More timely than ever …

… Pondering the Defeatists | The Russell Kirk Center. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

René Girard writes in Deceit, Desire, and the Novel that all great novels end the same way, with the main character, often tortured by the author, ultimately coming to see the error of his ways in his final moments. Examples given include Madame Bovary, Julien Sorel, and Don Quixote. This represents a self-overcoming and reconciliation on the part of the author, Girard suggests, where the writer recognizes himself in his hated protagonist and comes to forgive the character in an act of personal transcendence. Wilson notices the disparagement of Don Quixote by Cervantes and the way Quixote’s heroic quest is treated as a madness, but he does not mention the ending. The real heroism comes, Girard argues, in Cervantes’s act of self-recognition, insight, and love when Don Quixote renounces and confesses his madness—both character and author overcoming the obstacles and limitations of the human heart. This is the kind of thing that Wilson seems to be waiting for from the modern author.