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 withstand these tests with honor.

The plot of the story “The Monkey” centers on the fate of a twelve-year-old boy who has been ill since birth, lagging behind his peers in development. It was not only nature that treated young Guillaume unfairly. The baby does not feel the love and support of loved ones and is constantly attacked by his own mother. Monkey, degenerate, runt - these are the epithets with which she rewards her son. He just looks too much like his father, her husband. And too often and painfully she reminds her that a marriage of convenience brought her neither wealth, nor position in society, nor happiness. And just as many women find salvation in the love of their child, so Paul de Cernay found a way out for her irritation and resentment - little Guillou.

The story “Galigai” is a love story, another Mauriac variation on the theme of pharisaism, cruelty of the world, in which there is at least someone who lives according to the Gospel? As almost always with Mauriac, the story devotes a lot of space to the empirical Church, to “false Christians” - those who attend Mass, but do not have God in themselves, and at the same time confused people seeking His Presence.

“The Lamb “is a kind of continuation of the novel “The Pharisees”, in which one of Mauriac’s cherished ideas is expressed - “the miracle of Christianity is that a person can become God.” “The Lamb” stands apart from the rest of Mauriac’s work, which tried to portray a saint. The young man enters the seminary, but is led astray by temptation. But the main thing: he is pushed forward by the thirst for Sacrifice, the desire for the Cross. At its core, “The Lamb” is a story about how the death of a saint changes the world. The novel exposes the lie-based respectability of a noble family in a bourgeois society, where human relationships are replaced by cold selfish calculation and turned into a game of base passions. It testifies to the humanism of Mauriac, a successor to the traditions of French classical realism.

In the novel “The Teenager of Bygone Times,” a young man from a wealthy family tries to get out of the bonds that entangled his domineering mother, spiritual mentor, public opinion... But with each this becomes increasingly difficult to do as the years go by. And gradually the young man calms down and begins to give up.