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The Sorcerer's Apprentice
In the depths of the Sarladais, a land of ghosts, cool caves and woods, a teenage boy is sent to live with a thirty-five-year-old priest, but soon the man becomes more than just his teacher. Published in the United Kingdom for the first time. The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a gallant, almost magical book that is one of modern literature's esoteric, underground texts.
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
261 people want to read
About the author
François Augiéras
19 books9 followersFrançois Augiéras was a French writer and painter. Born in Rochester, New York, two months after his father's death, he moved to France (Paris and later Dordogne) with his mother. At the age of fourteen, he left home and started on a nomadic life. In 1944, he joined the French Navy. He spent some time in a psychiatric asylum and in a monastery. He later moved to El Goléa, where his uncle lived. His first novel, Le Vieillard et l'enfant, was favorably received by André Gide.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 6, 2025
This haunting tale is set in the rural and mystic region of Sarladais and follows an adolescent boy taken in by a 35-year-old priest. The priest, both mentor and tormentor, drags the boy into a vortex of forbidden love and dark obsession. Their twisted relationship, teeming with punishment and perverse affection, shapes the boy's understanding of power and passion.
The boy, meanwhile, finds a moment of genuine affection in a clandestine affair with another beautiful boy. The tension escalates in a scene where the boy confronts the priest and boldly declares, "I am not your puppet!" This act of defiance, though fleeting, illuminates his internal struggle for autonomy and acceptance. Raw, intens, and very uncomfortable in some sections, yet interesting despite, and perhaps because of the difficulty.
Reading The Sorcerer's Apprentice felt like navigating through the tangled maze of human desires. It exposes the complexities of love and power, teetering on the edge of devotion and destruction. The book’s unflinching exploration of taboo subjects is both unsettling and enlightening. Despite the harrowing scenes, the authenticity of the boy's journey is well worth your time. The text shines with boldness and emotional depth, acknowledging the challenging but thought-provoking nature of its content.
The boy, meanwhile, finds a moment of genuine affection in a clandestine affair with another beautiful boy. The tension escalates in a scene where the boy confronts the priest and boldly declares, "I am not your puppet!" This act of defiance, though fleeting, illuminates his internal struggle for autonomy and acceptance. Raw, intens, and very uncomfortable in some sections, yet interesting despite, and perhaps because of the difficulty.
Reading The Sorcerer's Apprentice felt like navigating through the tangled maze of human desires. It exposes the complexities of love and power, teetering on the edge of devotion and destruction. The book’s unflinching exploration of taboo subjects is both unsettling and enlightening. Despite the harrowing scenes, the authenticity of the boy's journey is well worth your time. The text shines with boldness and emotional depth, acknowledging the challenging but thought-provoking nature of its content.
July 7, 2024
I adore the writings of Francois Augieras and because of this I am going to quote something written by another for my review because I think it says many things In would like to say, but much better than I could and also because I hope this will encourage others to seek out this very special writer.
The following is from an article by Christopher Bakka on his site https://www.asymptotejournal.com/spec...
'...his next work, L’apprenti sorcier, (is) a sublime pagan picaresque and ode to young forbidden love. In this slim book, published anonymously by Éditions Julliard in 1964, we find Augiéras’s ideas distilled into their most fabular form. The narrator, a sixteen-year-old boy, is sent by his parents to live with a priest in Périgord who travels the countryside conducting his ministry by day and abusing the boy in the evening. He’s whipped and kissed and then harangued by this dark priest, who also seems to dabble in strange magic.
'While the priest is away, the protagonist befriends a boy who delivers loaves of bread on his bicycle. The early title of the work, emphasizing the central importance of this figure, was Le petit porteur de pain (The Little Bread-Bringer). They flirt and fall for one another, and in scenes set in dank caves discover love. This epicene bread-bringer is the unmistakable archetype of the beautiful boy which we see again and again in Augiéras’s work. He is a vision of perfection, ever fleeting.
'Unfortunately, word gets around. The priest confronts the boy about his trysts with the bread-bringer, who is twelve years of age; people in town are enraged by the salacious character of the affair and the law is alerted. And then, by means of ancient magic, the boy—who is, of course, the sorcerer’s apprentice—hides his soul in a pool, protecting him from harm until a trial before a judge ends in his favor.
'As real and relevant as the public opprobrium, gossip, and legal threats of the finale strike us today (they were partly inspired by the author’s own reputation in Périgord in the late 1950s), the great heart of the book is concerned with contrasting the sadistic priest’s abuse of the boy with the boy’s love for the angelic young bread-bringer. In the end, however, it is society who sanctions the priest and entrusts children to his charge, failing to see how the priest (and the hypocritical morality he represents) betrays that trust. Society is quick to fault the teenage protagonist, meanwhile, for loving another (and equally eager) male youth.
'Needless to say, the boy feels no remorse for his actions; Augiéras characterizes them as honorable, vital, and ennobling, advancing a pagan morality in place of a Judeo-Christian one. Indeed, he locates elements of paganism within Christianity. At one point, the boy seeks shelter from the casual violence of a summer storm within a church, of which he observes: “Everything here spoke to a ferocious desire to assert the scandalous opinion that Man was made for Man, and not for Woman.” That the church which would prohibit homosexuality was continually subverting itself in this prohibition was an irony not lost on Augiéras.
'The novel is perhaps Augiéras’s best. Next he would put out Une adolescence au temps du Maréchal (Christian Bourgois, 1968), the first work to be published under his own name, followed by Un voyage au Mont Athos (Flammarion, 1970), inspired by his sojourns with the Orthodox monks of that holy mountain sanctuary in Greece. But he was constantly searching for a bread-bringer-like figure to chase and to extol.'
There is so much more that could be said but honestly far better to read the book. How sorry I am that I can not read it in French.
The following is from an article by Christopher Bakka on his site https://www.asymptotejournal.com/spec...
'...his next work, L’apprenti sorcier, (is) a sublime pagan picaresque and ode to young forbidden love. In this slim book, published anonymously by Éditions Julliard in 1964, we find Augiéras’s ideas distilled into their most fabular form. The narrator, a sixteen-year-old boy, is sent by his parents to live with a priest in Périgord who travels the countryside conducting his ministry by day and abusing the boy in the evening. He’s whipped and kissed and then harangued by this dark priest, who also seems to dabble in strange magic.
'While the priest is away, the protagonist befriends a boy who delivers loaves of bread on his bicycle. The early title of the work, emphasizing the central importance of this figure, was Le petit porteur de pain (The Little Bread-Bringer). They flirt and fall for one another, and in scenes set in dank caves discover love. This epicene bread-bringer is the unmistakable archetype of the beautiful boy which we see again and again in Augiéras’s work. He is a vision of perfection, ever fleeting.
'Unfortunately, word gets around. The priest confronts the boy about his trysts with the bread-bringer, who is twelve years of age; people in town are enraged by the salacious character of the affair and the law is alerted. And then, by means of ancient magic, the boy—who is, of course, the sorcerer’s apprentice—hides his soul in a pool, protecting him from harm until a trial before a judge ends in his favor.
'As real and relevant as the public opprobrium, gossip, and legal threats of the finale strike us today (they were partly inspired by the author’s own reputation in Périgord in the late 1950s), the great heart of the book is concerned with contrasting the sadistic priest’s abuse of the boy with the boy’s love for the angelic young bread-bringer. In the end, however, it is society who sanctions the priest and entrusts children to his charge, failing to see how the priest (and the hypocritical morality he represents) betrays that trust. Society is quick to fault the teenage protagonist, meanwhile, for loving another (and equally eager) male youth.
'Needless to say, the boy feels no remorse for his actions; Augiéras characterizes them as honorable, vital, and ennobling, advancing a pagan morality in place of a Judeo-Christian one. Indeed, he locates elements of paganism within Christianity. At one point, the boy seeks shelter from the casual violence of a summer storm within a church, of which he observes: “Everything here spoke to a ferocious desire to assert the scandalous opinion that Man was made for Man, and not for Woman.” That the church which would prohibit homosexuality was continually subverting itself in this prohibition was an irony not lost on Augiéras.
'The novel is perhaps Augiéras’s best. Next he would put out Une adolescence au temps du Maréchal (Christian Bourgois, 1968), the first work to be published under his own name, followed by Un voyage au Mont Athos (Flammarion, 1970), inspired by his sojourns with the Orthodox monks of that holy mountain sanctuary in Greece. But he was constantly searching for a bread-bringer-like figure to chase and to extol.'
There is so much more that could be said but honestly far better to read the book. How sorry I am that I can not read it in French.
October 18, 2011
At first, this little book was merely a romp--salacious, subversive, and fun, but luckily, it develops into something deeper and wiser. Reminiscent of Pessoa's poetry in its refusal of the filth of mankind and its celebration of nature. The mystic, the occult, and the pain of pure passion blend together and create a red-hot strike of the iron.
August 23, 2018
A daring and provocative first-person narrative. Within this slim book Augieras explores such powerful themes as seduction, surrender and solitude, all with a deep and genuine voice. The book’s setting is equally evocative. Through the young eyes of our nameless narrator; readers explorer a timeless provincial French countryside. Dwell within a corrupt ecclesiastical hermitage, devoid of clock calendar or mirror. Pilfer veg from garden beds ripened on the remains of monks buried within their crumbling walls. And explore the forbidden pleasures of youth safely within the shadows of forgotten caves.
The book's biographical and curious afterward praises the work as “ ..belonging to a French literature phenomena of secret underground texts." I for one am very grateful I found it, sighting Goodreads as my guide, and particularly the reviews of Damien Murphy.
The book's biographical and curious afterward praises the work as “ ..belonging to a French literature phenomena of secret underground texts." I for one am very grateful I found it, sighting Goodreads as my guide, and particularly the reviews of Damien Murphy.
July 16, 2020
This book is magical in the deepest way possible. Just make sure you're prepared for what's in store if you decide to read it.
Favorite quotes
"I had reached the point of believing that there is no love except in so far as ones unconscious strives to find itself in Others"
"The idea precedes everything, the rest is only attentive patience, weaving, a game of shuttles; for it is the man of the night who invents, the man of the morning is nothing but a scribe"
Favorite quotes
"I had reached the point of believing that there is no love except in so far as ones unconscious strives to find itself in Others"
"The idea precedes everything, the rest is only attentive patience, weaving, a game of shuttles; for it is the man of the night who invents, the man of the morning is nothing but a scribe"
July 29, 2020
he seemed really blasé about the whole thing
November 27, 2013
Written in the dreamy adolescent mindset of a misunderstood and bored youth this novel weaves magic. I discovered it through the lead singer of Sigur Ros mentioning Augieras as a favorite author. It isn't a linear or traditional read and follows no path except the character and author's own whimsical rambling. The end result however is a clever impressionist painting of the abandoning of innocence in a time and place that are truly foreign and almost mystical.
April 28, 2015
Would give 0 stars if I could.
May 28, 2025
Un texte brut, dérangeant, hypnotique. Augiéras nous emmène dans une campagne périgourdine à la fois enchanteresse et suffocante, où un ado se retrouve on ne sait comment sous la coupe d’un prêtre aussi mystique que brutal.
Le roman est traversé par une tension constante entre élévation spirituelle et violence physique. Le prêtre bat son jeune disciple – des scènes choquantes pour nous aujourd’hui, car elles semblent souvent gratuites, presque sadiques. Mais replacées dans le contexte de l’époque, où frapper était parfois perçu comme une manière de former, de « redresser » les esprits, ces violences prennent un autre sens. Cela ne les rend pas acceptables, mais cela les rend, peut-être, un peu plus compréhensibles.
Augiéras écrit avec une intensité rare. Sa prose mêle lyrisme, crudité et visions mystiques. On pense parfois à Jean Genet, pour cette façon de faire dialoguer sacré et souillure, désir et douleur. Sauf qu’ici, ce n’est pas la ville mais la nature sauvage qui devient le théâtre de l’initiation.
Un livre qui bouscule, dérange, mais qui reste en tête. Pas à mettre entre toutes les mains, mais à lire si on cherche une expérience littéraire à la fois extrême et habité.
Texte assez court, 121 pages, qui commence comme cela :
C’était un homme [le prêtre] de quelque trente-cinq ans, désagréable autant qu'il se peut, auquel mes parents, sans rien savoir de plus, me confièrent en lui recommandant de me traiter vivement, ce qu'il fit de la façon qu'on verra.
Le roman est traversé par une tension constante entre élévation spirituelle et violence physique. Le prêtre bat son jeune disciple – des scènes choquantes pour nous aujourd’hui, car elles semblent souvent gratuites, presque sadiques. Mais replacées dans le contexte de l’époque, où frapper était parfois perçu comme une manière de former, de « redresser » les esprits, ces violences prennent un autre sens. Cela ne les rend pas acceptables, mais cela les rend, peut-être, un peu plus compréhensibles.
Augiéras écrit avec une intensité rare. Sa prose mêle lyrisme, crudité et visions mystiques. On pense parfois à Jean Genet, pour cette façon de faire dialoguer sacré et souillure, désir et douleur. Sauf qu’ici, ce n’est pas la ville mais la nature sauvage qui devient le théâtre de l’initiation.
Un livre qui bouscule, dérange, mais qui reste en tête. Pas à mettre entre toutes les mains, mais à lire si on cherche une expérience littéraire à la fois extrême et habité.
Texte assez court, 121 pages, qui commence comme cela :
C’était un homme [le prêtre] de quelque trente-cinq ans, désagréable autant qu'il se peut, auquel mes parents, sans rien savoir de plus, me confièrent en lui recommandant de me traiter vivement, ce qu'il fit de la façon qu'on verra.
January 25, 2019
While at times I'm happy to be bemused or overwhelmed by the weird (e.g. Story of the Eye), I found it difficult, on occasions impossible, to engage with this novella. I guess I find too much sado-masochism, torture, rape, self-flagellation and mutilation, and such, just beyond my ken, however redemptive they are cast, or intertwined and given purpose by innocent love between children coming of age. Other reviewers are enthralled by its theme of love and nature, but… well; um. I guess. It also reminded me of why I'm not so keen on forests, and horror films with their schlock and shock - some people enjoy being terrified as an end in itself, but I never have.
March 3, 2022
The only thing that salvages this book, in my view, from a one-star rating is the beautiful language used throughout. The subject matter is troubling, involving child sexual and other type of physical abuse, which is presented as some sort of paean of celebratory delight. As an example, consider this language: "I had difficulty in carrying on any type of lengthy conversation with the child, because of the difference in our ages, which led effectively to profound silence; this difficulty disturbed me to the point of extreme pleasure."
August 17, 2022
Coomer literature
July 27, 2008
Le roman d'initiation dans toute sa splendeur petit bijou ciselé de la littérature avec des traverses retorses comme on aime parfois en emprunter.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews