''Sébastien Roch'' is a novel written by the French journalist, novelist and playwright

Octave Mirbeau Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau (; 16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still app ...

, and published by Charpentier in 1890. Last French edition : L'Age d'Homme, 2011. English translation : ''Sébastien Roch'', Dedalus, « Empire of the senses », 2000, 266 pages ().

Plot summary

That is the emotional story of "the murder of a child’s soul" by a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest, a teacher at the private school for boys of Saint-François-Xavier in

Vannes Vannes (; , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, French department of Morbihan, Brittany (administrative region), Brittany, northwestern mainland France. It was founded over 2,000 years ago. History Celtic ...

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

, where Mirbeau spent four painful years as a pupil, before being expelled, at the age of fifteen, in suspicious circumstances. At age eleven, Sébastien is sent to boarding school by his father, an ironmonger and terrible snob. The boy does not fit into the school and its aristocratic and wealthy students. He is ignored by nearly everyone until an abusive priest starts to befriend him. The innocent 13-year-old boy is seduced, then

sexually abused Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is r ...

, by Father de Kern. Sébastien is expelled along with his only friend Bolorec, the boys having been accused of indulging in inappropriate sexual acts. The charges have been trumped up by Father de Kern. Sébastien's life is ruined and he is unable to hold down a job or make friends. He cannot even build a relationship with Marguerite, his childhood sweetheart. Aged twenty one, Sébastien is absurdly killed during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, his body being carried from the battlefield by Bolorec.

Commentary

denounces the

child sexual abuse Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in Human sexual activity, sexual activit ...

s and the impunity of the rapists, especially when they are priests: for the first time, he breaks a lasting taboo. But, for him, what is called education, within the context of family, school and church, is also a dangerous violation of the child's mind. Rather than a

Bildungsroman In literary criticism, a bildungsroman () is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age). The term comes from the German words ('formation' or 'edu ...

, a novel of self-cultivation, ''Sébastien Roch'' is a novel of self-destruction.

External links

''Sébastien Roch''
*

Pierre Michel Pierre Michel (born 11 June 1942), is a professor of literature and a scholar specializing in the French writer Octave Mirbeau. Michel was born in Toulon, the son of the historian Henri Michel. After defending his doctoral dissertation on the w ...

Foreword
*
Laurent Ferron, « Le Viol de Sébastien Roch : l’Église devant les violences sexuelles »

Robert Ziegler, « Toward Death and Perfection in Octave Mirbeau’s ''Sébastien Roch'' »
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sebastien Roch 1890 French novels Novels by Octave Mirbeau