They agree to dine together that evening, before Georges will take Marie to her train back home. They find him in his student lodging and he is very welcoming to both mother and daughter. However, before returning, Thérèse agrees to come with Marie to meet Georges. Mother and daughter have a long discussion about the past – Thérèse tries to explain what happened without going into too much detail and Marie tries to understand her mother – but Thérèse tries also to persuade her daughter to return to the ancestral home, which she finally manages to do. As Georges has now returned to his studies in Paris, Marie has decided to follow him and wants to stay with her mother in order to do so. As Marie says, he only seems interested when he is with her but when he is not – he is studying law in Paris – his enthusiasm seems to wane. While Marie is keen on the marriage, Georges seems less enthusiastic. Both sets of parents are against any marriage, not just because of their respective ages – Georges is twenty-two – but because the Desqueyroux do not consider the Filhots important or rich enough and the Filhots are worried about the taint of scandal. She has fallen in love with Georges Filhot, son of a neighbour. She soon learns that Marie has an ulterior motive. Thérèse is very worried about this, as she does not want to do anything or be seen to be complicit in anything that would antagonise her husband. However, Thérèse soon learns that Marie has fled from her father’s home without his knowledge. Initially, Thérèse is delighted to see her and very glad that her daughter has decided to visit her. The agreement with her husband had been that Marie could visit for one week a year every year but, for various reasons, Thérèse had not seen Marie for three years. Thérèse denies knowing any Marie until she realises that it is her daughter, Marie.
When Thérèse ask who it is, a voice replies that it is Marie. The books starts with a knock on her door.
In addition, she has health problems – an unspecified heart condition. However, finances are now becoming more difficult, as the timber and resin market seem to have collapsed and both her finances and that of her husband and his family are in difficulties. When the book opens she continues to lead her solitary life. Her husband has been generous and she also has some of her own money, inherited from her father. After having been exiled from the Landes area fifteen years ago, she has moved to Paris, where she lives alone, though with a servant coming regularly. This is, as the title tells us, how it ends for her. In his introduction to this novel, Mauriac states that he has been unable to let go of Thérèse Desqueyroux and wants to finish her story. Home » France » François Mauriac » La Fin de la nuit (The End of the Night) François Mauriac: La Fin de la nuit (The End of the Night)
0 kommentar(er)
