“Perekond Thibault” IV Roger Martin du Gard (nr 995)

The plot of the novel is the story of the youth of two brothers who come from a traditional Catholic family and grow up under the influence of a strict and authoritarian father. The older brother Antoine is a vibrant, optimistically talented doctor, while the younger brother Jacques is impatient and rebellious in character, who runs away from his father’s house as a schoolboy… Part II of the novel ends with the return of the “lost son” to his seriously ill father and a masterful description of old Thibault’s death and funeral.

In the summer of 1914, the family novel expands into a social novel. In the feverish pre-war atmosphere, the author follows Jacques’ movements day by day from one party center to another, through several European capitals. The action revolves around the proletariat’s struggle against war. The threatening surge of the imperialist forces is the background for Jacques’ short fragile love story, which the general mobilization of August 2 predicts a tragic end.
World War I breaks out. Jacques is left alone in his intransigent pacifism and sacrifices his life in a hopeless act of heroism. Antoine falls victim to a gas accident. The tragedy is softened by the hope that Jacques’ son Jean-Paul will see a new, better world.
Language: Estonian