A lion hunter
A lion hunter (French original title: Un chasseur de lions ) is a novel by Olivier Rolin , which was published in 2008 by Éditions du Seuil . Based on Édouard Manet's painting The Lion Hunter , the author uses a mixture of facts and fiction to trace various stations in the painter's life and introduces the portrayed Eugène Pertuiset as an adventurer. The action takes place in the 19th century in South America as well as in Paris and the surrounding area. In addition, the author repeatedly makes references to the present.
action
The action begins at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo , where children look at Manet's painting The Lion Hunter . The narrator overhears their conversation. They do not know the painter and are amazed at the strange motif of a kneeling man with a killed lion. In the book, Rolin imaginatively traces the life of the adventurer Eugène Pertuiset depicted in the picture. He not only lets him tell about the lion hunt in North Africa, but also accompanies the boastful soldier of fortune to Peru, where he has an affair with the singer Clochette de Miraflores. Pertusiset tries his hand at an arms dealer in politically troubled times and travels as an explorer to Punta Arenas and Tierra del Fuego . During stays in Paris, Pertuiset meets the painter Édouard Manet. Once, in the 1860s, they tried in vain to find Emperor Napoleon III in the Palais des Tuileries . to hand over a lion skin. In 1881 they meet again and the painting The Lion Hunter is created. Closely interwoven with Pertuiset's experiences, Rolin describes the life and work of Manet and describes Parisian society with its dazzling protagonists. In addition, references to the present are made in the novel from the narrator's point of view.
reception
Ingeborg Waldinger described Rolin's novel Ein Löwenjäger in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as “a dazzling painting of the epoch, a panorama of French culture, society and politics at the end of the 19th century”. At the same time she criticizes the “theatrical self-reflection of the author” in places.
In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Niklas Bender praised the book's “sophistication”. For him it is “a wonderfully entertaining story about pioneering spirit, bragging, art and daydreaming”. For him, Rolin masters "a well-measured interplay of closeness and distance".
expenditure
- Un chasseur de lions , Éditions du Seuil, Paris 2008. ISBN 978-2-02-084649-3 .
- A lion hunter . German translation by Doris Heinemann. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-8270-1051-3 .
- Un cacciatore di leoni , Italian translation by Tommaso Gurrieri, Barbès, Florence 2009, ISBN 978-88-6294-054-2 .
- Um caçador de leões , Portuguese translation by Joana Cabral and Clara Boléo. Sextante Editora, Lisbon 2009, ISBN 978-989-8093-95-0 .