"L'Abbe C" is the story of Robert, a priest who is so upstanding he is called "L'Abbe" ("the abbot"), and his twin brother Charles, a "libertine" (i.e., a playboy, or man of loose morals). Charles has a sexual relationship with Eponine, a woman whose morals approach his, but Eponine is attracted to Robert, making for sexual tension. Worse, Robert is secretly attracted to Eponine, making for psychological tension. We learn early in the book that the story will turn out badly for all parties involved, each suffering in their own way, so it is not revealing a secret to say the tensions in this multi-faceted relationship do not lead to a healthy outcome. The story is told mostly from Charles's point of view.

Robert breaks down psychologically, fainting at a church service he is attempting to deliver with Eponine in the congregation. Robert begins drinking heavily, and begins stalking Eponine's home in the dead of night, leaving behind sick signs of his presence. He can no longer discern good from evil, nor morality from immorality, and eventually cracks altogether, leaving town for a hotel on the outskirts, where he stays with two semi-professional ladies of looser morals than Eponine's. The novel twists a few more times from there, then resolves itself tragically.

The book is essentially a reflection on morality and cowardice, the latter being the human element required for maintaining morality, but also for being true to one's self, which can sometimes oppose what we believe to be moral. While it has an interesting theme, it is written almost entirely for shock value (or at least what passes for shock value for an author born in 1897, and writing in 1950), but does not convincingly expound upon or communicate its theme to the reader. For one instance, we are never convinced Robert was so pious to begin with. He does not earn his title "L'Abbe" in our eyes, so we are not affected by his supposed turning away from piety during the book.

Bataille has written this book in an old-fashioned style, almost Victorian, using wrenching emotional adjectives, and over-romanticized means of communicating inner thoughts. It is a bit overdone for the "been there, done that" reader of today, and not handsome enough for the admirer of 19th-century literature. (Also, there is some reference to Nazis near the end of the story. Judging from another Bataille book, "Blue of Noon", Bataille seems to throw Nazis into the bargain when he can no longer figure out where to go, and when he needs to show someone else as depraved as his other characters. The reference to Nazis is unecessary and superficial.)

This is a very short work, 158 pages, written in a halting diarized style in most parts. It's almost a pamphlet, hardly a full book. In the final analysis, this is a sexually frank and morally candid tale, but one that is philosophical and even memorable. It may not be great literature, the ending may be a bit incongruous, and it may read as though it is fifty years older than it really is, but it was an interesting little volume nonetheless. I subtract a star, however, because it is a tiny little book at a full-size price.

Bataille's L'Abbe C provides you with a reading atmosphere of unsettling density akin to that of the more famous Story of the Eye, while lacking the flood of relentless pornographic imagery that can be witnessed in that novel. The book can be tedious and pretentious at times (as with anything by Bataille), but it remains a rather fascinating literary diversion. The story, which seems to concern the muddled web of feelings existing between a pair of brothers who are in love with the same mysterious woman, is presented in too surreal a fashion to be particularly coherent; however, the most immediately accessible merits of Bataille's literature have less to do with understanding specifically what is happening, and more to do with the dream-like sense (or rather nightmare-like sense) of profundity provoked. Think of one of David Lynch's better films in the form of a french novel from the early part of the century, and you'll be on the right track. L'abbe C isn't as compulsively readable as the disturbing pornographic masterpiece Story of the Eye, but will still provide the patient reader with numerous rewards. The mad priest's diary, at the end of the novel, is of particular interest.

This books has it good and bad points, and as a teacher reading this book I found it be of minimul usage and didn't go into good enough detail to have it be useful to create assignments for my students.

This collection is a travesty indeed. Great poems no doubt, but abysmally read. Furthermore they should have put all the introductions together separate and apart from the poems. It's nice to hear intros the first time around. But who wants to hear the intros everytime you listen to the poems? Sometimes I want to hear just a stream of poetry without any interuptions and this format makes that impossible. It's incredible that such a great concept could be so terribly executed.

I could not get this back to the store for a refund quickly enough. While the poem selection is great and the poem introductions are narrated well, the choice to use "modern poets" as the readers made this compilation utterly unlistenable. The only one that I found acceptable was Anthony Hect--the others were notably bad. In particular, I found Jorie Graham's "readings" to be abysmal. She reads each poem as if it were simply a string of unconnected words, giving equal stress to each, with halting pauses between them, never breaking out of a drowsy monotone. Other readers were not much better.

There are three major flaws in the readings:

1) The readers are no better than the average untrained person, and often much worse. (You've just got to hear them for yourself to appreciate how bad they are.)

2) Successive poems by the same poet are read by different "readers." It's jarring to hear 3 or 4 poems from Poet X, each in a wildly different voice.

3) No regard is given to matching the sex of the poet and reader. In general, it is really annoying to hear your favorite poet read by the wrong sex. In particular, making this mistake on "gender specific" poems (like having a woman read Poe's "Annabel Lee") is unforgivable.

Why is this all so upsetting? Because it is practically impossible to find poetry collections on CD, making this a serious waste of limited resources. If you are looking for a good collection on CD, buy "81 Famous Poems CD" by Audio Partners (ISBN 0-945353-82-0). It's a good collection on two CDs and is read by professionals: Alexander Scourby, Bramwell Fletcher, and Nancy Wickwire. In the meantime, we can only hope that the producers of this collection will eventually come to their senses and re-record the poems with the services of trained professionals.

If you are prepping for the GRE in literature or are trying to gain a basic understanding of literary periods and poets, this audio-collection is a must. It features a brief introduction about each poet's life. It also includes a brief introduction about the theme of each poem. The fact that you have to listen to these introductions before listening to the poem inculcate the poem and aids retention. If literature has turned into a cumbersome and overwhelming task, this collection will not only provide you with a sense of direction but will also make literature far more pleasurable.

Although very detailed, this book is geared more toward those taking frequent or extended trips on the canals of France. It's also aimed at boat owners (primarily those coming from Great Britain)as opposed to vacation boat renters. The detail is more on the navigation end of things. I guess I was looking for something geared more for the casual tourist who rents a boat for a week or so and needs details on towns, shops and services along the canals.