The foam of the days (novel)
The foam of the days , also the spray of the days (original title: L'Écume des jours ) is a novel by the French author Boris Vian . It was submitted for a literary prize in 1946, rejected there, thenreprintedin excerpts in Sartre's Les Temps Modernes and published in 1947. It tells the story of a love that ends sadly due to an illness in a fantastic and absurd, imaginative world.
The novel, unsuccessful at the time of its publication, despite the efforts of famous authors such as Jean-Paul Sartre (who is murdered as “Jean-Sol Partre” in the novel) and Raymond Queneau , author of Zazie dans le métro , has now achieved cult status. It is 10th on Le Monde's list of 100 books of the century , has been filmed three times and also served as the basis for an opera. The story itself is loosely based on the novel Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque .
action
In a surreal world in which animals, plants and inanimate objects reflect human emotions, the novel begins by describing Colin, a wealthy 22-year-old man, combing the silky mass of his hair with an amber comb. In addition to his wealth, Colin has a dandy chef named Nicolas and a friend Chick, who is an engineer but is still poor. Despite his luxurious lifestyle, what Colin lacks is a girlfriend, and so he initially envies Chick, who one day meets the lovable Alise. But at a cocktail party he falls head over heels in love with the intoxicatingly beautiful Chloé, who bears the same name as his favorite Duke Ellington recording and whom he marries almost immediately in a grandiose ceremony. In love and generously, he gives his friends Chick and Alise a quarter of his fortune so that they too can get married. One expects great luck. But on the honeymoon, Chloé falls ill; a water lily grows in its lungs. This painful illness can only be relieved by flowers, and Colin quickly ruins himself in an attempt to save his beloved. Chick, fascinated by the philosopher Jean-Sol Partre, now spends all of his money on his idol's literature; Alise wants to save him and their relationship by asking Partre to stop publishing books. When he refuses, she kills him and begins a vengeance against the booksellers. Despite Colin's efforts, Chloé eventually dies; the world falls into darkness.
expenditure
- The spray of the days. New transl. and Nachw. Frank Heibert . Wagenbach-Verlag , Berlin 2017
- The foam of days, novel. Translated by Antje Pehnt. Suhrkamp, 1977; Two thousand and one , 1981 and others; again, through. by Klaus Völker : Wagenbach, 1994 u.ö .; again Karl Rauch Verlag , Düsseldorf 2016
- Chloé. Novel. Translated by Antje Pehnt. Karl Rauch, 1964
Film adaptations
- The first film was made in France in 1968; Directed by Charles Belmont, Jacques Perrin , Marie-France Pisier , Sami Frey , Alexandra Stewart and Bernard Fresson played .
- In 2001 the novel served as a template for the Japanese film Kuroe ( Chloe ). It was directed by Go Riju and played by Nagase Masatoshi .
- In 2013, Michel Gondry directed the remake of the novel entitled The Foam of the Days ( L'Écume des jours ) with Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris .
Opera
- The Russian composer Edisson Denissow created an opera from the novel in 1981: L'écume des jours .
Individual evidence
- ↑ S. Benedict-Rux: The foam of the days - a surrealist novel. In: Literatur Blog , October 26, 2013, accessed May 20, 2016.
- ↑ Volker Hagedorn: Sartre and the house mouse - Edison Denisov's opera “The Foam of Days” based on Boris Vian is being rehabilitated in Stuttgart. In: Die Zeit , December 6, 2012, accessed on May 20, 2016.
- ↑ David Stratton: Chloe . In: Variety . February 13, 2001. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
- ^ Fabien Lemercier: Cameras rolling on Michel Gondry's Mood Indigo . In: cineuropa.org . Cine Europe. April 10, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2012.