The Bachelors

The Bachelors is Montherlants poingiant tale of the closing stages in the lives of two eldely french aristocrats. They being the Baron Elie de Coetquidan and his middle aged nephew Count Leon de Coantre members of a run down family of Breton hobereaux living in a small rented villa in an unfashionable quarter of Paris.Some have said the story is a metaphor of Frances inability to engage in the modern world, written as it was between the two world wars. Its real theme is the exploration of getting old. Of a societies response to the individuals unique situation. Each of the two main characters, the Bachelors, are embedded in their own time and epoch. Unable to be understood they are forced to play a role as an unwanted anachronism. Those around them seem unconvinced of their intrinsic value or need for engagement. The story opens with the irrascable Baron reading a newspapaer. He demolishes its pretence at substance and points unerringly at its senationalism and cloak of fashionablity. We move from this scene to a realization that he and his equally aged nephew are about to be kicked out of their home. Seeking a new residence, friends and relatives are cool as to taking on the responsibility of these aged Aristocrats. Something which had a recent real life echo in Paris! Montherlants prose is lucid, humane (in a classical sense) and spleckled with aphorisms and insights. This is his most moving and assured work. Heartening that such a beautiful book is back in print in English.