Marguerite Yourcenar's Alchemy

Like her monumental 'Mémoires d'Hadrien' of 1951, Marguerite Yourcenar's novel, 'L'Œuvre au Noir', published in France in the tumultuous year of 1968, has had its champions from the start. Among them were the jurists of the Femina Prize who that year, for the first time since the inception of the prize in 1904, were unanimous in bestowing their award on this author. Not every critic was persuaded, however. One of the more notable criticisms to appear in the aftermath of publication hinged upon what the critic in question - R.-M. Albérès - saw as Yourcenar's failure to treat a theme alluded to from the very outset. If the title of the novel refers to the 'nigredo' or first stage in the alchemical process, why then, he asked, does the work not deal with alchemy? Why give a title with an alchemical meaning to a novel in which there is "ni fabrication de l'or, ni épuration de l'âme"?