E Harrison Byrne’s Reviews > Le Calvaire > Status Update

Having read Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on The Western Front back in high school, I wonder why the hell I hadn't been required to read Le Calvaire instead. Jean Mintie's hauntingly understated description of the horrors of the Franco-Prussian War cut deeper, eliciting a strong emotional response from me, and I think it's because Mirbeau seems to reject the preciously sententious complacency of the typical anti-war narrative. The issue is not as simple as "war is hell," war is merely the product of "civilizing" reactants; the Pax Romana, at second glance, was nothing more than blood sufficiently coagulated on countless fields of slaughter. Misread, Mirbeau would seem a hatefully cynical misanthrope, but I think his brutality is wrought in a deep love of humanity, a poignant wishing for its salvation.