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ing offended by the hierarchy's delay, the matter would have taken
a different turn before now. But he can never have been the darling
of the French left wing in general, and to a number of others who
know little more than his name, his several roles in turn-of-the-cen–
tury North Africa are likely to be viewed on a scale from passe to
perniCIOUS .
Meanwhile, the books about him have gone on pouring forth;
how many fewer there would be without this era's travel craze and
consequent boosting of the holy father's hut on the Assekrem is any–
body's guess . The writings are, of course , mostly laudatory, of pious
intent and often no political or historic sense whatever. Two in
English by devout women journalists are likely to raise more hackles
than paeans of praise. For one thing, it is beyond question that the
same virtues in a person born in poverty and social obscurity would
have occasioned no such great notice then or later, but then a lot of
the drama could never have occurred, since wealth and social posi–
tion along with high army connections were key factors, in adven–
ture as in renunciation. More surprising than the character's appeal
as not just a viscount but a rich one, is the prevailing lack of
psychoanalytic insight in writings about him, in a period and for a
personality that would seem to make these tools impossible to avoid .
Granted, we are all so sick of psycho-nonsense in every branch of
history and biography, it might be thought refreshing to find one
character of stature and life of high drama treated with comic-strip
innocence. But the pause that refreshes can soon become the refresh–
ment that palls ; and where there is no guideline but dogma, no
thought, for instance, even of effects on such a child of a mother's
early death, together with other violent losses, clearly no cause is be–
ing well served, either of faith or of veracity .
Pettier flaws, in this orthodox-inclined literature, can add up to
almost equal offense, as in ignorance of the rule for the aristocratic
de
before a French proper name, to wit: unless preceded by the title or
first name or some other antecedent as for military rank , the sur–
name drops the
de
except for names of one syllable, the most familiar
violation in this country being de Tocqueville. We also get an
s
added to Tuareg for the plural, which is not altogether at odds with
French orthography but nearly so. The name is itself plural; singular
targui
male ,
targuia
female .
A more general ignorance together with almost rabid dislike of
the Tuareg comes in too, keeping strange company with the story of
