This book made available by the Internet Archive.

     ALEXIS  

Copyright

Translation copyright © 1984 by Walter Kaiser 

Originally published in French under the title 

Alexis ou le traite du vain combat

© 1929 by Au Sans Pareil; © 1971 by Editions Gallirnard 

Printed in the United States of America 

Published in Canada by Collins Publishers Toronto 

Third printing, 1986 

Designed by Cynthia Krupat

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 

Yourcenar, Marguerite. / Alexis.

Translation of: Alexis. /. Title.

PQ2649.08A751) 1984 84V.912 84-6009

Dedication

For him    

Preface

Preface (1963)  

Alexis, or  The Treatise of Vain Struggle, appeared in 1929; it belongs to a certain moment in literature and in morals when a subject which up to then had been deemed forbidden received for the first time in centuries its full written expression. Almost thirty-five years have passed since its publication: during that time, the ideas, the social customs, and the reactions of the public have altered, even if less so than is commonly believed; what is more, certain opinions of the author have changed, or could have changed. It was therefore not without a certain anxiety that I returned to Alexis after this long interval: I expected to have to make a number of alterations in the text to make it consonant with a world that had itself altered.

And yet, after thinking it over, such changes seemed to me unnecessary, if not downright damaging; hence except in matters concerning a few infelicities of style, this little book has been left as it was. There are two reasons for this, which at first glance may seem contradictory: one is the highly personal character of a confession strictly limited to a milieu, a time, and a land now vanished from maps; a confession, moreover, impregnated with the old-fashioned atmosphere of Central (and essentially French) Europe, in which the slightest detail could not have been changed without transforming the acoustics of the book. The second reason, in contrast, is the fact that this story, judging from the reactions it continues to provoke, seems to possess a sort of relevance, and even usefulness, for some people.