The double vocation

the long version

This study seeks to redefine the double role of those writers who have often been referred to as "French Catholic novelists." After a brief overview of the Catholic Renaissance movement in modern literature, three acknowledged geniuses in this "sub-genre" - Georges Bernanos, Francois Mauriac, and Julien Green - are meticulously reexamined in light of their Christian vocation. For the first time in English, the writings of the Franco-Russian novelist, Vladimir Volkoff, are also discussed in considerable detail. The book concludes with a theoretical chapter that raises troubling questions that apply to the "double vocation," namely: What is the distinctive character of fiction when it is written by a professing Christian? Are the two vocations of Christian and novelist fully compatible of mutually exclusive?