The roast kitchen for Queen Pedauque

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The roast kitchen for Queen Pedauque ( French La Rôtisserie de la reine Pédauque ) is a historical novel by the French author Anatole France published in 1892 . The novel pretends to be an 18th century manuscript entitled "The life and opinions of the Abbé Hieronymus Coignard" , in which Jacques Menetrier, son of the owner of the frying kitchen to Queen Pedauque in Paris , reports the adventures he had with his honored teacher, the Abbé Coignard.

action

The life of young Jacques, who turns the spit in his father's cookshop and whose education is entrusted to an ignorant and superstitious Capuchin , takes a decisive turn when one day Jérôme Coignard, an Abbé , for whom his love of wine and women have a promising career had thwarted, entered the restaurant when the Capuchin was arrested for a scuffle. From then on, Coignard was responsible for bringing up the boy and was fed by Jacques' parents in return.

Jacques, who is called "Tournebroche" (skewer) by his teacher, has matured into a humanistically educated young man when he and Coignard meet a gentleman from Astarac who deals with alchemy and magic . Even if the rationalist Coignard thinks little of these activities, he accepts the offer to move into Astarac's castle with Jacques, because the work on the translation of a text by Zosimos from Panopolis gives him the opportunity to work in the excellently equipped library of his new patron third love of his life, which is to indulge in books.

Soon the master of Astarac tries to persuade Jacques to enter into intimate relations with female salamanders ; However, this is far more drawn to earthly women, and so he begins an affair with Jahel, who lives secluded with her uncle, the old Jew Mosaïdes, in a garden house in the palace gardens. Mosaïdes is of Astarac as Kabbalist revered, but in reality is a violent character, which the jealous cousin killed by Jahel.

The idyll comes to an abrupt end when Jacques and the Abbé meet the young noble Lord von Anquetil on a night outing and get into a scuffle with him, which means that the three of them have to flee from the police. At first they are hiding in Astarac's castle. Jahel now turns her favor to Anquetil and joins them as they leave Paris in a carriage . On the way to Lyon they soon have the impression that they are being followed; and indeed Astarac and Mosaïdes have set out on their trail. Between Tournus and Mâcon , the carriage crashed on the road that runs along the banks of the Saône . Coignard is seriously injured with a stabbing weapon in the dark; While Astarac, who arrived soon after, attributes this act to the work of the sylphs , who would have avenged themselves on Coignard for betraying their secrets, everyone else is convinced that Mosaïdes committed this act because he mistakenly believed the Abbé to be his niece's lover .

Coignard is taken to a nearby village and dies a few days later, keeping his philosophical composure to the end. Jacques returns to Paris, where he soon takes over a bookstore .

Position in literary history

Anatole France uses elements of both the philosophical and the picaresque novels of the 18th century and particularly in the linguistic design brings this age to life. The contrast between the esotericism of Astarac and the skepticism of Coignard is not limited to that historical epoch alone, but also reflects contemporary tendencies, e.g. B. the symbolism of a Stéphane Mallarmé , for whom France did not have too much understanding.

The novel is still one of the author's most popular works and is considered "one of the most cheerful books in French literature". The success that France had with his figure of Abbé Coignard prompted him to use it in satirical articles that appeared in book form that same year under the title Les opinions de Jérôme Coignard (German title Useful and edifying opinions of Mr Abbé Jérôme Coignard ).

expenditure

German
  • The roast kitchen to the queen goose foot. Translated by Paul Wiegler. Piper, Munich 1907
  • Useful and edifying opinions of Abbé Jérôme Coignard, collected by his student Jacques Tournebroche. Translated by Friedrich v. Opole-Bronikowski. 2nd Edition. Georg Müller, Munich 1912
  • The roast kitchen for Queen Pedauque. Translated by Paul Wiegler. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1952; Goldmann, Munich 1967; Piper, Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-10729-X
  • The roast kitchen to Queen Pédauque / The opinions of Mr. Jérôme Coignard. Translated by Heide Kirmsse. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin / Weimar 1982

filming

  • La Rôtisserie de la Pure Pédauque. Movie made for TV by Jean-Paul Carrère, 1975

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Kindler's new literary dictionary . Volume 5, p. 753
  2. ↑ La Rôtisserie de la reine Pédauque in the Internet Movie Database (English)