Conrad as a source of inspiration for the novels of Marguerite Yourcenar

The fact that the husband of Yourcenar's most adored woman was like-minded made him, after Jeanne, her second role model, at least in her literary work. Yet, Conrad presumably did not know of Yourcenar's sexual leaning. Her sympathy, psychological curiosity, self-reflection and erotic fantasies could not avoid circling around Conrad. It was him who was nearest to the most beautiful, strong and desirable woman and mother. He was the one with whom Jeanne had had intimate exchanges and had shared her life over a minimum of 26 years – with whatever agreements, exceptions and limits. In addition, there was a second main motif why some aspects of Conrad became inspiration for Yourcenar’s novel characters: the world of his feelings, on one hand a topic independent from Jeanne, but on the other hand the same world of Yourcenar’s own feelings.

Yourcenar was unable to focus only on one person. It is true the one, Jeanne, was dominant, matchless and her exemplary nature was in agreement with society. Yet the second one, Conrad, was withdrawn and therefore more mysterious. Somehow, he was more near to Marguerite Yourcenar due to common wishes and struggles. On the one hand, Jeanne was more formative in Yourcenar's life. Conrad was only tremendously expressive in his art when playing the piano. In the outside world, Conrad stood in the shadow of his splendid partner, but this shadow attracted Marguerite Yourcenar in the same magical way. Because she lacked sufficient personal knowledge of him, she had to fill in the gap of the unexposed parts of his character with her own imagination and answers to existential questions. This was her literary creation. For this reason, the parents of the painter Egon von Vietinghoff were the ideal models and projection figures for Yourcenar’s own creation. An almost indissoluble web of poetry and truth emerged.

In this context, please notice the meaningful titles of her own books and those of her biographers: "The labyrinth of the world", "The fall of the masques", "Inventing a life", "Dreams and destinies", "Passion and its masques", "The walker in the labyrinth".

Conrad von Vietinghoff sublimated his subject of life in reading adequate literature and the Bible, in discussions and correspondence with a few friends – and of course as many other sensitive people – in his art of music. His wife, Jeanne, assimilated her complex and tragic life topics through inner schooling and writing books. Marguerite Yourcenar did it in her way in her own work.

All that Marguerite Yourcenar knew about Conrad could have come from four sources:

• From the side of the responsible and disciplined Jeanne, at best some remarks to the juvenile Marguerite, who only met her a few times.
• Yourcenar herself reported that her father, Michel de Crayencour, told her something (or the entire story?) of the cohabitation of Conrad and Jeanne and of his great admiration of Jeanne.
• She seems to have met the widower Conrad at age 24, alone at his flat in Zollikon, nearby Zurich, after her pilgrimage to Jeanne’s grave in Switzerland.
• Finally, she possessed enough intuition, fantasy and deductive intelligence to make assumptions from her observations.

The strong parallels between Vietinghoff and Yourcenar, the irreconcilable polarities in the marriage of Jeanne and Conrad and the imagination floating in Yourcenar's fantasy were so basic and complex, that they could not be presented in a single volume, neither be transformed in a liberating way. The complexity of this partnership could only be lived by the couple or chosen as a central theme and modified in various aspects in Yourcenar’s works. Thus, her desires, contradictions, love affairs and memories of this remarkable couple provided the literary material for more than one novel of Yourcenar's opus. Yet, she was not a biographer but an author of literature.

In 1927, when writing her debut novel "Alexis", published in 1929, she was probably more cautious yet and her impression of the few encounters with Conrad were probably still fresh; however, the novel's character was nearer to the real Conrad than in later works. Nevertheless, there are deviations from the real Conrad von Vietinghoff. Please, notice the remarks and "corrections" given below.

Homo…

We should definitely consider that to speak about sex was generally taboo in Conrad's time and still is today in so many countries. Even the term "homosexual" was created only in 1868 and was still uncommon in everyday speech – Conrad never spoke it aloud.

"Homo" ("same") is from Greek, which Conrad studied as he greatly appreciated the Greek culture. Yet "sexus" ("gender") is from Latin, so the term "homo-sexual" is a linguistic cross which is taken for granted in our societies nowadays but in former times, it belonged to a scientific vocabulary of theoreticians.

Conrad would never have used this term or any other popular expressions for the same phenomenon. Even in a letter to one of his closest friends, he wrote "H.S." as a discreet abbreviation.

He spoke about "homotropy" ("inclining to the same") or "homophilia" ("love of the same"), terms almost forgotten today which do not emphasize sex but eroticism and love. They are pure Greek words and lead the attention to a general and more subtle aspect than sex. Conrad could not reconcile verbal reductions such as "make love" with his idealistic view on the world and romantic ideas.

We cannot say how much, how often and on which occasions, Conrad could live his sentiments. Yet, according to his most intimate friend of his last thirty years, we can say, that he probably never physically followed his sentiments – in a similar manner to his contemporary Thomas Mann (1875-1955). In the circle of like-minded friends, he discussed and exchanged letters going into raptures about the old Greek ideal of "kaloskagathos" (to be good and beautiful at the same time), about the difference between "Eros" and "Agape" (erotic-emotional and Platonic-selfless love), about the divine aspect of love, and about the expression of J. J. Winckelmann "Edle Einfalt – stille Größe", what means "noble innocence and serene grandeur".

His circle commented on political developments and exchanged their ideas on the old Greek dramas, Dante and the great classics of German literature. Otherwise, they had a critical look at the contemporary writers, such as Hermann Hesse (1977-1962), or became absorbed with Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), whose sister had been in contact with Conrad. Later the discussion shifted to other important contemporary figures, such as C. G. Jung (1875-1961) and Reverend Martin Niemöller (1892-1984).

Conrad and his friends read Plato, naturally in the original Greek; as insiders, they sympathetically understood the poems of August von Platen (1796-1835) and Stefan George (1968-1933), as well as the novellas of Ernst Wiechert (1887-1950). They attentively followed the publications of Hans Blüher (1888-1955) who commented on love between men in a uniquely blunt way. Also, Conrad and his friends specifically looked at the great success of the homophile and bi-sexual Nobel laureates in Literature, Thomas Mann (Nobel Prize 1929), Hermann Hesse (Nobel Prize 1946) and André Gide (Nobel Prize 1947). Even though they were not his favored authors, it would have brought a certain satisfaction to Conrad that people with homoerotic feelings were internationally honored – in defiance of the common preconceptions of homosexuality. Though he felt a kinship with these writers and fellow-sufferers, Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) and Conrad's contemporary Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) remained closest to his heart, due to their similarly highly sensitive natures.

As still today, the sensitive minority deplored the dominant brutality in the world, which during Conrad's lifetime was manifested mainly in two World Wars, the Holocaust, the Spanish and Chinese Civil war, and the Korean War. Personally, Conrad lost his home due to the brutal Russian Revolutions. He was an idealist, humanist, pacifist, and vegetarian.

Conrad von Vietinghoff had two sons, the future painter Egon and his junior Alexis. The latter was named after the Belgian Alexis Bricou, the father of Jeanne von Vietinghoff, the painter's mother. Without his knowledge, Conrad was used as the model for the character of "Alexis" in Marguerite Yourcenar's first novel "Alexis ou le vain combat" (The English title is just "Alexis"). It was published in 1929, the year when Yourcenar's father died. In 1925/26, her father told her – as far as we know – about the marriage of Conrad and Jeanne; as a part of the story, he also told his daughter how much he admired and loved Jeanne. She passed away in 1926 and Marguerite visited her tomb in Switzerland, in 1927, in a kind of pilgrimage to her idol (see her passionate poems to Jeanne at this occasion on the French version of the website in the chapter "Biographie", sub-chapter "Parents, Mère"). Then, the young Marguerite traveled further to Zurich and it is highly probable that she met the widower, Conrad. As she tackled writing "Alexis" on the second day in Zurich, still in the hotel, Conrad was the model and her visit the trigger for her first, though indirect, confession.

In this novel without action, which is more a novella, the last descendant of a noble family reflects on his life, motifs, fears, inner conflicts, passions, and omissions. He does it in a long farewell letter to his wife, struggling for truth and confessing his hidden homosexuality. Sensitive, with subtle allusions and with an austere style, in the course of the novel the atmosphere of the agonizing inner conflict builds gradually. Marguerite Yourcenar remarked in the preface: "in a meager, almost abstract language, at the same time careful and precise".

In 2003, the centenary of Marguerite Yourcenar and Egon von Vietinghoff, the "Centre International de Documentation Marguerite Yourcenar" (CIDMY) at Brussels, arranged performances of "Alexis" in a dramatized version by Ms. Michèle Goslar.

The single character "Alexis" in the novel and on stage is undoubtedly Conrad von Vietinghoff, whose character Yourcenar named after his second son. To confuse names is a simple method, often used by this author, in order to blur the outlines of reality. Anyway, the novel was published during the lifetime of Conrad, Egon and Alexis, whereas Jeanne von Vietinghoff, in the novel named "Monika", had already died three years before.

Yet, in the novel "Alexis", we cannot simply replace the name Alexis with Conrad and expect to understand the personality of Conrad von Vietinghoff. Essential traits are plausibly represented such as "his hesitation, insecurity and scruples", Yourcenar herself states in the preface. The character is very credible, yet several of Conrad’s aspects are changed consciously or evolve into an independent literary persona. Marguerite Yourcenar loved to play with and confuse the facts, and it is not always easy to see through this web of poetry and truth, which even her biographers occasionally are deceived by and therefore spread false information about the real Conrad von Vietinghoff.

Based on observations and traditions in the family, as well as evidence from Conrad and Egon's estate and their contemporaries, we see a picture of Conrad von Vietinghoff that differs from the character "Alexis" on several points. Yet, these two figures cannot be expected to be identical, as "Alexis" is a novel, not a biography. The characteristics which are not Conrad's are the creation of the author's free literary imagination, which was nourished by her feelings, sexuality and lifestyle. It is a writer’s prerogative to withdraw behind the characters yet simultaneously integrate personal elements such as beliefs, sexual orientation and feelings into the characters.

Justifiable doubts on the genuine similarities between "Alexis" and the true Conrad arise when "Alexis" suggests suicidal tendencies or confesses to the payment of banal anonymous adventures. Based on all available knowledge on Conrad von Vietinghoff, at this point the behavior of the character "Alexis" is simply the fantasy of the author. Such desires and episodes are typical to Marguerite Yourcenar herself, flirting with such sexual forays even at a considerably advanced age, much older than Conrad was in 1927 and "Alexis" appears to be in the novel. After a walk through the red-light district of Amsterdam at age 80, she noted: "I love tenderly this women in the shop window … Again, I see the meaningful and naïve poster with the positions of love, the shadow plays and the sex shops with the huge phalluses. A young woman asks… 'Would the ladies and gentlemen like some small specialty?' Yet, our group is looking for a taxi as it begins to rain. If I were alone with …, I think, I would have tried this specialty to see where it leads."

In addition to these obvious differences, the thoughts of "Alexis", such as "I am honestly convinced I have never loved" or "I, myself, am too mediocre to expect requited love", seem very strange to people who knew Conrad von Vietinghoff. There is further proof that Alexis' character was not based on biographical research; the author suggests that "Alexis" was an impoverished man, which was not the case for Conrad. It is true that Conrad and his brothers lost their homes but Conrad did not suffer any financial troubles as he still possessed his fortune at the time the novel was written. Yet, his situation would change over the following decades. In contrast, "Alexis" emphasizes his financial straits, increasing his feeling of guilt to his wife "Monika", which is a literary dramatization.

Despite this, Yourcenar succeeded in creating the aura of this cautious, noble and charming gentleman. Thus, we cannot claim the story is pure invention. The value of the literature, especially of Yourcenar's art, really lies in her general contemplation and her manipulation of the French language, rather than in the choice of the subject, the plot and the description of her characters. This is a philosophy of art shared with Egon von Vietinghoff; here, they are united and akin to each other. Marguerite used words as her medium, while Egon chose paints.

The Coup de Grace

The short novel "Le Coup de Grâce" was written in 1938 and published one year later. The scene is the Baltic region shortly after World War I, during the Russian Civil War (1917-1923) between the German Freikorps (paramilitary free corps) and the Red Guards (paramilitary Bolsheviks).

What kind of movie the German film-maker, Volker Schlöndorff, produced based on this novella is another story which will not to be discussed here (however, Yourcenar was not happy with). In the movie, under the same title "Fangschuss" (Coup de Grace), well-known actors starred, such as Margarethe von Trotta, Mathias Habich and Mathieu Carrière. For its direction and camera work, the film received the highest endowed cultural award in Germany, the "Filmband in Gold".

Surely the correspondence of the names "Conrad" and "Konrad" is not random, yet the family's name "von Reval" shows that there is a distance to reality, as this name does not exist. In a few passages, there are glimpses of the true Conrad, the painter's father, whereas other aspects and behavior are probably based on other models or Yourcenar's own experience. We may also see a mixture of all these with poetic license. So, Sophie has nothing to do with Jeanne von Vietinghoff, but more so with the author herself, and Erich represents one of her homosexual lovers. Marguerite Yourcenar transposes the story of Conrad's homeland and names a leading character in the events “Konrad”.

The aristocratic backdrop of the Baltic region during the Russian Civil War, the unrequited love of the author for a bi- or homosexual man and the somewhat vague picture of Conrad von Vietinghoff and his family gave the material on which Yourcenar builds her characters and her story. She does not feel it necessary to closely follow the facts and her real models, in order to become more conscious of herself, and through the evolution of her creative writing.

To speak of an eternal triangle seems inappropriate, as between Erich and Sophie there is no actual consummation and Erich's affection for Konrad is only subtly suggested. It remains unclear if Konrad shares Erich's feelings. The discreet intimacy of these two men reflects the true attitude and idealism of the real Conrad. It is as if the author's respect prevented her from analytically dissecting these noble feelings. The concise allusions, which the reader almost overlooks, are distant antecedents to the theme of Sophie's unfulfilled love, which is the main subject taking the forefront with much clearer descriptive language. A parallel between the novel's characters and the Vietinghoff couple exists, not on the biographical level but in the unresolved balance between the atmosphere of subtle reflections and unspoken feelings and the abstract essence of human tragedy.

Corrections

Conrad

1. He was the youngest of four sons. The first inherited the property of Neschwitz in Saxony, the second received the parents' home, Salisburg, and the third acquired a castle in present day Latvia from his marriage to a lady whose family name was Vietinghoff as well and who had previously been widowed by another member of the extended Vietinghoff family (so she was named Vietinghoff three times!). Instead of property, Conrad inherited money. While his brothers lost their properties, including his childhood home, during revolutions and wars, he did not suffer any financial loss till around 1930. The cliché of the impoverished nobility is only applicable in the time after the 1930s, when Conrad would live alone and would be naive enough to generously give loans and guarantees to people who deceived him by complaining about their financial situation.
   
2. He was born at the manor house Salisburg. His home was not in Bohemia, Moravia, or Courland but in Livonia, which in 1710 was made a province of the Russian Empire by Tsar Peter the Great. Livonia was named after the Finnic Livonians, the original inhabitants (today still a small minority), and for centuries was ruled by different countries. At the founding of the first independent republics of Latvia and Estonia in 1918, Livonia was divided. Thus the southern part forms part of Latvia and the northern part belongs to Estonia. Consequently, the name Livonia disappeared from the map.
   
3. At the university in Dorpat (today Tartu in Estonia), he did not study law but agriculture and economy.
   
4. He never saw his Baltic homeland again after 1906. He visited his parents as a student in Leipzig and Berlin, then again at the occasion of his engagement with Jeanne, and each time after the birth of his two sons in order to introduce them to his parents. Perhaps he visited them once more alone. His brothers kept in touch with their father till he died in 1918. At least two of Conrad's nephews visited the empty manor house Salisburg and his father's grave in Riga. His mother lived until her demise in 1923 mainly at his eldest brother’s home, castle Neschwitz in Saxony, where he went to see her several times.
   
5. In contrast to some of his relatives, he never joined any armed action against the Bolsheviks in his homeland during the Russian Civil War. During World War I, he lived with his wife and children in Switzerland, first in Geneva (since 1913), then in Zurich (since 1917).
   
6. He was a piano player not a composer; he never wrote any composition.
   
7. Though he occasionally conducted some private lessons with a few people around him, he was not a professional music teacher.
   
8. He was open to contemporary music and loved to play works of the Post-Romantic composers Alexander Skrjabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Richard Strauss, and especially Max Reger. Yet, he was never a fan of the avant-garde and never a proponent of the twelve-tone music (atonality).
   
9. There was no "scandal of Rome" as was mentioned or invented by Marguerite Yourcenar. If there was any scandal, Conrad had nothing to do with it.
   
10. Conrad did not enjoy public recognition and performed publicly at only two charity concerts. Once together with a singer in Wiesbaden, Germany, on April 28, 1910, and once with a cellist in Fribourg, Switzerland, on April 27, 1923.
    
11. He did not pursue a career because of artistic failures but due to his highly sensitive nature which prevented him from performing on stage in the presence of a large anonymous public. Besides some private concerts at home for a certain circle of friends, especially during his years in Wiesbaden, he played only for himself and a few of his closest friends. For magnificent solo performances, he was much too shy and introverted.
    
12. Conrad and Jeanne may not have really lived together for some months or even for one or two years. Yet, there was neither a known separation nor proof of a farewell letter. Jeanne spent the last days of her life in a specialized sanatorium on Lake Geneva, whereas Conrad remained in their house in Zurich as he could not help her.