“Bernard-Henri Lévy’s Brexit Lament”

By Bryan Appleyard

Published on Sunday, May 20, 2018

France’s pre-eminent thinker; Bernard-Henri Lévy, says Britain is both the brain and beating heart of Europe; quitting would be such a catastrophe for all, he has written a play to persuade us to stop.

« […] Now his play – Last Exit before Brexit – is his attempt to make us change our minds. »

« […] The speech is hauted by real imagined charachters. So he dreams of a perferct cabinet — Michel Houellebecq, the notorious French noveliste, would be, for some reason, minister for animal welfare. Minister of religion would be the militant atheist Christopher Hitchens who was, in a way, the one British public intellectual with the scope, chutzpah and style of Lévy. » « […] There is a greatness about Lévy, a certain French glory. His liberal fervour is mesmeric and genuine; he wants you to be engagead and you have to be at your best either to agree or desagree. He is also physically courageous, an English adventurer, a political romantic. »