Knighthood Not in Flower

THE WHITE CHARGER (345 pp.)--Elsa Triolet--Rinehart ($3).

Elsa Triolet is the wife of Poet Louis Aragon, one of whose recent volumes was named The Eyes of Elsa. In 1944, she won France's Prix Goncourt with her short stories; but readers are not likely to find her new book a prizewinner.

The White Charger is a novel about Michel, an illegitimate son. Father spends most of his time at sea, mother spends most of hers smoking opium, so Michel soon learns to look after himself. He grows into a talented pianist and crooner --but so indifferent to the life of post-World War I that he scarcely bothers to sing for his supper. Women--princesses, chambermaids, davies, chorines--are all bowled over by Michel's fascinating indifference. At 25, Michel is the western world's most bored Casanova, married to an aging American moneybag and hopelessly in love with a frigid Swede.

Mme. Aragon tries earnestly to explain that Michel's gigolory results from his being at heart a frustrated knight-errant in today's ignoble world. She redeems his calloused soul by making him die nobly in World War II. But three-fourths of The White Charger is simply a listing of Michel's tedious romantic conquests. Only the most dogged reader will remember, by the end, just what made Elisabeth different from Mary, or from Marjorie, and Riri, and Gisele, and Irene, and Francine, and Nicole, and Mariana, and Lu-cette, and Lily--to mention only a few.

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