In this blog post, I will examine Henri Barbusse’s ‘Hell’ to explore how human hypocrisy, desire, the loneliness of existence, and the constant anguish over life and death are revealed within a single individual.
A Novel That Delves into Human Hypocrisy and Inner Anxiety
Henri Barbusse was born on May 17, 1873, in Asnières, a suburb of Paris. His father, originally from southern France, had moved to England and worked as a magazine editor in London, where he married an English woman. Barbusse lost his mother at the age of three and was raised by a nanny who was a friend of his mother’s. His poetic talent was highly regarded even while he was attending the Lycée Rolland in Paris. He made his literary debut in 1895 with the poetry collection ‘Women Weeping’, receiving high praise—particularly from Stéphane Mallarmé, who wrote, “Your collection of poems presents a rare beauty.”
After working as a civil servant in the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Barbus resigned from his government post in 1902 to devote himself entirely to writing. He worked as a journalist and published his first novel, ‘The Supplicants’, in 1903. Starting with this work, he realized that there were many inherent contradictions between the truth he held in his heart and the reality existing outside himself, and he portrayed the pain and anguish he felt as a result. His distrust of circumstances and the anxiety inherent in human nature were also linked to the “malady of the century” stemming from Europe’s moral decay in the late 19th century. This awareness of the so-called Spenglerian “decline of the West” was clearly evident in Barbusse’s work as well.
However, it was not until the publication of ‘Hell’ in 1908 that Barbusse began to attract overwhelming attention from readers. Set against the unique backdrop of all events taking place within a single hotel bedroom, this work lays bare the hypocrisy of humanity. It was particularly striking in its attempt to uncover the truth of human nature through characters struggling amid conflicts of lust and anguish over death. ‘Hell’ was later adapted into a film that generated much buzz, serving as a turning point that firmly established Barbusse’s reputation as a writer.
The decisive experience for Barbus was World War I, which lasted from 1914 to 1918. Based on his wartime experiences, ‘Under Fire’, published in 1915, is written in the form of a diary kept by an infantryman who participated in the war. It depicts the terror of humans struggling on the border between life and death, as well as the contradictions and folly of a war in which brothers kill one another. It is also a work that scathingly exposes the falsehoods of war, which had been glorified by patriotic warmongers. Acclaimed for breaking new ground in war fiction, the novel received an explosive response from readers, and Barbusse was awarded the Goncourt Prize in 1916 for this work.
After the war ended, Barbusse came to sympathize with Lenin’s socialist revolution and published ‘The Light’ and ‘The Sword in the Mouth’ during that period. He subsequently devoted himself to the anti-war movement and international cultural movements before passing away in 1935 while visiting Moscow. Barbusse, who presented a body of work characterized by stark realism in the tradition of Émile Zola, occupies an important place in the history of French literature. I believe this is why ‘Hell’ and ‘The Storm’ are considered his masterpieces rather than the works from his later years, which were heavily influenced by political ideology. ‘Hell’, in particular, is noteworthy not only as the work that launched his career but also as a pioneering work of 20th-century literature that explores human despair.
A Man Seeking Self-Affirmation Through Women
The protagonist of ‘Hell’, “I,” is a man who has moved from the countryside to Paris and found a job at a bank. He is consumed by his desire for women. “I gaze at my face approaching in the narrow, elongated shop mirror. A pale face, heavy eyelids—what I desire is not one woman. It is every woman. From his thoughts—‘One by one, I desire the women around me’—we can see just how strongly this lust dominates his consciousness.”
However, even when the protagonist engages in sexual relations with a woman, he does not experience satisfaction or fulfillment. Driven by his impulses, he follows a woman who had been watching him from a street corner. The two walk side by side, exchanging a few words, and the woman takes him to her home. What follows is a series of scenes that feel formulaic, and everything ends as abruptly as if something had simply rolled away.
What I felt in this scene was not the fulfillment of desire, but rather the sense of emptiness that lingers afterward. The protagonist’s state of mind reveals a kind of emptiness, which is closely connected to the feeling of “downfall” described by Camus. In fact, after he returns to the street, he thinks to himself: “There is no peace of mind, as I had hoped. My mind is merely in turmoil, caught in endless confusion.”
The protagonist seeks some form of salvation through his relationship with the woman, but after the act is over, that very hope pushes him even deeper into despair. So, from what exactly is he seeking salvation? This question felt like a crucial one that kept following me throughout my reading of ‘In Hell’.
As seen in the previous scene, the “I” in the novel constantly focuses his gaze on himself. He wanders, harboring the deeply fundamental question: “What am I?” Just as one might gaze at one’s own face approaching from a store mirror, he ceaselessly observes himself. In doing so, he becomes consumed by an existential loneliness—the realization that “I am alone.”
He attempts to affirm himself through the woman and to give meaning to his existence. In that sense, the woman takes on the role of a mirror reflecting the “I.” However, what that mirror ultimately reflects is nothing but the meaninglessness of his own existence. The more he tries to affirm himself through the woman, the more vividly his loneliness and emptiness become.
Nihilism and Death Encountered at the End of Desire
In this regard, I felt that a kind of nihilism underlies “Hell.” However, the protagonist does not simply resign himself to nihilism. Rather, he attempts to transcend the meaninglessness of his own existence. He thinks, “Glaring at me, she stares into my eyes,” and “The room next door exposes that naked figure before me.” Consequently, a deliberate sensationalism is also evident in this work.
However, if one interprets these sensational expressions merely as a matter of sex, it becomes difficult to fully grasp the work’s significance. It is closer to a heart-wrenching struggle in which a human being struggles to affirm his own existence. The protagonist confesses to himself, “I have no talent, no mission to fulfill, and no emotions to leave behind. I possess nothing and am a human being of no value. Yet, I still hope for some kind of reward.”
Reading this confession made me reflect more deeply on why the protagonist desires women. For him, sex is not merely the satisfaction of physical desire but also a form of compensation. Even while feeling that he possesses nothing and is a human being of no value, his desire contains a longing to be compensated in some way.
However, this attitude extends from the issue of sex to that of death. The protagonist states, “Death—this is the most important of all concepts.” This confession shows that the compensation he seeks is no longer confined to sex alone but has shifted to the fundamental issue of death.
Yet the concept of death offers no resolution to his consciousness. Perhaps it is a problem that cannot be resolved at all. Thus, he returns once more to sex. The day after watching the sexual encounter in the next room, he attempts to reenact it in his imagination. However, just as he was unable to revive the sexual pleasure he once felt with his mistress, he is unable to fully recreate that scene even in his imagination.
This portrayal connects to Barbusse’s statement: “The naked truth of humanity—that is what I seek to express. Others express the abstract. But I seek to reveal the truth.” This reflects a distrust of the abstract world and a belief in truth stemming from that distrust. For Barbusse, truth was something that could be revealed only by exposing everything that stood in opposition to it.
Why Does the Ugly Human Form Point Toward Truth?
In ‘The Outsider’, considered a masterpiece of 20th-century literary criticism, Colin Wilson assesses that Barbusse was extremely serious about conceptualizing ideas through characters and events, and that his ideal of “seeking truth” was a common trend running through 20th-century literature as a whole. In this regard, Barbusse’s work shares common characteristics with the existentialist literature that emerged later.
Just as Sartre, in ‘Nausea’, described the physiological reaction arising from the monotonous life of a jaded intellectual as “nausea,” I believe that Barbusse’s unflinching portrayal of humanity’s ugliness is not merely intended to denounce human bestial instincts. Rather, a spirit seeking to explore human nature through that ugliness permeates the entire work.
Therefore, what we encounter in ‘Hell’ is not merely the story of a single individual consumed by sexual desire. It encompasses various issues surrounding human existence—life and death, youth and old age, passion and conflict, the yearning for eternity and the anguish that accompanies it, and the will toward and resistance against God.
What struck me most while reading this work was how these philosophical reflections are woven in like poetry, yet simultaneously captivate the reader through bold, unconventional expressions. By laying bare human desire and ugliness without concealment, the work tenaciously delves into the loneliness, futility, and existential questions lying beneath them.
Ultimately, the ugly aspects of humanity depicted in ‘Hell’ serve not so much as a basis for condemning humans, but rather as a starting point for understanding human nature. The protagonist, who seeks to affirm himself through desire only to face emptiness and death once again at the end of that desire, illustrates just how painful the process of giving meaning to one’s existence can be. Life and death, desire and conflict, the yearning for eternity and mental anguish, the will toward God and rebellion against Him—all of these elements collide ceaselessly within a single human consciousness.
In this way, Barbus’s ‘Hell’, which captivates readers with its unconventional expressions while seamlessly weaving philosophical meditations on human existence into poetic prose, is a work well worth reading, as it compels us to reflect on human nature and the meaning of existence.
