitely need a desire to persevere. But I think it’s worth it.
I think anyone wanting to read Bataille for the first time should do prior background research in order to decide if it’s for you and also to give his works the necessary context.
Compared to ‘Story of the Eye’, ‘L’Abbe C’ may come across as rather tame, thinking of Bataille’s trademark use of erotica and violence. In fact it seems to be one of his least popular books, judging by GoodReads reviews. This is probably due to fans of his other, more gratuitous works seeking out more of the same; and it’s fair to say the relatively slow pace and dense prose. But it is dark. Extremely dark.
Whilst comparatively tame on the surface, there is an awful lot going on here. The story centres around adult twins, Robert and Charles, set during WWII. Robert is a priest and Charles a libertine. There is also Eponine, who is, characteristically for Bataille, sexually wild and promiscuous. Charles and Eponine have a causally sexual set up (‘relationship’ is certainly not the word), and set out to tempt Robert (the priest) into it. Whilst Robert essentially resits, the crux of the book is his maddening decent into a personal hell caused by his desires for Eponine, and the realisation that this makes him no better (in his own eyes) than his libertine twin.
As previously mentioned, there is some really dark stuff in here if you look beneath the surface, which leads to a conclusion so shocking (I thought) and unexpected that it saves this otherwise quite dense and difficult book.
As easy read it is not, and you’ll definitely need a desire to persevere. But I think it’s worth it.
March 8, 2020
From what I've read of Bataille so far, this was the least impressive.
June 22, 2014
A book seller approached me on a train headed to Sevastopol with a knife and the words "This book is distilled poison."
January 30, 2009
L'abbe C is Bataille's first novel and you can somewhat tell. Underlying philosophical themes of the novel tend to steer the story too much and Bataille seems stuck between surrealist tendencies and developing realistic characters whom he can utilize to make commentary on the human condition. That being said, this book is infectiously dark and eerie. A story about a brother attempting to make his twin brother who is a priest sleep with his favorite whore is enough to make me like it enough. A friend of mine told me to skip this Bataille and maybe he was right but I still enjoyed it.
3 1/2 rather than a 3.
3 1/2 rather than a 3.
June 15, 2016
If you are not familiar with Georges Bataille's version of Erotic Fiction, this is a wonderful place to start and quite possibly the best place to end. Bataille expresses a philosophy of spiritual decadence in both his works of fiction and non fiction and the depths he is willing to lower his characters are at times shocking beyond mere erotica, beyond pornography and certainly beyond decency.
Not this book. It is beautifully written, subtle and I remember the moment I was when he tied everything together at the end. How often moments from a book can you remember where you were when you read it 15 years later? There's the Red Wedding... and well, for me, that's about it.
This is nothing I could every try to write but I highly recommend it to everyone as reading material. 18+, of course. If you enjoy it, try Blue of Noon next and tread beyond at your own risk.
Incidentally... that moment? I was alone, lying on the mattress that served as a bed in my tiny apartment, reading by candlelight.
Not this book. It is beautifully written, subtle and I remember the moment I was when he tied everything together at the end. How often moments from a book can you remember where you were when you read it 15 years later? There's the Red Wedding... and well, for me, that's about it.
This is nothing I could every try to write but I highly recommend it to everyone as reading material. 18+, of course. If you enjoy it, try Blue of Noon next and tread beyond at your own risk.
Incidentally... that moment? I was alone, lying on the mattress that served as a bed in my tiny apartment, reading by candlelight.
October 1, 2024
(3.5 ★)
rip bataille you would've loved fleabag
rip bataille you would've loved fleabag
April 8, 2022
This is my second Bataille. The first – The Story of the Eye – I thought was pornography of the dreariest and most repulsive kind, without anything even mildly erotic about it. This is better in the sense that the sex, although plentiful, is – mercifully – not explicit. Also, unlike the Story of the Eye, there is a plot and even some characterisation. But it really isn’t worth it. The worst thing about it is not the dreary writing, or the uniformly repellent and depressing plot, or the narrowly mean minded vison of humanity, but the pretentious philosophical asides scattered liberally throughout the text. When each of them are examined, they turn out to mean precisely nothing: portentous sounding pieces of Gallic fluff, vapid and empty of meaning. Don’t waste your time.
December 28, 2016
Bataille her zaman okunmak için yüksek krediye sahip yazarlardan. Yapıtları bir bulmacayı andırıyor çoğu zaman. Chiviyazıları'ndan çıkan 'Göz'ün Hikayesi' her açıdan büyük bir filozofun görüşlerini barındırır içinde. Ayrıntı Yayınları'ndan çıkan 'Annem' toplamasında ki; kısa öykülerden, mini romanlara kadar her eseri de aynı derinliğe sahipken; bir yandan da kendine has muğlak bir çizgide yazılmıştır. Rahip C.'de onların yanına yakışır cinsten. Tartışmalı ve düşündürücü bir kurgusu var. Okumaya değer.
September 14, 2017
Nope. Didn't do it for me. Few people have read this novel and it is clear why. It's clinical, unreadable and simply dull. I just didn't care about the wooden characters or supposedly highbrow allegorical meaning to the text. So much of it sounds profound but on close inspection is rendered utterly meaningless. It's just not enjoyable or engaging, at all.
January 15, 2023
this is an excellent work, but it's also difficult to appreciate without a prior familiarity with bataille's thought, specifically his notions on the accursed share, the nature of sovereignty, his views on religious mysticism and so on.
if you like and are acquainted with bataille prior to reading, you'll probably love this. there are passages that balance his philosophical musings with some absolutely stunning visual poetry - "What was left to me if I no longer, in my solitude, had that anguish that bound me to the world? If I no longer derived from a persistent taste for the world, a distaste for the one enclosed by solitude?" - i mean, that's one absolute gut-punch of an excerpt, and one of many fantastic instances of introspective excursions he embarks on here.
conceptually, the work builds on a simple premise: is life lived in good faith when it's predicated on contradiction and violation? does the transgression of a dominant "structure" of life only seek to reaffirm the inherent power and overwhelming presence of the aforementioned hegemonic imposition? for bataille, the true mystic, the ones who derive the highest order of sovereignty are neither the religious ascetic or the selfish libertine, but someone who ultimately relinquishes themselves to the treachery of unknowing.
hence robert in his eventual senility is able to die at peace with himself, having lost himself in a world beyond transgression where past and future are subsumed into the purest intensity of being in the present (or unbeing, depending on how one looks at it). conversely, we see how charles' narrative gradually gives way and fragments into a series of contradictory accounts between the novel's 2 other narrators as its self-defeating nature becomes more and more apparent. the novel doubles as a remarkable experiment in narrative presentation in addition to its compelling thematic depth.
anyway, this is a great albeit mildly inaccessible novella, and probably my favourite from bataille that i've read thus far - definitely give it a shot if you've read bataille's other, more essential works prior to this.
if you like and are acquainted with bataille prior to reading, you'll probably love this. there are passages that balance his philosophical musings with some absolutely stunning visual poetry - "What was left to me if I no longer, in my solitude, had that anguish that bound me to the world? If I no longer derived from a persistent taste for the world, a distaste for the one enclosed by solitude?" - i mean, that's one absolute gut-punch of an excerpt, and one of many fantastic instances of introspective excursions he embarks on here.
conceptually, the work builds on a simple premise: is life lived in good faith when it's predicated on contradiction and violation? does the transgression of a dominant "structure" of life only seek to reaffirm the inherent power and overwhelming presence of the aforementioned hegemonic imposition? for bataille, the true mystic, the ones who derive the highest order of sovereignty are neither the religious ascetic or the selfish libertine, but someone who ultimately relinquishes themselves to the treachery of unknowing.
hence robert in his eventual senility is able to die at peace with himself, having lost himself in a world beyond transgression where past and future are subsumed into the purest intensity of being in the present (or unbeing, depending on how one looks at it). conversely, we see how charles' narrative gradually gives way and fragments into a series of contradictory accounts between the novel's 2 other narrators as its self-defeating nature becomes more and more apparent. the novel doubles as a remarkable experiment in narrative presentation in addition to its compelling thematic depth.
anyway, this is a great albeit mildly inaccessible novella, and probably my favourite from bataille that i've read thus far - definitely give it a shot if you've read bataille's other, more essential works prior to this.
November 8, 2021
Bataille’in düşünce seline kapılmak için okumaya bu eserle başlanmalı diye düşünüyorum. Kurgusu, dili, ustalıkla yaptığı anlatıcı değişimleri bir yana insan doğasının gizli köşelerine yaptığı ustaca girişler ve tanımlamalar da eserin her satırından aldığınız doyumu artırıyor. Vitrinde ölüm teması ve erdemlerin yitirilişi sergilenirken karakterlerin ardına gizlenmiş sevgi ve haset de neredeyse her sayfada hissediliyor. İnsanın en kötücül duygularını bu kadar sıradanlıkla vermesi belki de onu bu denli etkin bir yazar/düşünür yapan.
“Ama ölmekte olan biri için bile varolan tek şey yaşamdır”.
“Ama ölmekte olan biri için bile varolan tek şey yaşamdır”.
April 30, 2024
Idk… french people… whatever. beautiful writing as usual. but then again…. Much lacking .
April 23, 2018
The brutality of de Sade or Peter Sotos (without the explicitness of either), the incandescent brevity of Duras and the obtuse and thrilling turns of phrase one finds in Blanchot or Klossowski. Extraordinary, as always.
December 24, 2022
Writing out the plot (as I understand it) in my notebook made me realize I like the book more than I thought I did if that makes sense. The plot is very juicy and scandalous but not too depraved and not too grand in scope (in fact the scope is very intimate) which gave this very much a soap opera vibe for me. Now this may sound like an insult to a seemingly "serious" novel (I dont know that the soap opera vibe im getting was intentional) BUT this atmosphere actually engendered the book with an unintentional charm that made certain aspects of the voice end up being FUNNY to me where I think to others who were taking the book very seriously those aspects were annoying. Basically all the characters and Charles's voice in a more general sense were sooooo melodramatic, to quote another review: "always ill at ease, uncomfortable, questioning their morality , thinking about death, being sick, or dying. The descriptions of their angst ridden conditions is poetic, but so poetic that it is enigmatic" which this totally rings true for me but since I started to kind of engage with it on those soap opera terms, this brooding melodrama took on an ironical charm for me (think James from Twin Peaks, where he is so angsty/ annoying but it wraps around and becomes funny). I think this is what allowed me to rly enjoy the book even when at its most obscure, opaque, challenging and yes even angsty. It also made the moments where the angst and sadness broke through the soap opera veneer actually hit me harder than I was expecting. There is a lot of legitimate sadness here: alienation/ estrangement from family (indeed from the only person who you feels might truly understand you), the realization that ones own values / persona are/is fraudulent, how self denial can destroy relationships, feeling like one has trapped oneself in their own circumstances etc etc. Some of the philosophical musing and just general aspects of the narrative were indeed very profound and thought provoking. Robert's writing at the end was very beautiful, especially the first few pieces. I think the framing device worked here as well and the opacity of the narrative felt very intentional and was serving the themes of the book well. Also when the drama itself is at its peak it is so fun: the sermon scene for example was just delicious.
November 13, 2020
3.5 stars. A clever, intelligent, engaging novella about the unusual relationship between twin brothers. Charles is a modern libertine, focussed on vice and depravity, while his twin brother Robert is a devout priest. Charles has sex frequently with a long time lover and prostitute, Eponine. Eponine becomes infatuated with Robert and wants to have sex with Robert, but Robert must visit her.
I found this book easier to read than the gross but thought provoking ‘Story of the Eye’ and the clever but grim ‘Blue of Noon’. ‘L’Abbe C’ at least has the semblance of a plot!
Here are a couple of examples of the author’s writing style:
‘I have in my mind an obscenity so great that I could vomit the most dreadful words and it wouldn’t be enough!’
‘What seems to be unspeakable weakness can sometimes be just distaste for the generally accepted morality.’
I found this book easier to read than the gross but thought provoking ‘Story of the Eye’ and the clever but grim ‘Blue of Noon’. ‘L’Abbe C’ at least has the semblance of a plot!
Here are a couple of examples of the author’s writing style:
‘I have in my mind an obscenity so great that I could vomit the most dreadful words and it wouldn’t be enough!’
‘What seems to be unspeakable weakness can sometimes be just distaste for the generally accepted morality.’
March 13, 2024
It almost feels like book version of the movie, The Room. Still not sure what the whole story is about, coherence is not the theme of it. The most enjoyable page is the last one, because I can finally tick off the book as done.
Only reason not to give one star is, (at paragraph level) it’s formed by some coherent sentences.
Only reason not to give one star is, (at paragraph level) it’s formed by some coherent sentences.
June 26, 2024
At least it's short.
July 10, 2025
Another Bataille banger, I may have wept a little at the end
June 9, 2025
Le Abbé c is oddly enjoyable. It’s a jumble of words with philosophical undertones and psychology. It’s my cup of tea. But an odd interpretation of what a story is. You expect coherence, a progression, and vaguely there is, but edged along mostly by a tawdry cast. It shouldn’t be so enjoyable, at first it was going through me so quickly it was like eating exceptionally spicy food, but it scratched my itch when I had gotten used to it. It’s a particular book and it makes sense why it’s not considered his best, as on average it repels more than it entices.
September 4, 2012
I was disappointed by this novel. I might as well get that out in the open immediately. However, I do realise that it’s an important work and that Bataille’s ideas, themes and concerns are of the highest quality. *L'Abbé C* is fundamentally about the fatal aspects of utter sincerity. The story is a parody of fin de siècle ‘decadent’ novels: two brothers, twins, one of whom is a paragon of virtue, the other a depraved hedonist, are both corrupted by a woman in different ways. Bataille’s intensity of effect is extraordinary and yet I found myself wishing for lighter ironies than those he wanted to give, for humour and the playfulness of Queneau or Vian.
I first discovered Bataille about 20 years ago when I read by chance *The Story of the Eye*, still one of the most disturbing novels I have ever digested. Bataille was a fringe surrealist who believed that the mainstream surrealists weren’t really following their own manifesto and weren’t truly committing to the horrid ideals of unpalatable truth. His work is therefore far more extreme than writers such as Breton, Aragon, Prévert, etc, whom he believed to be living and working in “bad faith”. This stress on sincerity at all costs made Bataille’s concerns overlap with those of the existentialists, creating a bizarre amalgam (normally surrealism and existentialism is in opposition).
I first discovered Bataille about 20 years ago when I read by chance *The Story of the Eye*, still one of the most disturbing novels I have ever digested. Bataille was a fringe surrealist who believed that the mainstream surrealists weren’t really following their own manifesto and weren’t truly committing to the horrid ideals of unpalatable truth. His work is therefore far more extreme than writers such as Breton, Aragon, Prévert, etc, whom he believed to be living and working in “bad faith”. This stress on sincerity at all costs made Bataille’s concerns overlap with those of the existentialists, creating a bizarre amalgam (normally surrealism and existentialism is in opposition).
January 23, 2012
Generous 4 stars. It is better read by poets and should not be ignored because the language and descriptions are very wonderful and why I'm giving the 4 instead of the 3.
Over my head, I probably understood half of the book, maybe a quarter of the book.
The characters are philosophically obsessed drama queens. Over and over again: always ill at ease, uncomfortable, questioning their morality , thinking about death, being sick, or dying. The descriptions of their angst ridden conditions is poetic, but so poetic that it is enigmatic. I keep wanting to say "wtf, I know you write well, but you're putting one over on me, you're not really saying something that makes sense you're just being artsy here because it makes you look like the incomparable philosopher poet that people admire" What is he saying?
If you have a sense of humor you might laugh over the language which is overly formal, and you can get through it.
I keep thinking is there something that I missed and will probably reread it so I can hopefully understand it better. There is some study guide available out there.
Over my head, I probably understood half of the book, maybe a quarter of the book.
The characters are philosophically obsessed drama queens. Over and over again: always ill at ease, uncomfortable, questioning their morality , thinking about death, being sick, or dying. The descriptions of their angst ridden conditions is poetic, but so poetic that it is enigmatic. I keep wanting to say "wtf, I know you write well, but you're putting one over on me, you're not really saying something that makes sense you're just being artsy here because it makes you look like the incomparable philosopher poet that people admire" What is he saying?
If you have a sense of humor you might laugh over the language which is overly formal, and you can get through it.
I keep thinking is there something that I missed and will probably reread it so I can hopefully understand it better. There is some study guide available out there.
January 22, 2012
I found this tale of twin brothers very dark. Charles, seeking his pleasure and Robert the sombre priest seemed to me to be hell-bent on destroying each other in a version of the eternal triangle. Charles met with Eponine, the young prostitute the men had known since childhood, at every chance he could find but she was determined to bed Robert, who in turn was obsessed by her but tormented by illness and his religion. An un-named narrator who is the friend of Charles is given the task of publishing a manuscript detailing the story of the three. Written by Bataille in the 50s there is an innocence to the characters that makes the tale all the more poignant.
February 4, 2019
It's sort of like Bataille's "The Impossible" except not as subtle, not as well written (though still very good prose at times), more theological, and more of an obvious narrative. Not a bad book, but a mediocre one. Still pretty interesting, though. Probably only worth reading if you really love Bataille.
January 8, 2008
the only reason this book gets three instead of four stars is because it left me more frustrated than i was prepared to be. we wandered in circles until i was dizzy and uncertain of who felt love and who was just plain out of their heads...but i suppose this is life.
February 26, 2017
About two-thirds of the way through, I finally started to understand what was happening, and the postscript made it seem a worthwhile read. One day I should probably re-read it knowing the outcome, but it'll be a long time before I undertake that goal. It's definitely a bit over my head.
March 23, 2010
I thought this story was very hard to follow as the author seemed to bounce back and forth from his own thoughts to one characters thoughts to anothers. It was, however, philosophically shocking and thus recommended since what doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger.
September 27, 2016
A most strange work. Not quite sure what he was trying to say. The language is rich and sonorous, the themes - the corruption of man and woman. Sartre says that Bataille has survived the death of God, I am not so sure.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews