Maurice Level (1875-1926) - French novelist and short story writer connected with the theater of the Grand Guignol

Those Who Return by Maurice Level (1875 - 1926) is a psychological thriller, a gripping page-turner, a tale of hysteria, madness, revenge and bizarre deaths in the contes cruel tradition of nineteenth century French literature. This short novel is told in crisp, sparse language yet contains elements of romanticism (the feelings and sensitivity of a passionate, poetic main character), decadence (the decay, the unclean, the unnatural), the tension between reason and science on the one hand and magic and ghosts on the other, and is a curious cross between, if you can believe it, James M. Cain hard boiled and Edgar Allan Poe macabre.

I wouldn’t want to say too much about the specifics of the plot since there are many unexpected twists and turns, especially toward the end. To provide a sampling of the writing style and literary themes, below are several quotes from the first two chapters coupled with my brief comments.

In the course of conversation with a doctor, the twenty-seven year old main character, Claude de Marbois, conveys the following brooding observations on his own character, “I am neither a roué nor a degenerate; yet there are days when certain visions rise so definitely before me and I am prey to such violent desires, that if, hitherto, I have been able to resist their attraction, it is impossible for me to say whether, an hour hence, I shall be able to do so. At other times, I feel strangely weary, as though I had just accomplished some gigantic task.” Claude is a true romantic: volatile, moody, imaginative, emotional, intense. And the visions Claude alludes to here build as the story unfolds, build like furious waves in a stormy sea; it is as if one can hear Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique in the background.

After a turbulent, gut-wrenching confrontation with his father, Claude retires to his room and, pen in hand, reflects on committing suicide, “He would first write down the tortures of his childhood, the sorrows of his manhood, so that people would know why he had preferred death to a life without love or pity. The thought that the blame would fall on his father, that the scandal would cause that hard proud being to tremble, filed him with joy:” What stronger emotion and feelings are there than a child’s emotionally-charged relationship with his or her father and mother, particularly if the mothers death is shroud in mystery? Maurice Level’s tale contains a number of elements one would find in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.

The following morning, Claude has yet again another confrontation with his father. We read, “You are trying to force me into a nursing home, in other words, into a madhouse! Oh do not let the word upset you, when the intention leaves you calm. Well, however much you may wish it, I am not mad, and have no desire to become so.“ Ah, what is romantic nineteenth century fiction without the ever-present threat of the label of madman? Many are the tales and novels following Poe’s The Black Cat that begin with a disclaimer from the narrator that he is not mad. The novel fleshes out the power struggle when people attempt to exercise control over others by labeling them as mad and packing them off to a padded cell in the madhouse.

Revenge is certainly one of the most intriguing themes of the novel. How deep is the revenge Claude seeks? What is he willing to sacrifice to extract not only some revenge, but, in his own mind, a revenge that is nothing less than total? With this short novel, in the spirit of Faust or Heathcliff, we witness a true romantic in action.