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DIVINE MISSION and HUMAN DESTINY Amicis Caris Gratus Auctor

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DIVINE MISSION and HUMAN DESTINY Amicis Caris Gratus Auctor DIVINE MISSION AND HUMAN DESTINY MAURICE DRUON’S ALEXANDER ROMANCE FIFTY YEARS LATER amicis caris gratus auctor Abstract: Written on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the pub- lication of Maurice Druon’s historical novel on Alexander the Great (1958), the present article aims at putting this literary product in its historical context: the personal and familial background and literary career of the famous French novelist (1918-2009), the social and ideo- logical shifts of the late 1950s, other contemporary Alexander novels like those of Roger Peyrefitte and Julien Tondriau. Having stated the value and impact of high-quality historical novels in general, the arti- cle analyzes the proper qualities and basic ideas of Druon’s narrative, which presents itself as the diary of Alexander’s main seer Aristandros. Inspired in part by certain ‘egyptosophic’ currents, the author tries to detect a global, basically religious, sense in history. Interpreted as one of the great ‘divine bastards’ of humankind, the Macedonian king is credited with a providential rôle. The study concludes with a rudimen- tary attempt to confront some aspects of Drion’s seductive views with Alexander’s own ideas and historical reality. In 1958, now almost exactly half a century ago, Maurice Druon published his Alexandre le Grand ou le roman d’un dieu (475 p.)1. Released in Paris by Cino Del Duca and his ‘(Les) Éditions Mondiales’, it would soon prove to be one of Druon’s most exquisite historical (and, to a certain extent, also ‘mythological’) novels. Two years later, in 1960, ‘La Guilde du Livre’ in Lausanne produced an ‘édition hors commerce’, exclusively for its own members, under the abbreviated title Alexandre le Dieu. In that same year (1960) an English translation by Humphrey Hare, titled Alexander the God, came out both in London (Rupert Hart-Davis) and New York (Charles Scribner’s Sons). By 1964 the title Alexandre le Dieu was also applied by Del Duca. 1 Conceived as a symbolic albeit less conventional antidoron offered by the author to the contributors to the preceding issue of Ancient Society, the present article was practi- cally rounded off in the early summer of 2008, i.e. more than a year before its actual publication. In the meantime, however, on Easter Tuesday the 14th of April 2009, Maurice Druon passed away at the blessed age of almost 91. May these unpretentious lines now also be dedicated to the memory of this grand old man of French letters. Ancient Society 39, 261-281. doi: 10.2143/AS.39.0.2042614 © 2009 by Ancient Society. All rights reserved. 22366-09_Anc_Soc_39_12_Hauben.indd366-09_Anc_Soc_39_12_Hauben.indd 226161 114-10-20094-10-2009 009:04:339:04:33 262 H. HAUBEN Some time later a revised French edition, now called Alexandre le Grand, was issued in Paris: in 1969 by the ‘Éditions Plon’, and in 1974 as no. 3752 of the popular series ‘Le Livre de Poche’ (509 p.). This was re-issued in 1999 by Plon as part of a composite volume containing Druon’s Romans mythologiques. As far as I know, this was the novel’s last edition. Unless specified otherwise, I will refer in the following pages to what may be considered today as the standard version in its most widespread form: the French ‘nouvelle édition’ of 1974. By 1965 the modified title Alexandre le Grand had already made its appearance in a Finnish edition: Aleksanteri Suuri, Helsinki (Kirjayhty- mä). It is strange to find that as early as 1960, in the London edition of Alexander the God, reference is made (p. 4) to the first French edi- tion as simply ‘Alexandre le Grand’. The 2008 jubilee offers a welcome opportunity to reconsider some aspects of a work that can be regarded as a masterpiece of its kind: not only does it excel as a literary product; in some respects it could also pass for an outstanding if uncommon example of historical synthesis, for although Maurice Druon was not a professional historian nor his novel a scholarly work of reference2, his learning and empathy are all the more tremendous. And if, on the other hand, some of his basic views may sound strange, clearly influenced as they were by esoteric currents typi- cal of nineteenth and twentieth-century egyptomania, they still give ample food for reflection3. Needless to remind how influential well written and seriously docu- mented historical novels or essays can be, the more so when the author proves able to catch the spirit of a past age, to fathom the mentality of a lost civilization, to understand the motives and reactions of long disap- peared individuals. Unhindered by the manifold hesitations and subtle- ties characteristic of academic scholarship, he is the only one who seems allowed to go straight to the essentials, intuitively disentangling inextri- cable and vehemently debated issues. Moreover, reaching a much wider 2 Like most Alexander novelists Druon relies primarily on Plutarch and Curtius (p. 473 n. 1), authors belonging to the so-called vulgate tradition, which, to a certain extent, has been rehabilitated by recent historiography. 3 A short comment on and appreciation of the book is to be found in F. SUARD, Alexandre le Grand (La Vie, la Légende), Paris 2001, p. 250-252 (‘Druon et le dialogue avec le destin’). There is no mention of Druon in Claude MOSSÉ, Alexandre. La destinée d’un mythe, Paris 2001, p. 249-257 (who discusses only the novels of Klaus Mann and Valerio Manfredi). I have not seen D.M. KRATZ, Alexander the Great in Literature and Legend: A Handbook, London 1994. 22366-09_Anc_Soc_39_12_Hauben.indd366-09_Anc_Soc_39_12_Hauben.indd 226262 114-10-20094-10-2009 009:04:339:04:33 DIVINE MISSION AND HUMAN DESTINY 263 audience than the professional historian, the novelist or essayist is instru- mental in determining and shaping the reception of history by the con- temporary intelligentsia4. Thanks to a prolific and appealing genius like Robert Graves a great many of us not only got a circumstantial idea of the Julio-Claudians’ rôle in early imperial Rome; they also remained interested in Antiquity for the rest of their lives. And how many of those of past generations did not look at ancient Rome through the eyes of Henryk Sienkiewicz, especially since Mervyn LeRoy’s overwhelmingly popular film version (1951) of Quo vadis? (1895)? Another striking case in point is James A. Michener who, more than anybody else, helped us grasp the spirit of a Poland moulded during the thousand years of its tormented his- tory (Poland, 1983). And is his unsurpassed novel The Source (1965) not a first-hand witness, so to speak, of the emergence of ‘Jewish’ monotheism? Therefore, let it be said that even to academic historians people like Druon have something to tell, not only in the perspective of reception studies, but also about history itself, especially when highlighting aspects neglected by scholars or when playing with unusual interpretations. To the different ‘Alexanders’ of Droysen, Tarn, Schachermeyr, Bosworth, Briant and so many others, should be added those of novelists like Druon, Tondriau or Peyrefitte, each approach contributing in its own particular way to the multicoloured, complex, never completed picture of the famous, yet elusive, Macedonian king. Born in Paris5 on April 23, 1918 as Maurice Kessel, Druon took his second name from his stepfather René Druon, who had married his mother after the untimely death — by suicide — of Lazare Kessel. Being of partly Jewish, Russian, and Brazilian descent, Druon counted among his family several men of letters, physicians, musicians, actors, politicians and scientists, some of whom combined different occupations. 4 Compare what the Belgian canonist and publicist Rik TORFS (Het hellend vlak, Leuven 2008, p. 162) recently wrote about the relative advantage of literature over sci- ence: «Literatuur kan wetenschap natuurlijk niet vervangen. Maar zij geeft haar wel impulsen. De kracht van de synthese. De moed in de analyse». But see in particular the judicious reflections of Elizabeth VISSER, Couperus, Grieken en Barbaren, Amsterdam 1969, p. 81-88 (‘Historische roman en geschiedschrijving’): «Ik ben er namelijk van overtuigd dat de vakgeleerden in vele gevallen wel iets van de romanciers kunnen leren». 5 The data concerning Maurice Druon’s life and work (as well as Roger Peyrefitte’s further on) have been drawn from various easily accessible internet (mainly Wikipedia) and other encyclopedic sources. 22366-09_Anc_Soc_39_12_Hauben.indd366-09_Anc_Soc_39_12_Hauben.indd 226363 114-10-20094-10-2009 009:04:339:04:33 264 H. HAUBEN A succulent detail is that his great-grandfather Antoine-Hippolyte Cros (1833-1903) was at the end of his life the third (titular) king — under the name of Antoine II (1902-1903) — of Araucania and Patagonia, an ephemeral (1860-1862), long since fictitious kingdom situated in the present territories of Chile and Argentina, but still fostered in certain circles6. This varied and rather strange familial background, profoundly imbued with a spirit of learning and curiosity, accounts for Druon’s international perspective, his vast intellectual interests, his deeply rooted sense of tradition, history and (real or imaginary) grandeur, and at the same time his recurrent, though duly controlled, inclination towards the extraordinary. After brilliant secondary studies, which made him intimately acquainted with classical literature, he devoted himself to jurisprudence as well as political and military studies, first at the Sorbonne and the École des Sciences Politiques (1937-1939), then at the École de Cavalerie de Saumur (1940). A partisan of General Charles de Gaulle, he was active in the resistance during the Second World War, having himself enrolled in the Forces Françaises Libres in Britain. Until the 1980s he continued to be politically and diplomatically engaged, as Minister of Cultural Affairs in 1973-1974 and as a Member of Parliament (député de Paris) from 1978 till 1981.
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