In one of Mauriac's lesser known novels, he introduces the reader to The Frontenacs, small landed gentry of the Bordeaux region on France. This story explores the special, even sacramental, character of the family bond.

"This is Mauriac's first novel, and its appearance in English completes the collected presentation of his works here. Mauriac is the elder statesman of French literature and the Nobel prize-winner, and this small roman d'analyse, traditional in its concerns (he is the most profoundly Christian and Catholic of French writers), is also contemplative in its approach." - Kirkus Reviews

In this translation of two seminal works by Mauriac, the 1930 novel What Was Lost and its theoretical basis, the 1929 essay God and Mammon, Raymond MacKenzie re-introduces Mauriac to the English speaking world.

Francois Mauriac's masterpiece and one of the greatest Catholic novels, Therese Desqueyroux is the haunting story of an unhappily married young woman whose desperation drives her to thoughts of murder. Mauriac paints an unforgettable portrait of spiritual isolation and despair, but he also dramatizes the complex realities of forgiveness, grace, and redemption. Set in the countryside outside Bordeaux, in a region of overwhelming heat and sudden storms, the novel's landscape reflects the inner world of Therese, a figure who has captured the imaginations of readers for generations. Raymond N....

Margaret of Cortona was an Italian penitent of the Third Order of St. Francis. She was born in Laviano, near Perugia, and died in Cortona. She was canonized in 1728. She is the patron saint of the falsely accused; hoboes; homeless; insane; orphaned; mentally ill; midwives; penitents; single mothers; reformed prostitutes; third children; tramps. Saint Margaret of Cortona aroused Mauriac s interest because very little is known about her in France and she succumbed to human love and even had a child. It distracted him in a time where the Germans were all over France and he followed her wherever...

Book jacket/back: Francois Mauriac--who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1952--is famous for his subtle character portraits of the French rural classes and for depicting their struggles, aspirations and traditions. The Woman of the Pharisees--one of Mauriac's most accomplished novels--is a penetrating evocation of the moral and religious values of a Bordeaux community. In Brigitte, we see how the ideals of love and companionship are stifled in the presence of a self-righteous woman whose austere religious principals lead her to interfere--disasterously--in the lives of others. One by one...