The deed of Thérèse Desqueyroux
The deed of Thérèse Desqueyroux (original title: Thérèse Desqueyroux ( teʁɛz deskeʁuː )) is a novel by the French writer and Nobel Prize winner for literature François Mauriac from 1927.
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The novel is set in Landes de Gascogne , a sparsely populated area in southwest France, which is largely covered with pine forests. At the beginning of the novel, a trial is dismissed. The narrator, Thérèse, was charged with attempted murder using an overdose of Fowler's solutionindicted on her husband Bernard. Despite solid evidence against her, including her counterfeit prescriptions, the case was closed. The family tried successfully to prevent a scandal and even her husband Bernard testified of their innocence. On the journey home, Thérèse reflects on her life so far in detail. She had seen her husband accidentally overdose. She tries to understand what made her finally poison her husband. She suggests that her actions stem from the continuous rise in social pressures. This was brought about by motherhood, marriage and the crushing life of a Catholic landowner's wife in rural France in the 1920s. Neither Thérèse nor the narrator give an explanation for their behavior.
Thérèse assumes that she will be able to leave her husband. Instead, Bernard tells her that she will live in the family house in a remote location in a pine forest in Argelouse . He isolates her there and states that she is suffering from nervous disorders. He shows up with her in public occasionally to avoid any gossip. His concern is that a scandal will prevent his younger sister Anne's upcoming wedding to a family-approved candidate. He allows Thérèse no other company than disagreeable servants and keeps her daughter away from her. If she doesn't cooperate, he threatens to send her to prison for the poisoning. Thérèse lives mainly on wine and cigarettes and falls into a kind of passive daze. When she is invited to a dinner party for Anne, her fiancé, and his family, she appears there. Her emaciated appearance frightens the guests. Bernard realizes that the scandal will never be completely forgotten unless Thérèse disappears without further ado. He promises her that she can go to Anne's wedding and moves in with her in Argelouse. Allegedly he wants to monitor her recovery there. After Anne's wedding, he takes Thérèse to Paris. There he says goodbye to her. There will be no official separation or divorce. She has his permission to go on living her life. She can go.
analysis
The book is characterized by some unusual structural features. A long inner monologue often changes perspective and reveals the thoughts of several characters. The vast majority of the characters in the book are portrayed as pretty uncomfortable people. Thérèses father turns out to be a callous misogynist who is more concerned with protecting his political career than caring for his daughter. Bernard is portrayed as an emotionally inaccessible man who lives solely to hunt and is obsessed with the needs of his family. As in many of Mauriac's works, physical imperfection also means moral misery. Most of the characters have some kind of physical flaw. Descriptions such as "hard black nails", "short arched legs" and "fat little hippolitus" outline various male characters within the first chapters.
Thérèse herself is proud of her intelligence and her self-confident wisdom. She seems an unrequited crush to have Anne for her former childhood friend and sister in law. She once destroyed a love letter from Anne to a local Jewish man. Critics have suggested this may have to do with Mauriac's own struggles with his sexuality.
Mauriac commented on the structure of the novel in an interview with The Paris Review in 1953. Mauriac: "... in Thérèse Desqueyroux, I used some methods that came from the silent films: lack of preparation, sudden opening, flashbacks. They were new methods , that was new and surprising at the time. "
continuation
The character of Thérèse can be found in other works by Mauriac, including The End of the Night , Thérèse and the Doctor and Thérèse in the Hotel .
inspiration
In 1925, Mauriac asked his brother Pierre for documents about the 1906 trial of Madame Canaby in Bordeaux, which had attempted to poison her husband. In the case of the attempted murder, she was acquitted, but convicted of forging documents and prescriptions.
Literary meaning and reception
The novel is Mauriac's best-known work and was described as "outstanding" in the biography that accompanied his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1952. On June 3, 1950, Le Figaro awarded the "Grand Prix des meilleurs romans du demi-siècle", a prestigious literary competition in which the twelve best French novels of the first half of the 20th century were awarded. The nominations were judged by a prestigious French literary jury chaired by Colette , and the winners were published in a specially illustrated collection the following year. In 1999 the novel was voted one of the 100 best French works of the 20th century for the 35th time.
Mauriac also got negative reviews. In 1939 Jean-Paul Sartre accused him of denying his characters free will and, like a god, imposing their fates and moral judgments on them. He cited the figure of Thérèse Desqueyroux as an example . Shortly beforehand, Mauriac had published The End of the Night and declared in his foreword that he wanted to "save" Thérèse. This prompted Sartre to criticize.
Film adaptations
Thérèse Desqueyroux
The novel was in 1962 by Georges Franju as the act of Therese D. filmed. Emmanuelle Riva took on the role of Thérèse.
Directed by Claude Miller with Audrey Tautou in the lead role, the novel was remade under the title Thérèse . Shooting began in 2010. It premiered in 2012 at the Cannes Film Festival .
La fin de la nuit
In 1966 Emmanuelle Riva played the role in the television film La fin de la nuit , directed by Albert Riéra again. The remake took place in 2015 under the direction of Lucas Belvaux . This time Nicole Garcia took on the role of Thérèse.
Web links
- François Mauriac in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ François Mauriac, The Art of Fiction No. 2 , Interview in The Paris Review, March 1953. Retrieved February 13, 2019. (English)
- ^ The Law Courts of Bordeaux (1846) Description on page idhbb.org. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
- ↑ Thérèse Desqueyroux ou l'itinéraire d'une femme libre article on etudes-litteraires.com. Retrieved February 13, 2019 (French)
- ^ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature 1952 on nobelprize.org. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
- ^ Sartre, J.-P., "M. François Mauriac et la liberté", Nouvelle revue Française , February 1939.
- ↑ The act of Therese D. . Movie description on IMDb . Retrieved February 13, 2019.
- ↑ Thérèse . Movie description on IMDb. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
- ↑ Audrey Tautou sera Thérèse B. pour Claude Miller ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Shooting announcement from May 14, 2010 on cinemovies.fr. Retrieved February 13, 2019 (French)
- ↑ La fin de la nuit (1966) . Movie description on IMDb. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
- ↑ La fin de la nuit (2015) . Movie description on IMDb. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
