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| Cover of 1st edition of La Belle Bête, 1959. Source: https://laurentiana.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/marie-claire-blais-la-belle-bete.html |
Once upon a time there stood an evil farm where Hatred, Vanity and Vengeance ruled... Marie-Claire Blais's La Belle Bête reads easy, but offers its reader no comfort, as the world of this Quebec author is cold and frightening. The characters are torn away by their passions, but the only true feelings here are hatred and envy, any positive feelings are either fake or selfish or borne by people who are either blind or mad (i. e. mentally blind). Physical beauty is one of the central themes (as the title implies), but it is always accompanied by a physical or mental flaw, and always - by a flawed soul. Yes, in her novel Blais leaves no place for hope, no "crack" through which the light would get in. And yet it is an interesting work.
