The Abbe Tigrane

In the best 19th century, fire-and-brimstone tradition, this small French masterpiece, here translated into English for the first time, pits good (in the form of the Bishop of Lormieres, the Marquis de Roquebrun) against evil (the Abbe Capdepont, nicknamed the Abbe Tigrane tiger because of his temper). Roquebrun is a reformer, a staunch papist who detests the strain of Gallicanism his priests are bringing to the church. There are all the signs of a classic confrontation. Roquebrun is a nobleman from the north, apoplectic, generous; Capdepont is of southern peasant stock, a cold, ambitious man who has worked his way up through the church hierarchy by political networking. Roquebrun, who has already suffered one stroke, goes to Paris to make sure Capdepont won't succeed him as bishop. While there, he dies. The priests in Lormieres endure suspense as Rome decides whether to appoint Capdepont or the bishop's protege as the next prelate. In a magnificent scene, Tigrane "in whom hatred went even deeper than ambition," refuses to bury the bishop's body, leaving it in the courtyard in a storm. The novel ends with Capdepont, now an archbishop, setting his eyes on the papacy.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.