[The] situation which Miss Marguerite Yourcenar has attempted to delineate, [in Coup de Grace] …, is a strange triangle formed by Erick, Sophie, who is in love with Erick, and Conrad, to whom Erick has been strongly devoted since they were young boys together. During this trio's stay at the estate, Erick encourages Sophie's admiration, although he is clearly and consciously a misogynist.

Sophie, who does not understand the futility of her love until it is too late, is the most clearly drawn of the personages in the story, and her terrible devotion provides a direct dramatic line—a line very strong and sure—a line that the reader wants to follow; it gives, in the end, some shape and finality to the story. "One is always trapped…." Miss Yourcenar has provided a deft sketch of a particular feminine quality, a kind of gentle but relentless arrogance. (p. 574)

One's first assumption might be that the "principal character" is Erick, the narrator, but I am willing to guess that the novelist's source was "Sophie"—her death in the story being one of those notes of completeness, of aesthetic inevitability, which real life generally does not provide. Whether or not this conjecture is correct, it gives, I think, some notion of the novel's peculiar proportions of dimness and clarity. (p. 575)