Ceļi pret jūru

by François Mauriac, Mirdza Ersa (Translator), Igors Noskovs (Translator)

The Unknown Sea follows the fate of the Revolu family after the financial failure and suicide of its patriarch. Oscar Revolu’s death hurls his family, once poised to enjoy lives of success and happiness, into disgrace and destitution. His wife Lucienne is left to generate some semblance of order for the estate, unassisted by their sons—Julien becomes a neurotic recluse and Denis remains haunted by the specter of his father’s death, even as he approaches adulthood. Yet it is their daughter Rose who bears the brunt of their humiliation, as her impoverished circumstances endanger her engagement and the possibility of a secure future. The Unknown Sea provides a near-perfect précis of Mauriac’s matchless ability to depict human freedom—and frailty—in the face of the infinite mystery of existence.

Genres: France, Fiction, Classics, 20th Century, Nobel Prize, Novels

229 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1939

About the author

François Charles Mauriac was a French writer and a member of the Académie française. He was awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life." Mauriac is acknowledged to be one of the greatest Roman Catholic writers of the 20th century.

Reviews

[Emilio Berra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rose
Letto in traduzione italiana col titolo "Le vie del mare" .
E. Mauriac, scrittore grandissimo, Premio Nobel 1952, annotava : "Non credo di aver mai scritto niente che superi o anche solo eguagli la storia dei fidanzamenti mancati di Rose Revolu".
Benché la protagonista sia la giovane Rose, l'autore è stato capace di infondere anche agli altri personaggi una personalità e una complessità interiore da renderli vivi e palpitanti, col genio che è proprio dei veri artisti.

C'è qui un approfondimento analitico 'spietato' , non disgiunto nel contempo da un'aura di pietas che pervade l'intera narrazione, perché la 'spietatezza' consiste solamente nella ricerca della verità senza infingimenti, quella verità che si cela dietro cortine di compostezza, deboli baluardi di malferma difesa di ciò che stride o abbrutisce sotto i veli della presentabilità.

Certo, pure altri autori (pensiamo a Pirandello) hanno usato l'arte per far cadere le maschere, ma forse nessuno come Mauriac ha saputo farlo con tale ricchezza di calore umano e con tanta grazia.
In fondo, "nessuno nella vita è più disarmato di quei ragazzi che si credono aquile" .
La stessa "Rose non si diceva mai: 'Ma è questo, l'odio!' . Non pensiamo mai a chiamare le nostre passioni col loro vero nome" .
Le passioni e gli interessi spesso dominano. Ma gli interessi molte volte si coniugano con la meschinità; e le passioni, come ci suggerisce l'etimologia, si subiscono. Un personaggio di Marai afferma infatti che "la passione non ha niente di festoso" .
Eppure la salvezza è a volte a portata di mano quando c'è l'umiltà di disarmare la nostra miseria interiore.

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

THIS TURNED OUT NOT TO BE A WINNER FOR ME. iT IS OVERLY NEGATIVE AND ITS RELIGIOUS MESSAGE DID NOT WORK FOR ME. IT IS THE FIRST BOOK I'VE READ BY THE AUTHOR THAT LET ME DOWN.

***************

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
*THE PROSE IS POETIC, LYRICAL, BEAUTIFUL!
*THE SEA IS A METAPHOR THAT REPRESENTS THAT WHICH DIVIDES ONE PERSON FROM ANOTHER.
*AS WITH MAURIAC'S OTHER BOOKS, THE FOCUS US UPON HOW PEOPLE INTERACT WITH EACHOTHER.
*EACH NOVEL IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT--YOU DO NOT GET THE SAME STORY OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
JALGWAY THROUGH, MY REACTION IS A TRIPLE WOW.
*THE GR BOOK DESCRIPTION DOES NOT ADEQUATELY INDICATE WHAT YOU ARE IN FOR.

CAPS ARE USED BECAUSE MY LOUSY VISION MAKES THEM NECESSARY IF I AM TO COMMUNICATE MY THOUGHTS. PLEASE FORGIVE ME.

[Yuri Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Bordeaux during the years prior to WWI. People believe that things can always get better, Mauriac tells us they can always get worse; and that even with the best laid plans you can never know what’s around the corner. As is usual with this writer, the plotting is excellent.

[AiK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книга о жизни и деньгах, обывательской психологии счастья. Ограбив семью Револю, с которой она была дружна, и оправдывая свой поступок целью во имя своих детей, Леони Костадо надеялась создать прочную материальную основу для счастья. Так же целеустремленно она разрушала помолвку между своим малодушным сыном Робером и Розой Револю, которая из-за бедности перестала соответствовать ее высоким критериям. Недавно прочитав Эриха Фромма о свободе выбора, я вижу в метаниях Робера наглядную иллюстрацию того, что решение бросить Розу он принял задолго до того, как озвучил эти разбивающие сердце слова. Он бросил ее тогда, когда в первый раз согласился со своей матерью подождать. Стали ли Костадо счастливее из-за денег? Нет. Даже Леони умерла раньше своей подруги Люсьены, у которой она выпрашивала прощение, ожидая ее скорой смерти. От семьи Револю тоже осталось только двое. Но и Дэни в конце признается, что впервые по-настоящему почувствовал себя счастливым. И Роза, несмотря на то, что ей предстоит уйти из отчего дома в неизвестность, не чувствует страха, а только знает, что она пройдет свой путь. Она обрела силу.

[Luis L.M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a late work for Mauriac, as compared to his earlier successes.

Les Chemins de la Mer offers quite an insight on French characters, thoughts, spirits and calculations and their development: to me, Balzac and Zola influences. But this is all very sombre (I don't know of anything joyful written in 1939)

The overall theme of the book is that most people's lives lead nowhere (this is so true) and you can read about the impending doom early on between the lines.

"Le difficile fut de (...) retrouver sur le trottoir la vraie solitude, celle de tous les jours, la vieille épouse qui guettait derrière le vitrage..."

After a visit to the doctor (bad news):

"Sa vie ressemblait à une page blanche sur laquelle un maître inconnu aurait écrit en travers : néant."

About which way to go :

"La vie de la plupart des hommes est un chemin mort et ne mène à rien. Mais d'autres savent, dès l'enfance, qu'ils vont vers une mer inconnue. Déjà l'amertume du vent les étonne; déjà le goût du sel est sur leurs lèvres - jusqu'à ce que, la dernière dune franchie, cette passion infinie les soufflette de sable et d'écume. Il reste de s'y abîmer ou de revenir sur ses pas."

I like the imagery (Bordeaux, the dunes...), but the tone is clear.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the Bordeaux region of France at the turn of the century this novel narrates the fate of the Revolou family following his failure and suicide. What is interesting is the description of the the hidden depths, the turbulence below the conventional surface of French life.

Quite remarkable.

[El’Ka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Очень порадовало, что персонаж, который буквально морально умер от падения из князей в грязь, оказался мужчиной :D а хорошо раскрытым сильным персонажем - девушка, которая после банкротства пошла усердно работать и не замечала, как быстро она лишилась привилегий богатых людей, а еще очень наивно верила, что любовь может пережить все невзгоды… в общем, произведение про то, как люди и их отношения друг с другом выдерживают испытание в виде денег или же их отсутствия. Внутренний конфликт, эскапизм, прикрытие гнусных поступков добродетелью и благими намерениями - мои любые темы в данном произведении. Но мне чуууууть не хватило глубины характеров персонажей, не совсем подробно была раскрыта тема дружбы между двумя гг, поэтому поставила 4 звезды

[Sukumar Honkote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oskar Revolou kills himself as his liaisons with a dancer comes to light. Story revolves around how this changed the lives and perspectives of his family members and in extension their friends. The story also reflects the changes occurring in the lives of his employees too. The 220 page book is pacy and does not seem like a drag even for a moment. The interplay of the behaviors of the characters is very interesting and kind of existential. One of the characters in the book is a poet and there are snippets of his poems all throughout the book. I felt that these poems were not translated well as the translator has tried to retain the rhyme scheme which may have caused the loss of meaning. All in all a good book to read.

[Ivan Damjanović · Rating 4 out of 5]

Experience similar to Dostoyevsky’s work. As usual in Mauriac’s novels, the emphasis is on the relationships within the family/ies (which is depicted great here, if you ask me). To note is the character of clerk Landen (cross between prince Mishkin and Toby from The Office US). Also, the idea from/by which Luis Bunuel later shot Viridiana was briefly discussed in the XV-th chapter.

[John Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather typical Mauriac in its analysis of family relationships and the tangled webs.....

The unknown sea is the life ahead, which we all face. It is particularly the life ahead for Rose, central character.

Not, in my view Mauriac at his best but worth a read.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading my way through Mauriac for the last several years. This is the first time I've felt actively stymied by him, in no small part because of how closely the miseries of the Revolu family seem to repeat the same old Mauriac motifs to the point of an unvarying dirge. Becoming devoted to a prolific author carries with it the risk that at some point one will tire of recycled elements (miserable young men and women, brittle parents, bourgeois anxiety, Bordeaux, sensual agony, tortured conversion) which burble unceasingly from the same heart. In my case, as I started The Unknown Sea, I also read a fascinating critical study of Mauriac by Martin Jarett-Kerr which, perhaps unfortunately, opened my eyes to the particular crutches Mauriac falls back on (particularly in what's considered to be his "post-conversion" life after 1929; The Unknown Sea was published in 1939). After this, I could not but notice how often Mauriac turns aside to the reader with trenchant philosophical and theological observations on the inner state of the Revolus, breaking the fourth wall with an insistence that borders on distrust of the reader's intelligence. I can't recall seeing this sort of meta-layer of narration in other Mauriacs before or after, but I may well simply not have noticed it. In any case, it casts a pall over the proceedings here and is perhaps enhanced for the devoted Mauriac reader because of the utter familiarity of said proceedings. The setting, situation, and inner agonies of Denis and Rose Revolu veer as close to self-parody as Mauriac gets, though determining the nature of self-parody adequately is perhaps a question for another time.

And yet... there are episodes in this that are as good as - and perhaps better than - anything Mauriac has done. [Spoilers begin] The initiation and collapse of Rose Revolu's engagement is a sublimely horrifying, deeply insightful autopsy of the depths of human desire and sinfulness. Robert Costadot emerges as one of Mauriac's most disgusting and painfully sympathetic creations. As the novel nears its close, Mauriac pens a fascinating excursion in Paris that almost treads into the sort of ironic territory so foreign to his sensibility. It feels like decades pass in the span of a few years until in the end, as Denis (20) and Rose (22) beach themselves on the shore of the rest of their lives, I found myself shocked to realize how effectively Mauriac has captured the way in which an entire life's path can be determined by a few miserable months in youth. There is no denying that he is at the peak of his abilities here and yet indulging his worst tendencies. We'll have to leave that as one more of those mysteries of the human heart which draw us again and again to his hearth.

[Aaron Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

For most men the road of life is a dead end, leading no-where. But there are some who, even in childhood, realize that they are moving towards an unknown sea. At the very beginning of their journey they are amazed by the bitter violence of the wind and taste the salt upon their lips. On they go, until, at last, when the final dune has been surmounted, they find themselves in a world of spume and blown sand which seems to speak to them of a passion that is infinite. That is the moment when they must choose their path. Either they must take the final plunge, or they must retrace their steps. ...



…There are only two courses open, either to change the face of the earth... there's always that…
"How do you mean?"
"The revolution... or, there's God."

The physical sense of her torment there beside him did not prevent him from seeing clearly—as clearly as he saw the road beneath the moon—the alternatives between which, from now on, he must for ever oscillate—either to change himself or to change the world. Which should it be? Should he slash a trail through his own living flesh to God, or, mistrustful of his power to reach perfection, give himself utterly, fatally, to the cause of destruction, batter down the old walls, declare war to the death against all the Costadots of the earth, and send the whole system sky-high?…




The fear of expressing our feelings is far more effective than any vice in the conduct of our lives.

[Aňa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars, I guess. Books like this are the reason I've avoided French literature since...well, since always. I could see, intellectually, that I was reading a good book, but just could not connect emotionally with any of the characters or their situation. Maybe it was the language of the 1980s translation, maybe the fact that I have absolutely no patience with the whining of people born into privilege or maybe it really was the frenchness...the result was the same: I could not wait to be finished and did not particularly care what was going to happen.

On the other hand, the author's mastery of the craft is undeniable, there's barely a word out of place and I can even see how the topic might have been important at the time of the book's publication. Although, maybe I'm mistaken in assuming that both the good and the bad of the 19th century mentality and mores is now gone and forgotten; maybe people are still basically the same at heart and money still rules over all of our decisions. But I'd still chose to focus on the differences and believe that, today, the personal and professional failure of a patriarch would not ruin the rest of the family in such terrible ways. Or at least I hope so...

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This “roman psychologique” follows the trials of a bourgeois Bordeaux family of status struggling in the aftermath of the the suicide of the patriarch following his financial ruin. It’s entanglements with another family of rank as distinguished from its substantial reliance on the talents of more common folk, including the marriage of one son to the estate managers daughter are interesting, as is the desolation of the eldest daughter “ dumped” by her fiancé, who ultimately finds some solace and a “place”. The novel is fast paced, though interspersed with poetry that I found distracting.

[Denis Cojocaru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cartea „Căile mării” de François Mauriac mi s-a părut o carte puțin grea de înțeles la început, dar totuși foarte interesantă. Povestea are multe momente intense și te face să te gândești la alegerile pe care le fac oamenii. Finalul e cam trist și lasă un sentiment ciudat, dar cred că tocmai asta o face să rămână în minte.

[Edwin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mauriac deftly unravels the many layers of the each character’s emotions and needs, leaving nothing hidden from the reader’s sight by novel’s end.

[Ieva Ieva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ak, šie franči!
Neliels laika nogrieznis divu savstarpēji saistītu ģimeņu dzīvē. Bet katrā tēlā var ienirt kā jūrā, dziļā un biedējošā.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quelle histoire triste! Je crois que Mauriac ne sait pas raconter une histoire heureuse. Il y a des pages tellement belles.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

前面狗血且俗套，但因此更好看了，有点像状态拉满的皮兰德娄（短篇版）。后面没那么好看却进入了他特有的那种超越性。是一种没有光泽和惯性的希望，它在每个点都是不连续的，需要在每一个当下重新建立起来。以及心理描写就应该像莫里亚克和皮兰德娄这样，无论我藏起来多少只要我想揭开它就在那儿，而不是说我正面写不出来就强行把前后两段塞你鼻子底下中间让你脑补。

[Aurélie · Rating 4 out of 5]

vraiment bien
un portrait sombre de la descente aux enfers d'une famille et des liens malsains qui subsistent - ou non - quand tout s'écroule

[João Neves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Les chemins de la mer, não sendo dos melhores romances de Mauriac, apresenta mesmo assim uma história e personagens cativantes (e até certo ponto, recorrentes do seu universo ficcional). O chefe de uma família terratenente, rica, suicida-se e segue-se a falência da casa. A viúva e os filhos reagem à pobreza de forma diferente, mas todos são afetados negativamente pela nova situação. A viúva acaba por morrer pouco depois, o filho mais velho cai numa doença sem fim à vista, a filha Rose emprega-se numa livraria (e vê anulado o casamento com um jovem de boas famílias) e o filho mais novo casa-se com a filha dos antigos caseiros da família, que são os únicos que beneficiam da falência dos patrões... Não há neste romance a abordagem da luta de classes mas a diferenciação das classes e as estratégias da sua manutenção estão no centro da narrativa... (lido em julho de 2019)

[Nicholas During · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant example of the psychological novel in its third-person narrator formula. James Wood would love. And you will too if you enjoy that now standard form of the novel, which I do. Strikes me as very much indebted to Balzac without a bit of the wild imagination that B. brings to his characters an their situations and actions. With the Catholic touch of Brideshead Revisited, again the reader is meant to see in the action of the families Costadot and Revolou how one should live, to which the answer is there isn't really an answer, and if we knew it, the absolute best way let's say, there's no fucking way we, both us and these fictional characters, could ever achieve it so why try? why bother? why even think about it? The answer to this question is, unsurprisingly, that because to be human we have to try, we have to ask ourselves these questions, even if we will inevitably fail and be miserable in the failing. Is there a better side to life? Of course, and it's in the reality that this novel is trying to depict—successfully or not depends on your viewpoint, Sartre would say "not"—and we should really enjoy what we can while we can. Even the failing.