This is not a narrative

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Portrait of Denis Diderot (1767)

This is not a short story (the original title is Ceci n'est pas un conte in French ) is a short story by the French philosopher, encyclopedist and writer Denis Diderot .

General

Together with Madame de La Carlière and Supplément au voyage Bougainville , the story belongs to a three-part group “Moral Stories” that Diderot put together and completed in 1772. "Moral" is to be understood in the language of the 18th century not in the sense of a general moral doctrine, but rather as the "moralistic interest of the author in human characters and their behavior in certain, often moral and casuistic situations of life."

Diderot had informed his friend Melchior Grimm of the conclusion of the three short dialogues in a letter dated September 23, 1772, who included an abridged text in his Correspondance littéraire in 1773 . The story was published in full for the first time in the 1798 edition of Diderot's work edited by Naigeon .

content

The narrative consists of two parts that complement each other, although they are apparently independent of each other: The narrator's thesis “that man and woman are two extremely vicious animals” is exemplified . The protagonists of the first part are fictional people, the participants the second story, among them Diderot himself, are historical.

In the first part the poor but honorable provincial Tanié falls in love with a Parisian courtesan , M me Reymer, who has no shortage of wealthy admirers. She leads him by the lead tape and takes him out as best she can. Financially ruined, he decides to immigrate to the colonies in order to make a fortune. Although he allows her to take a new suitor, he makes her promise not to enter into marriage, but to wait for him. In San Domingo he becomes a successful businessman, he regularly supports her with money and ten years later he returns to Paris as a rich man. In the meantime she herself has managed to amass a considerable fortune with the help of a large number of lovers, which she is hiding from him. The two live together in peace for a while, but the lady constantly complains about her supposedly poor financial situation and urges him to take a lucrative job in St. Petersburg . He realizes that only money plays a role in their relationship: “Since it is gold that you love, gold should be brought to you.” Wistful and full of foreboding, he says goodbye and dies three days after his arrival in St. Petersburg from a fever.

The protagonists of the second story are historical people. Jean-Baptiste Gardeil was a physician, scientist, mathematician and a member of several science academies. His partner and research assistant M lle de la Chaux († 1755) was the first to translate selected texts from David Hume's economic writings into French. Diderot corresponded with her and was involved in the creation and editing of her Hume translation. Antoine Le Camus (1722–1772), the physician, was a medical writer, translator of Greek literature, and well acquainted with Diderot.

M lle de la Chaux is the main character of the tale: she comes from a wealthy and respected family who left her because of her lover Gardeil. She not only supports Gardeil financially and ensures his daily comfort; In order to relieve him of the scientific work, she even learns English, Italian, Greek and Hebrew one after the other. Eventually, she does all of the work for him so he can rest and relax. One day he reveals to her that he is "fed up" with her. To be rejected by her lover, for whom she did everything possible, robs her life of all meaning. In desperation, she turns to the narrator, who witnesses Gardeil's cold-heartedness. She fell ill and the doctor Antoine Le Camus (1722–1772) took care of her with devotion. Le Camus falls in love with his patient. She gradually regained her courage, began to write again, but turned down Le Camus' proposal to marry. Ingrateful and cold, she rejects him because she cannot love him, but still mourns Gardeil. Out of shyness or shame, she fails to accept financial and professional support from M me de Pompadour and ultimately dies impoverished in a Paris attic.

About telling

As in Jacques the Fatalist , a theme of the narrative is the process and the meaning and purpose of the narration itself. A listener is introduced who plays the role of the reader. He interrupts the author with questions to which the narrator may react insulted, he incites him to finally begin, while the narrator stimulates his curiosity to the best of his ability and at the same time uses all kinds of pretexts and tricks to distract the listener and put him under the torture. The progress of the story is commented on by the narrator and the listener, who also have different prior knowledge of the events in question. The listener is one of Tanié's successors as a lover of M me Reymer, and she also relieved him of a fortune. Here it is not the narrator who has the complete overview of the story, but in reverse traditional roles, the role of the omniscient falls to the listener.

Text output

  • This is not a narrative. Transferred by Raimund Rütten. In: Diderot: The complete narrative work . Edited by Hans Hinterhäuser. Vol. 4. 1987, ISBN 3-548-37145-0 , pp. 131-151.
  • Full text of the Diderot edition. Œuvres complètes . Ed. Jules Assezat. Vol. 2. Paris 1985-77. [1]

literature

  • Hans Hinterhäuser: Diderot as the narrator . Epilogue in: Diderot: The complete narrative work. Vol. 4. Frankfurt 1987.
  • Birgit Trummeter: The powerlessness. Staging a phenomenon of corporeality in 18th century French literature . Dissertation Mannheim 1999. (MATEO Monographien. 9.), ISBN 3-932178-12-2 , pp. 184-193.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hinterhäuser 1987. p. 238.
  2. ↑ Diderot. The complete narrative work . Vol. 4. Berlin 1987. p. 123.
  3. ↑ Diderot. The complete narrative work . Vol. 4. Berlin 1987. p. 138.
  4. ↑ Laurence L. Bongie: Retour à Mademoiselle de la Chaux, ou il Faut-encore marcher sur des œufs? Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie Année 1989 Volume 6 Numéro 6 pp. 62–104
  5. ↑ Hume: Of Commerce ; Of Luxury ; Of Money , Amsterdam, 1752, 1753; Denis Diderot. This is not a Story Original French title: Ceci n'est pas un conte The European Graduate School, accessed on May 10, 2019