French writer Francois Mauriac is one of the most prominent figures in the literature of the 20th century. A Nobel Prize winner, he created his own special, Mauriacian, type of novel. Continuing the tradition established by O. de Balzac and E. Zola, Mauriac explores the subtlest nuances of human psychology. In the center of the narrative of most of his works are relationships within the family. Life constantly tests Mauriac's heroes for strength, and few of them pass these tests with honor.

The main character of the novel “A Kiss to the Leper” is an ugly, sickly young man, shy and eccentric, who has a lot of complexes about his appearance and is afraid to see the disgust of other people, and therefore avoids them, finding refuge in religion. One day, a local beauty is forced to marry a hero, because his family was rich. In this case, marriage becomes torment for both. Can he count on his share of female warmth and affection? And at what cost can you achieve love or force yourself to love? Once again, the author sets difficult moral tasks for his characters.

“Mother” is one of the early novels of Francois Mauriac. The theme of the novel is the collapse of the ancient provincial aristocracy, the degeneration of the so-called noble families. The main characters of the novel are depicted in an unusually vivid manner: this is Felicite, the head of the family, who adores her weak-willed and stupid son and protects the house from the invasion of her plebeian daughter-in-law; Fernand, the last representative of the family, a fifty-year-old mama's boy; his wife Matilda, who sold her youth for wealth and nobility.

The main character of the novel “The Desert of Love” - a proud playmaker, a seducer of women's hearts, always breaking them - unexpectedly meets in a night restaurant a woman with whom he swore revenge 17 years ago for the fact that she contemptuously rejected his youthful love. How sweet will this revenge be?..For this novel the author received the Grand Prix of the French Academy in 1926.

The themes of the novel “Teresa Desqueiro” are sin and crime. The author is trying to find the origins of atrocities, and his search leads him to the problems of marriage in bourgeois society, problems of family and morality. Without excusing the heroine of her crime, the author also sympathizes with her, since she became a victim of philistine society. Teresa becomes the wife of a man she hates, a smug bourgeois. Her despair turns to hatred and hatred leads to crime. It would seem that Teresa had everything a person needs to be happy. So what made her destroy her own well-being?

The novel “The Ball of Snakes” belongs to the sharpest, most revealing works of the realist Mauriac. The world depicted in the novel is terrible and vile. Lies, deceit, indifference, polite omissions - such is the daily life of the large and, at first glance, completely happy family of the successful provincial lawyer Louis Calez, a venerable old man dying in the arms of his many offspring. No. There were no open scandals or secret scandals. In general, everything was perfect, except for one thing: love was slowly dying in the Kalez house. The love of a husband and wife who entered into a marriage is not at all out of convenience. Parents' love for those they desire, adored children, and children born and raised in tenderness and care. How and why did a once happy family turn into a “ball of snakes”?..