SOURCE: “The Viper's Tangle: Relative and Absolute Values,” in Renascence, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, Autumn, 1963, pp. 32-9.

In the following excerpt, Denommé examines Mauriac's The Viper's Tangle, contending that it is not a novel concerned with relative values but rather a work concerned with absolutes and ideals.

When Jean-Paul Sartre published his critical appraisal of François Mauriac's La Fin de la nuit (The End of Night) in the February, 1939 issue of La Nouvelle Revue Française, he berated the novelist for restricting the freedom of his characters by assuming the role of the omniscient author. Because Mauriac imposed a fixed order upon his fictional creation, he seriously impaired the ability of his characters to respond freely to a world which has become increasingly committed to relative values. The result could be disastrous:

Why? Why has this serious and conscientious author not achieved his aim? I believe it is...