Roger Martin du Gard and Maumort: the Nobel Laureate and His Unfinished Creation by Benjamin Franklin Martin (review)

Martin, Benjamin Franklin. Roger Martin du Gard and Maumort: the Nobel Laureate and His Unfinished Creation. DeKalb: Northern Illinois UP, 2017. ISBN 978-0-87580-749-2. Pp. 234. This monograph represents an unveiling on several levels: an unveiling of the significance of Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958), within twentieth-century literature , to many contemporary readers; an unveiling of the inner struggle of Martin du Gard, between the adherence to Catholicism expected by his family and many of his peers, and his own religious skepticism; and an unveiling of the mentalities in effect in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. First, although Martin du Gard is rarely mentioned along with his contemporaries and closest friends, Gide, Camus, and Malraux, he was one of the Western world’s most celebrated authors in the late 1930s and early 1940s, winning the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature. In fact, the main reason for which Martin du Gard is not often enumerated among these giants of literature is not the lack of quality of his novels. It is because he did not finish the work for which he is best known, Le lieutenant-colonel de Maumort, about the perspective of a retired French military officer on Vichy France. This incomplete novel was only published for the first time in 1983. Second, the unveiling of Martin du Gard’s questioning of the tenets of Catholicism is illuminated by Martin the biographer’s portrayal of the author’s occasionally contentious relationship with his wife, Hélène Foucault Martin du Gard, a devout Catholic (38). The significance of Martin du Gard’s religious struggle may not be apparent to contemporary readers, who are accustomed to hearing debate about religious orthodoxy, but in the first half of the twentieth century in France, Martin du Gard’s doubt brought him guilt and shame, and strife to his marriage (12). Third, this biography of Martin du Gard brings to the forefront, not only the mentalities of the first half of the twentieth century, but also those from the nineteenth that continued to be in effect. The title character of Le lieutenant-colonel de Maumort doubts the legitimacy of his own contributions to the defense of France during World War II, and his faith in Christianity. Overall, this biography of Martin du Gard invites exploration of his understudied novels. Additionally, the theme of inner struggle is accentuated by a fascinating parallel between Martin du Gard’s difficulty with Catholicism and the conflicts in Europe that spurred the World Wars. In both domains, the capacity of the individual to make his or her own choices, within a society that expects narrowly-defined ones, is paramount. This theme recalls the concepts of existentialism, to which Martin du Gard subscribed. The end of the work, portraying Martin du Gard’s acceptance of his own death, is somber, especially in light of the fact that the work that he never finished led to his non-inclusion in the French literary canon. Nonetheless, the raw honesty of Martin’s biography is appealing, especially since internal struggle is an experience to which everyone can relate, and it is in line with Martin du Gard’s own use of realism. Grove City College (PA) Michele Gerring 204 FRENCH REVIEW 91.3 ...