Word: jerphanion
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...about. Laulerque, who has joined the secret organization that is to save the peace of Europe, has doubts of his unknown brethren's integrity-doubts which are not dismissed by an attempt on Briand's life, a vague scheme for kidnapping royalty. The two student friends, Jerphanion and Jallez, finish their course, have one last reunion in Jerphanion's mountain home. The peace of Europe hangs in the balance when Premier Cail-laux, behind his Foreign Minister's back, intrigues with Berlin. The atmosphere of Paris grows weekly more tense, war daily more imminent...
...Good Will became a little clearer. But the engrossing questions of its permanent literary value and of its probable influence and significance were as open to controversy as before. Less crowded with incidents than preceding volumes, The World from Below deals primarily with the dilemma of Jean Jerphanion, keen, ambitious, radical student whose desire to reform the world and prevent war is thwarted by his inability to find a political group or a party in whose sincerity and effectiveness he can believe. He moves first toward the Socialists, but is repelled by their callow optimism, learns of the existence...
Paralleling Jerphanion's story is that of Mionnet, a shrewd young priest who is sent to the provinces to prevent a scandal in the Church. An aging Bishop has foolishly lent his prestige to a shady business deal, and Mionnet, authorized to settle the question, makes friends with the Bishop's enemies, conducts himself with circumspection and wit until his landlady's daughter proves a sufficient attraction to make him break his priestly vows. Occasional chapters, inserted between these two major developments, carry forward the stories of Gurau, the deputy, who breaks with his mistress, and Jallez...
...relieved to see that the parallel narratives have now begun to intertwine, making fewer different threads to follow. Mme. de Champcenais' timid affair with Sammécaud gets warmer. Haverkamp, the ambitious businessman with no resources but his brains, puts through his first big deal. Young Student Jerphanion, horrified by the Paris slums, decides to join the socialists. Murderer Quinette, still undiscovered, finds out from a detective why his crime was never reported in the newspapers...
Dominating all the other motifs, industry, politics, crime, letters, society, are the themes of pure love, which are orchestrated in the story of Jallez' struggles; and those of lust, culminating in the lyrical description of Jerphanion's tortured search for physical love in the streets of Paris, "kingdom of the carnal Eros." Romains is equally sympathetic and equally successful in his treatment of either phase...