The Search for the Absolute: The Plays of Henry de Montherlant

THE SEARCH FOR THE ABSOLUTE THE PLAYS OF HENRY DE MONTHERLANT WHILE THE NAMES of Claudel, Gide, Giraudoux, Camus and Anouilh are well known on both sides of the Atlantic, that of Henry de .Montl1e~lant is practically a mystery in America. It is all the more strange that Montherlant should be ignored here since he has been for many years a fascinating figure to the French. His personality as well as his works has stirred up endless controversy and he himself has contributed, with a clever sense of showmanship, to the Montherlant legend. Henry de Montherlant was born in 1896 of a noble family of Catalonian origin which traces back to the Middle Ages. He was educated at a Jesuit college where he was a troublesome student of violent actions which finally caused his expulsion. Still a child and on holiday in Spain, he devoted himself to bullfighting. He killed his first bull when he was barely fifteen and so he saw his name in print for the first time. As we shall see, Spain has exerted an everlasting influence_on his life and work: austere Spanish mysticism as well as Spanish color and passion. In 1916 Montherlant joined the auxiliary service of the French Army, then asked for transfer to active service. His war record was brilliant. In 1918 he was severely wounded but this did not prevent him from dedicating the immediate post-war years to sport. He excelled in bullfighting, football, and running, in which he set a record for the 100-meter dash. A full record of these years would read like the adventures of an early Hemingway hero. Suffice it to say that Montherlant lived life to the hilt and that his immediate aims-action and pleasure-were most fulfilled. Montherlant says that the years 1925-1930 mark the turning point of his life. The years of violent action were over and Montherlant entered a period of contemplation. However Montherlant cannot be enclosed in one particular pattern of existence. He takes pride in what he calls his principle of alternation. What he defends so violently in one period may be negated by the actions or thought of the next. What has remained constant in his personality and writing is an aristocratic disdain for the mentality of the average. In Montherlant there is the Absolute by which all is judged. Therefore the mind which can compromise, come to terms, with the false issues of life receives the full body blows of Montherlant's scorn. It is this quality of absolutism, unswerving and unbending, which Montherlant's enemies attack, but without much success, for Montherlant generally lines up all the reasons on his side and cites chapter and verse to confound his op178 1960 THE SEARCH FOR THE ABSOLUTE 179 ponents. Of course, this makes his enemies furious and Montherlant is perhaps the most hated man of letters in France. Montherlant entered literature by way of the novel and the essay. Although he began to write for the stage early (his first play, L'Exil, is dated 1914, and he had written an early version of his expulsion from school) he did not devote himself to the theater until the years of the Occupation. In 1940 he wrote a Port-Royal, which he finished in 1942. This first version was neither performed nor published. In 1942, he wrote La Reine Morte (Queen after Death), which was produced that year with resounding success in Occupied Paris by the Comedie Franc;aise. The following year he wrote Fils de Personne (No Man's Son), produced at the Theatre Saint-Georges in Paris, and he began the composition of Malatesta, published in 1946 and performed by Jean-Louis Barrault in 1950. In 1945 he wrote Le Maitre de Santiago (The Master of Santiago), which was produced with great success at the Theatre Hebertot. In 1949, he wrote Demain il fera iour which was played as a sequel to Fils de Personne. In 1954, the Comedie Franc;aise produced Port-Royal, which was a second version of a theme which occupied Montherlant earlier. At that time he announced that this was his last play. Since then he has written and has...