‘Portrait de l’Aventurier’ by Roger Stephane
Posted by a French subscriber:
I am currently reading Roger Stephane’s Le Portrait de l’Aventurier, which is mainly a comparison between Lawrence, Malraux and Ernst von Salomon, as “adventurers” and as writers. Although it is not meant to be a biography, some of the analysis proposed by Stephane is among the most interesting I’ve read so far. I don’t have Phil O’Brien’s bibliography, so I wonder if there is an English translation of the book, because it would really be a shame if non-French speaking people interested in Lawrence could not have access to this book.
There is also an introduction by Jean-Paul Sartre, which gives an interesting vision of Lawrence as the “bourgeois” adventurer of modern times, risking his life abroad where his predecessors, in the 19th century, would go abroad to enjoy sexual freedom and spend their money.
Interestingly enough, Sartre admits that a socialist society where other Lawrences would be simply impossible (because of the “bourgeois” values of individualism and colonialism he represents to Sartre, and which go against all the communist credo), such a society would be “sterilized”.
I won’t sum up the book here of course, but I’d like to have your opinions on the book if you have read it.
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Comment by Jeremy Wilson
There is no English translation of Stephane’s book
I don’t think it would be worth attempting to translate it unless one had a British publisher lined up – and I think that might be pretty difficult. Maybe an American academic publisher might look at it – but I am not an expert on US academic publishers.
The nature of popular interest in Lawrence is very different in France to what it is in England. In France, the interest is far more ‘intellectual’, and writers like Malraux, Stephane, et al have a commercially viable audience. I am aware of this because I have lectured on Lawrence in France and taken part in several documentary programmes, interviews, and discussion programmes about him on French TV and radio.
In England, the interest (as perceived by the press and commercial publishers) seems to me to be mainly gutter-press [this posting dates from 1998]. There is therefore at present not much of a commercial market in the UK for books that do not deal extensively with Lawrence’s sexuality, the Deraa experience, etc. When I am interviewed by the British media, the first question is usually ‘Was Lawrence gay?’ — which is a question I don’t think I have ever been asked by a French journalist, even on a ‘popular’ programme like the lunchtime magazine ‘13-14′.
That is not to say that questions about Lawrence’s sexuality are unimportant, or never discussed in France, but that French journalists and the French public evidently think there are some other things about Lawrence that are worthy of interest.
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Comment by Ryoko Yagitani (Japan)
That is news to me! Le Portrait de l’Aventurier (1950) by Roger Stephane has been translated twice into Japanese, in 1972 and 1978. As a pre-Aldington book, it contains some out-of-date descriptions, however, I think that it is one of the most interesting books about TE.
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