A View Of Andre Malraux

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31802, 5 October 1968, Page 4

A View Of Andre Malraux

Andre Malraux. By Denis Boak. Oxford University Press. 268 pp. Dr Boak, who is senior lecturer in modern French ' literature at the University of Hull, admits that it is too 1 early to attempt a definitive estimate of Malraux’s work but that certain profitable comparisons with his predecessors and his contemporaries can be made. He finds that Malraux belongs to the “heroic” tradition in French literature, looking back rather than to the future, and that Nietszche has had the greatest influence on his ideas. Malraux has been held up as a perfect contemporary example of humanism. Dr Boak finds his love of violence and intolerance hard to reconcile with humanism, and although the violence themes are redeemed by his poetic vision, Malraux’s novels, like those of his contemporaries Sartre and Salnt-Exupery, are barren as a result of his lack of tolerance of human failings. Lacking the compassion of Tolstoy, he is never-

theless preoccupied with a similar view of life.

In “La Condition Humaine,” which Dr Boak considers a considerable novel and Malraux’s finest contribution, each character is seeking to escape the human condition by the creation of his own set of transcendental values—one may seek to escape through opium, another through power, another through art “Tout homme reve d'etre dieu.” Malraux succeeds in underpinning violent action by profound intellectual themes, and if there is a political lesson it is that the social condition mirror* the human condition, and that revolutionary action te politically futile since the revolutionaries bring about their own destruction—Christ was the only anarchist who succeeded. Whereas Tolstoy and Dostoevsky chose detachment with which to express their themes, Malraux has chosen intensity. Deeply Involved in political activities himself, he is passionately interested in ■ the analysis of the revolution-

ary mentality, the problem of discipline, and the relationship between the individual and the collective group for whom he is fighting. Refusing to accept any religious solution to the human dilemma, Malraux falls back on art as being the most powerful form of anti-destiny. Although Malraux considers his art philosophy more important than his novels, Dr Boak points out that he has made the mistake of trying to make art more important than language, and that substituting transcendental art for transcendental religion prevents full acceptance of everyday life. Dr Boak has presented the student of French literature with a balanced, critical assessment, and although he admits a certain falling-off in enthusiasm for Malraux’s writing, he leaves the reader with a sense of admiration for Malraux’s continuing belief that human dignity is the highest ideal, and that a man must spend hi* life so that he deserves to be immortal.