The Venus of Ille

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The Venus von Ille is a novella by the French writer Prosper Mérimée , which was written in 1835 and was published in the magazine “ Revue des Deux Mondes ” on May 15, 1837 under the title “La Vénus d'Ille” .

action

The first-person narrator, an archaeologist from Paris, climbs the Pic du Canigou in the eastern Pyrenees . Before returning home, he is invited to a wedding celebration by the landowner Monsieur de Peyrehorade in the nearby French community of Ille-sur-Têt . Peyrehorade's son Alphonse is going to marry 18-year-old Mademoiselle de Puygarrig from the neighborhood. The groom's father leads the guest from Paris through his property. Very close to the mansion, next to a ball court, there is a statue of a bronze Venus .

This relic from the Roman era of Roussillon does not bring luck to the owner interested in art. When the “idol” was dug up next to the root of an old olive tree on the Peyrehorades site, one of the working men was shattered by the statue that fell again.

From his room in the manor house, the archaeologist observes at night before bedtime how a young Catalan throws a stone at Venus. The cursing lad is hit by his rebounding missile shortly afterwards. The next morning the wedding guest from Paris takes another close look at Venus and notices something like the expression of subtle mockery in the “incredibly beautiful face”; even cruelty. Hellish mockery speaks from the "silver inlaid, glistening eyes".

The young groom Alphonse is out for the bride's dowry. Already dressed for the upcoming wedding, Alphonse is playing a game of ball against muleteers from Aragon shortly before the carriage ride to the bride . The cursed diamond ring Alphonse wants to give the bride is pressing. He puts it on Venus' finger, wins, and there is a dispute with the captain of the proud Aragonese. Alphonse goes to the wedding but has forgotten the ring. The bride receives the ring from a Parisian cleaning lady. When Alphonse later returns home with his wife, he wants to remove the ring from the statue. Venus suddenly holds the bronze ring finger curved. Desperate, Alphonse asks the archaeologist for help; says the statue would not give the ring because it sees itself as Alphonses' wife. The archaeologist gets goose bumps and does not respond to the request for help.

The accident happened the following night. In short, Venus must have stepped off the pedestal, entered the bridal chamber and embraced Alphonse in it. The vigorous man did not survive the bruises around his chest. His young wife had apparently gone insane while the husband who had only been married the day before had been crushed next to her. The prosecutor from Perpignan has to release the suspected Aragonese captain for lack of evidence. The diamond ring was found in the bridal chamber. Venus is back down on its pedestal in the garden without a ring.

The archaeologist travels back to Paris. Alphonses father dies months later. The unlucky Venus is melted into a church bell at the instigation of Alphonses mother. Since the bell has been ringing over Ille, the vines have frozen twice by the end of the narration.

shape

Even the small things in the construction plan of the master's novella are correct. All possible horror elements are cleverly set inconspicuously. The narrative archaeologist is not an eyewitness to the nightly killing of Alphonses. He only hears the trampling on the stairs and hallways of the manor house. The Perpignan law enforcement officer did not find a perpetrator. He doesn't even have a suspect. The superstitious mother of the dead believes she knows who the perpetrator was. That's why she melts the statue down. On to the horror elements: Mérimée does everything so that not only the archaeologist gets goose bumps. The prosecutor tells the archaeologist the account of the terrible incident from the mouth of a young woman who has just gone mad. This former Mademoiselle de Puygarrig is described as "gorgeous". "Her kind face, which is not entirely devoid of a hint of malice," reminds the narrator of Venus down on the lawn. But the reader, who has been attuned to horror, can soon not imagine the new, tender, young wife as the perpetrator. Because Alphonse is introduced in his mid-twenties with “swollen body shapes” and “expressionless facial features”. The reader cannot find anything likeable about Alphonse at all. On the contrary, he has to agree with the narrator when the latter regrets that Mademoiselle de Puygarrig, the “pure young girl”, will be “exposed to a rough drunkard after the wedding”.

The playful use of Latin is also noticeable. For example, before the horror plot outlined above gets going, Monsieur de Peyrehorade and his guest make some more or less witty attempts to translate CAVE AMANTEM, an inscription on the base of the statue. The archaeologist suspects: "Mistrust the lovers!"

reception

  • Details on the sources et cetera can be found in Görner. The monument protector Mérimée also found what he was looking for in the history of the statue from the medieval chronicler Malmesbury .

Media adaptations

Opera

Movie

radio play

watch TV

  • 1962: "La Vénus d'Ille". Direction and script: Michel Babut du Marès. With Michel Baron, Nadine Forster and D. Laurence.
  • 1979, Italy: "La Venere d'Ille". Directed by Mario Bava and Lamberto Bava . With Daria Nicolodi , Marc Porel and Fausto Di Bella .
  • 1980, France: "La Vénus d'Ille". Director: Robert Réa, screenplay: Jean-Jacques Bernard. With François Marthouret , Jean-Pierre Bacri and Yves Favier.
  • 2012: “La Vénus d'Ille”. Direction and screenplay: Keren Eisenzweig. With Ruby Antebi, Liliana Aslanidou and Noé Chapolard.

German editions

  • Otto Görner (Ed.): Die Venus von Ille , pp. 273–309 (translator: Arthur Schurig (1870–1929)) in Prosper Mérimée: Carmen and other short stories . H. Fikentscher-Verlag, Leipzig 1932 in the Hafis reading library. 317 pages

Used edition

Web links

Individual evidence

Partly in English and French

  1. ↑ a b Görner, p. 274.
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 324, 6. Zvo
  3. ↑ Görner, p. 314, last entry
  4. ↑ The Venus in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  5. ↑ La Vénus d'Ille in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  6. ^ French La Venere d'Ille
  7. ↑ La Venere d'Ille in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  8. ↑ La Vénus d'Ille in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  9. ↑ La Vénus d'Ille in the Internet Movie Database (English)