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Books: Ordeal by Hippogriff

THE GIRLS by Henry de Montherlant, translated by Terence Kilmartin. 639 pages. Harper & Row. $8.95.

It was much easier for M. De Montherlant to think himself a hero when he faced women (and women chosen for his purpose) than when he was obliged to act the man among men—something many women have done better than he, for that matter. —De Beauvoir, The Second Sex

These are harsh words. But Mile, de Beauvoir's view of The Girls and its author is mild compared with the portrait of womankind sketched by Henry de Montherlant in...

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