Francois Mauriac, Nobel Prize winner in Literature, grew up in the Bordeaux region of France in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was well aware of the importance of wine in the culture there. Of course, wine is still immensely important in Bordeaux. This novel, originally published in 1921 under the French title, Preseances, examines through its characters how this culture affected society during those times.
The society was dominated by the "Sons of the Great Houses," or the heirs of the important wine producers. They attained a status of semi-royalty at the moment of birth. With impunity they could eschew social civility and courtesy without reproach. This was their birthright.
The narrator of the story, who is never named, attended a private school that also had many of the "Sons" as students. He and his sister, Florence, were raised by their uncle and their aunt. Their uncle was a dealer in imported wood that was used to make wine barrels, but despite making a comfortable living, this put the entire family into a social class that was one or more steps below that of the "Sons," although the entire family aspired to be part of "That World."
The narrator and his uncle were snubbed on one occasion in front of the whole town at a public ceremony. Instead of accepting defeat and the additional snubbing that would certainly follow, they contrived a plan to use the intelligence of another student in the school, an outcast named Augustin, to reach their final goal which was for Florence to marry one of the "Sons" and to officially be recognized as part of "That World." But to do so they unfortunately had to disown Augustin, to the ultimate regret of both of them.
This story is about ambition, rites of birth, greed, envy, social status, incivility, self-righteousness, and more. These types of emotions and conduct are very easily understandable in today's world of almost a century later, and this book could be adapted into a modern movie, but to my knowledge it never has been although other Mauriac novels have.
Years ago I purchased a little wine handbook, beautifully illustrated, called the Vogue A-Z of Wine, written by Henry McNulty. Under the title "Bordeaux," the article starts out with these words: "Prestige, thy name is Bordeaux!" Readers of Precedence can observe how these words were true in more ways than one and the effects all this had on people.
Genre: Historical
The society was dominated by the "Sons of the Great Houses," or the heirs of the important wine producers. They attained a status of semi-royalty at the moment of birth. With impunity they could eschew social civility and courtesy without reproach. This was their birthright.
The narrator of the story, who is never named, attended a private school that also had many of the "Sons" as students. He and his sister, Florence, were raised by their uncle and their aunt. Their uncle was a dealer in imported wood that was used to make wine barrels, but despite making a comfortable living, this put the entire family into a social class that was one or more steps below that of the "Sons," although the entire family aspired to be part of "That World."
The narrator and his uncle were snubbed on one occasion in front of the whole town at a public ceremony. Instead of accepting defeat and the additional snubbing that would certainly follow, they contrived a plan to use the intelligence of another student in the school, an outcast named Augustin, to reach their final goal which was for Florence to marry one of the "Sons" and to officially be recognized as part of "That World." But to do so they unfortunately had to disown Augustin, to the ultimate regret of both of them.
This story is about ambition, rites of birth, greed, envy, social status, incivility, self-righteousness, and more. These types of emotions and conduct are very easily understandable in today's world of almost a century later, and this book could be adapted into a modern movie, but to my knowledge it never has been although other Mauriac novels have.
Years ago I purchased a little wine handbook, beautifully illustrated, called the Vogue A-Z of Wine, written by Henry McNulty. Under the title "Bordeaux," the article starts out with these words: "Prestige, thy name is Bordeaux!" Readers of Precedence can observe how these words were true in more ways than one and the effects all this had on people.
Genre: Historical
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Used availability for Francois Mauriac's Questions of Precedence