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An apparently hideous looking 22-year-old man, Jean Peloueyre, described as having a reddish face "worn away like a stick of barley-sugar as the result of prolonged sucking" lives with his very wealthy father.

His father, Monsieur Jerome, lives a miserable existence. The wealthiest man in town he yearns for death. Mauriac's description of Jerome's sleeping:

Monsieur Jerome Peloueyre had laid it down that a solemn silence should be observed between the hours of one and four. Nothing must be allowed to disturb his siesta, which was his sole guarantee against the ravages of sleepless nights.

..
......

Maybe he felt that utter silence might have produced the sleep from which there is no waking, a sleep which empties itself in death as a river is emptied into the ocean. The return to consciousness was always, with him, a painful process.

Jean is involved heavily with his local Catholic Church. Knowing that he is ugly and the object of derision from any young lady he walks past he finds comfort and solace in the Church. But a random visit to a friend's house, who's back from college, he sees a book by Nietzsche. Briefly reading a few pages he comes across concepts of will to power, how Christianity caters to weakness. That you can either be a Master or a Servant.

Reflecting on the structure of the Church he begins to see that that too is a matter of Will to Power. That some lord their power over the weak even within the Church.

In a moment it dawns on Jean that Christianity has been little more than a harbor where he can rest in his own weakness. That he willfully accepted the sneers of disgust from others at his appearance.

By virtue of Jean's father's wealth... his dad is able to orchestrate a marriage between one of the most beautiful young women in town to his son, Jean.

Jean is mortified by the idea. He secretly admired Noemi from a distance, but the idea of her being forced to marry Jean even seemed like a bit much for Jean.

Again, Mauriac's writing is something else. Describing Jean lying next to Noemi the day after their wedding he writes:

As day was dawning a stifled groan marked the end of a struggle that had lasted six long hours. Soaked with sweat, Jean Peloueyre dared not make a movement. He lay there, looking more hideous than a worm beside the corpse it has at last abandoned."

Regarding Noemi's loss of having a romance of her own preference...

A tear slid down her cheek within reach of her tongue. The quivering of the lime-tree and the scent of its blossoms seemed, somehow to melt into the Milky Way. No longer did her dreams, of fancy bred, wander at will along the highways of Heaven. The crickets scraping away beside the hole in which they lived reminded her of her lord and master.

And that's how she views Jean's entrance into her life...

It seems to have impressed you. From the snippets you posted, it doesn't seem my cup of tea.

Highlander wrote: ↑Thu Jan 08, 2026 10:30 am It seems to have impressed you. From the snippets you posted, it doesn't seem my cup of tea.

Nor mine. At all. Is there any redeeming value to this work? At all?

Riverboat wrote: ↑Thu Jan 08, 2026 12:11 pm

Highlander wrote: ↑Thu Jan 08, 2026 10:30 am It seems to have impressed you. From the snippets you posted, it doesn't seem my cup of tea.

Nor mine. At all. Is there any redeeming value to this work? At all?

Feel free to float on down that stream.

"Any redeeming value to this work... at all?"


I'm almost a bit stunned you didn't include the "barf" icon to go with your comment.

HTH

[deleted by Riverboat]

Noemi and Jean are now married and living in his father's large house. Both aware that the other is in pain over this marriage... and both delicate with the other due to it. They are thoughtful toward and nice to each other. Though this not enough to fire up any romantic passions towards each other. Or, for Noemi to be attracted to Jean and Jean's awareness of his unattractiveness.


Oddly enough Jean's father finds his groove again. Noemi focuses her free time on tending to Jerome: making sure he eats his meals, ensuring that the siesta silence is maintained by everyone. Jerome is now able to sleep again with out being heavily medicated. Noemi is genuinely concerned for her father-in-law's health, but it also helps gobble up time. Losing herself in charity so that she doesn't have to spend as much time with Jean and be reminded of her own sinfulness - specifically the sinfulness of missing the mark of the type of wife she is supposed to be to Jean.


Jean begrudges himself for being ugly and Noemi being compelled to marry him.

Noemi begrudges herself for not being a wife pleasing to God.

But, they do start saying their evening prayers side by side.

Enemies in the flesh, they found union in their nightly supplications. Their voices at least could mingle. Kneeling there together, each in a world apart, they met in the infinite.

Jean is in Paris while the wife he longs to be intimate with is back home, tending to Monsieur Jerome.

In Paris Jean is supposed to be doing some research for the cure' who brought about the marriage between Jean and Noemi. A prostitute approaches him, and for a moment Jean is enthralled by the idea of getting to be physical with a woman who, even if she is repulsed by his appearance, won't act so. He is about to enter into relations with her... but at the last moment he decides against it, tosses her money regardless, and runs out of the room she brought him to.

This darting away from sin is a bit of spiritual awakening for Jean. He's sitting at a cafe watching the important men and women walk by... wondering who among them is this Nietzschean master among men. But he sees none... nothing but "vacant looks and trembling hands". Reflecting on Nietzsche's "Master Morality and Slave Morality", Jean seems to kick Nietzsche to the curb:

"There are no Masters. We are all of us born slaves and we grow into the freedom of the Lord"

But even if he (Jean) had come on some such Master as he sought, would there have been any assurance that he would have been immortal? Jean Peloueyre, sitting at his table on the boulevard... quoted to himself Pascal's comment on the ultimate end of even the most brilliant of worldly careers: when the game is done, one is always the loser. Bear witness to that, O Nietzsche of the softened brain - one is always the loser!...