Madame Thérèse

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Madame Thérèse is a historical novel by the French authors Erckmann-Chatrian from 1863.

content

Plot and people

An episode from the First Coalition War (1792–1797) is described. A detachment of French revolutionary troops and a detachment of Austrian troops collide in Instead of . The French troops are defeated, have to withdraw and leave many dead. The philanthropic doctor Jakob Wagner saves the severely wounded, already dead prestigious Madame Thérèse, a sutler of the French. She is hidden in the doctor's house and nursed back to health. Wagner is therefore denounced as a Jacobin by the Prussian authorities in Kaiserslautern . However, he is warned by a friend and, faced with the threat of arrest by Prussian troops, he secretly takes Thérèse and himself to safety in the camp of the French general Hoche near Pirmasens . He first worked in Weißenburg / Wissembourg as an ambulance doctor in the medical service of the revolutionary troops and after the final victory of the French over the Allied German troops under Field Marshal von Wurmser , he returned to Frœschwiller's home with Madame Thérèse on December 22, 1793 . This has not only won him over for her liberal and republican ideas, but has also won his heart.

worldview

Erckmann was inspired to write this novel by stories his father and his friends told about the "Frenchization" of the former Nassau exclave in Lorraine around the towns of Lixheim and Fénétrange / Finstingen . The action does not take place in Lorraine, but in the small Palatinate village of Anstatt "in the German Vosges". The real model of the place is possibly Annweiler am Trifels , the location Anstatt is given: 7 miles from Kaiserslautern , 8 miles from Pirmasens and 5 miles from Landau. The historical model for the military events is possibly the events around the battle of Kaiserslautern from November 28th to 30th, 1793. The authors describe the peaceful village life in detail and just as realistically as the war broke into this idyll, the revolutionary, later The enthusiasm of the poorly armed but heroic French revolutionary troops, the warlike confusion and the impression that the whole thing makes on the ten-year-old narrator.

Madame Thérèse is portrayed as a republican and a foreigner (black-haired, elegant and of fine character compared to the predominantly blond and well-fed Palatinate villagers). She symbolizes her fatherland France and, as the daughter of a French village school teacher, can teach little Fritzel and, last but not least, convince Doctor Wagner of the ideals of the French Revolution (and thus Erckmann-Chatrians).

shape

The narrator is Wagner's 10-year-old nephew, little Fritzel . It is more of a longer narrative than a novel with a series of detailed conversations and discussions, which, however, illustrate the progress of the event graphically and in simple words.

Position in literary history

Erckmann-Chatrian monument in Phalsbourg

Madame Thérèse is one of the most successful of the series of Romans nationaux by the French author couple. With this series of novels, the authors documented a century of French history from 1775 to 1875. Both of them knew numerous veterans of the Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars from their families and their circle of friends, and the two authors drew the material for their historical from the memories and stories of these farmers and craftsmen Stories and novels. Against the contemporary French feuilleton novel, in which history was only used as a source of exciting anecdotes and interesting personalities, and against the claim of the Second Empire under Napoleon III to have ended the age of revolutions, Erckmann-Chatrian wanted the ongoing political and social Clarify the significance of the events at the beginning of the 19th century.

reception

Madame Thérèse first appeared between June 9 and July 4, 1863 in 15 episodes in the features section of the renowned Parisian newspaper Journal des Débats . In the same year, the novel was published as a book by Pierre-Jules Hetzel because of its great success . Between 1864 and 1881 it experienced 13 new editions.

In 1882 Madame Thérèse became. Pièce historique et militaire en 5 actes, arranged by Alexandre Chatrian, premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris .

A scene from Madame Thérèse is recorded on the bronze relief on the base of the Erckmann-Chatrian monument in Phalsbourg : the heroine walks in front of the tricolor with her youngest brother, the drummer Jean, towards her commission. Half concealed by the folds of her waving robe, little Fritzel, the story teller, looks out.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ s. P. 33 in Madame Thérèse. Novel. Manesse, Zurich 1997
  2. ↑ Georges Benoit-Guyod: La vie et l'œuvre d'Erckmann-Chatrian , pp. 109–111 in Jean-Jacques Pauvert (ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian, Contes et romans nationaux et populaires, Volume XIV. Pauvert & Hachette , Paris 1962
  3. ↑ Angels Santa: Images de la féminité dans Madame Thérèse. Pp. 29–36 in Noëlle Benhamou (ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian . Le Rocambole. Bulletin des Amis du Roman Populaire, issue 47 (summer 2009)
  4. ^ Nelda Michel: Afterword p. 348 in Madame Thérèse. Novel. Manesse, Zurich 1997
  5. ↑ Georges Benoit-Guyod: La vie et l'œuvre d'Erckmann-Chatrian , p. 373 in Jean-Jacques Pauvert (ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian, Contes et romans nationaux et populaires, Volume XIV. Pauvert & Hachette, Paris 1963
  6. ↑ Georges Benoit-Guyod: La vie et l'œuvre d'Erckmann-Chatrian , p. 209 in Jean-Jacques Pauvert (ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian, Contes et romans nationaux et populaires, Volume XIV. Pauvert & Hachette, Paris 1963
  7. ^ Nelda Michel: Afterword p. 346 in Madame Thérèse. Novel. Manesse, Zurich 1997

literature

Text output

  • Madame Thérèse. Novel. Hetzel, Paris 1863 (French original edition)
  • Madame Thérèse. Novel. Manesse, Zurich 1997. ISBN 978-3717511199 (German edition)

Secondary literature

  • Georges Benoit-Guyod: La vie et l'œuvre d'Erckmann-Chatrian , in Jean-Jacques Pauvert (ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian, Contes et romans nationaux et populaires , Volume XIV. Pauvert & Hachette, Paris 1963 (new edition at Editions Serpenoise 1987. ISBN 2-87697-001-5 )
  • Nelda Michel: Afterword pp. 335–352 in Madame Thérèse. Novel. Manesse, Zurich 1997. ISBN 978-3717511199 (German edition)
  • Noëlle Benhamou (ed.): Erckmann-Chatrian . Le Rocambole. Bulletin des Amis du Roman Populaire, issue 47 (summer 2009). ISSN  0765-0507 or ISSN  1253-5885 (in French)