Interpreting Conversion: Hermeneutic Training in François Mauriac's Le Noeud de vipères

This article considers the formative strategies of François Mauriac's 1932 novel, Le Noeud de vipères (Vipers' Tangle), in light of contemporary Mauriac criticism. According to his most adamant critics, Mauriac was, at best, a secular writer, and, at worst, an insidious sensualist posing as a Catholic. This article offers an account of how Le Noeud de vipères succeeds in satisfying his conservative readership and gesturing toward a different conception of edifying literature with the tools of what Joshua Landy has called "formative fiction," shifting critical attention from the novel's content to its interpretation.