Le rempart des béguines

only to cross the road and wait for the return bus when she sees her father's car outside.

The two possible techniques for such a reversal are narration in the first person, used by Françoise Malajori in her first two novels, Le Rempart des Beguines et La Chambre Rouge, or the interior monologue, of which she makes more and more use in the next two novels, Les Mensonges et L'Empire Celeste.

Whatever the technique, the look remains for all, reader, author, and character, the sole means of knowledge, and hence it acquires a frightful power.

Although each novel involves a very different set of events, we feel an underlying unity in the work, in the world of Francoise Malé-Jaurice, because it rests upon a fear that is intrinsic to each human being, and because it receives its light from a merciless look, the symbol of which could well be the single eye which has obsessed Stefan, the pitiable hero of L'Empire Celeste, dominated since his childhood by a one-eyed grandfather.

Against the merciless look which seeks to judge and will succeed in judging, often unjustly and without appeal, If one allows it to, a secure shelter is to be found in lies.

Each one then chooses a mask for himself, a flattering attitude, and strives to play his part in an effort to see at last, in the eyes of those who watch him, the reflection of an image he has chosen.

Thus we witness throughout the novels a tragic masquerade for, instead of the awaited liberation, each person brings about his total enslavement by others.

He needs them constantly.