Les Vierges et autres nouvelles by Irène Némirovsky (review)

who considered themselves enlightened, the prince-évêque and the committee members, all of whom, with the exception of Jean Bon Saint-André, also had artistic inclinations. Both works project an optimism about the present and the future, that human betterment was finally at hand. While the similarities between the two paintings are multiple, there remains one important difference, a difference which trumps everything else. Unlike Tiepolo’s fresco, neither Les Onze, nor its putative creator, François-Elie Corentin ever existed anywhere except in the imagination of Pierre Michon. The question then, is: what is Michon doing in this coy, somber novel? One can only speculate, and a good place to start is with the principal color in the non-existent, Les Onze. That would be yellow, the color of gold. For Michon, the eighteenth century was the first time “l’écrivain servait à quelque chose” (48), that he was not just a servant of the rich and powerful, but someone able to decide what he would or not do. For this reason the Tiepolos could fight with the prince-évêque because they were at least equally interested in serving their vision as well as that of their master. Corentin had made a fine career painting royalty, and then with the onset of the Revolution, he just switched sides for financial, rather than ideological, reasons. When asked to do the painting, Corentin’s first concern was his commission. In accepting to do the painting, Corentin was agreeing to do the portraits of men, who, whatever their initial aspirations, would eventually turn into fanatics quick to wreak havoc on others before it could be done to themselves. This is a group of failed artists who would rapidly mutate into successful murderers. Of course Corentin would have no way of knowing this at the time of the painting, but the narrator suggests that the brilliance of the portrait was such that should the Comité triumph, it would be a celebration of France’s courageous leaders, and should the members fail, a condemnation of human pride. Which is to say that if the painter were expressing an opinion, it was that he had no opinion. To the extent that art is the subject of this text, it is at once amoral and potentially dangerous. When the adolescent Corentin sees peasants engaged in backbreaking toil, he can only remark, “Ils ne font rien, car ils travaillent” (68). While poverty is omnipresent in this novel, what matters is the ability to create, to make something out of nothing, rather than simply labor to live. Just what the artist does do is another matter. Good intentions are nice, but they have nothing to do with art, and even if the modern artist has the freedom to chart his own course there is no guarantee in what direction the combination of talent, beliefs and opportunities will lead. Corentin’s choice was to serve the moment. Of course, Corentin never really existed, but Jacques-Louis David did. Florida State University William Cloonan NÉMIROVSKY, IRÈNE. Les Vierges et autres nouvelles. Paris: Denoël, 2009. ISBN 978-2207 -25956-6. Pp. 240. 17 a. Parmi “près de cinquante nouvelles” (8) rédigées par Irène Némirovsky, Olivier Philipponnat en a rassemblé douze, dont sept inédites, dans ce recueil. Némirovsky sera arrêtée en 1942, quelques jours après sa dernière publication de son vivant, “Les Vierges”, pour être ensuite déportée au camp d’AuschwitzBirkenau . De ce recueil resurgit un dualisme où l’ombre se fait ressentir plus que la lumière. Au mieux, Némirovsky se délecte à décrire la nature et les réunions Reviews 205 familiales d’une main de peintre réaliste ou de poète lyrique; au pire elle renforce les thèmes d’une enfance malheureuse, d’une perte subite d’innocence et de réactions qui se répètent d’une génération à l’autre. Ces nouvelles permettent de mieux connaître son art descriptif ainsi que l’action cinématographique, tel un “stylo-caméra” selon Philipponnat (11). Ce style nous pousse à lire goulûment chaque nouvelle pour...