In this classic Catholic novel, Bernanos movingly recounts the life of a young French country priest who grows to understand his provincial parish while learning spiritual humility himself. Awarded the Grand Prix for Literature by the Academie Francaise, The Diary of a Country Priest was adapted into an acclaimed film by Robert Bresson. -A book of the utmost sensitiveness and compassion...it is a work of deep, subtle and singularly encompassing art.- -- New York Times Book Review (front page)

The Impostor is a searching account of the torment that besets Father Cenabre, historian of mysticism and controversial star of the Parisian clergy, when his faith suddenly deserts him. As the priest struggles to cope secretly, he crosses paths with associates on the complex margins of a Church facing modern politics in the early twentieth century. Georges Bernanos s compelling and dark portraits of that shadowy world s inhabitants throw into stark relief the determination of a humble priest, Father Chevance, who alone knows Cenabre s secret and struggles to save him. By turn touching...

In a small village in northern France, Monsieur Ouine, a retired professor, is taken in by the dull local squire, Anthelme de Nereis, and soon rules the life of both Anthelme and his wife, Ginette. A fourteen-year-old fatherless boy, Philippe Dorval, flees home and, on impulse, follows Madame de Nereis to her chateau. There the squire, who is dying, tells the boy that his father is actually alive and well-that despite what Philippe's mother had told him, his father had not died in World War I. The forsaken boy finds himself on that fatal evening succumbing to Monsieur Ouine's embrace after...