One of the great mavericks of French literature, Georges Bernanos combined raw r
ealism with a spiritual focus of visionary intensity. Mouchette stands with his
celebrated "Diary of a Country Priest" as the perfection of his singular art.
"Nothing but a little savage" is how the village school-teacher describes fourte
en-year-old Mouchette, and that view is echoed by every right-thinking local cit
izen. Mouchette herself doesn't bother to contradict it; ragged, foulmouthed, di
rt-poor, a born liar and loser, she knows herself to be, in the words of the sto
ry, "alone, completely alone, against everyone." Hers is a tale of "tragic solit
ude" in which despair and salvation appear to be inextricably intertwined.
Ber
nanos uncompromising genius was a powerful inspiration to Flannery O'Connor, and
"Mouchette" was the source of a celebrated movie by Robert Bresson.
