Malevil

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Robert Merle (1964)

Malevil (also Malevil or the bomb has fallen ) is the title of a novel by the French writer Robert Merle . The book deals with the topic of nuclear war and survival in a post-apocalyptic world.

The first German edition was published in 1975 by Aufbau-Verlag with a translation from the French by Eduard Zak and an afterword by the Romanist Hans-Otto Dill .

action

The protagonist and narrator of the book is the French farmer Emmanuel Comte, who lives in Malevil Castle in southwestern France. Emmanuel reports from the first-person perspective, at the end of a chapter there are more or less long insertions from his friend Thomas, who also presents his opinion on the events from the first-person perspective, which is often in contrast to that of Emmanuel.

While Comte draws his wine in the wine cellar and talks to his friends Meyssonnier, Peyssou, Colin and Thomas as well as his housekeeper Menou and their son Momo about the upcoming mayoral election in Malejac - they want to overthrow the current mayor together - they feel the effects of one sudden great heat. It quickly turns out that Comte and his friends survived a nuclear attack only because of the protected location of the castle. While they realize that the entire surrounding area with all people and animals has been largely destroyed, Comte and his companions begin with the reconstruction and life in a now "primitive" world again. With his almost Machiavellian "politics", Comte manages to unite the companions and swear them to survival. He manipulates the individual members of the community again and again extremely skillfully in the interests of the group.

They soon discover that there are more survivors. The residents of a nearby farm are trying to steal a horse. While Peyssou plows the field, he is knocked down. Emmanuel and Thomas follow the trail of the draft horse to the courtyard of the "cavemen", a family of lonely farmers who have their house in a natural cave. Both are ambushed and are shot at by an archer. After a short firefight, the supposed shooter surrenders. However, Emmanuel is suspicious; after a brief interrogation, Jaquet the shooter admits to being a diversionary maneuver. While he occupies the two of them, his father tries to bypass them and attack them from behind. Emmanuel anticipates this and shoots the father. Jaquet, who was forced by his father to steal the horse, is said to be held temporarily in Malevil as a punishment. For this reason, his stepsister Miette and her grandmother, the Falvine, also move to the castle. With Miette as the only woman a "polygamy" begins, in which the mute Miette alternately sleeps with all the men.

Distribution battles with marauding looters for the remaining resources soon begin. Momo is killed when completely neglected and starved nomads devastate the grain field. Angry, the rest of the group open fire and kill the looters. The group takes this as an opportunity to improve their defense by building a palisade in front of the castle wall and raising the castle wall. On the other hand, Emmanuel is given full command in times of war. Otherwise, all decisions should be made democratically.

In the neighboring town of La Roque, the alleged priest Fulbert has set up dictatorship-like conditions and suppresses the local population. Miette's sister Catie and Eveline, an orphan girl, leave La Roque and also integrate into the Malevil community. Fulbert tries to control the community in Malevil by sending a priest he has ordained. In order to prevent this, Emmanuel allows himself to be elected clergyman of Malevil and rejects Fulbert.

After a short time, Emmanuel decides to chase Fulbert out of the city in order to give the citizens their freedom back. The night before the attack, two men tried to climb over the palisade. However, a night watch has been set up in a hidden bunker. One of the attackers is killed, the other captured. By interrogating him, the community learns that a brutal band of robbers has set up in the city, apparently with the toleration and active help of Fulbert. Her prisoner, forcibly recruited by the bandits, wants to join the community with a friend the next night; that works too. The bandits attack the next night. Despite the superior strength of the attackers armed with a bazooka, the first attack was repulsed. When the bandits withdraw, part of the community rides a forest path to a narrow road and takes the fleeing bandits into the crossfire. The ambush succeeds, all but two of the bandits are killed.

Emmanuel is escorted into the city as the alleged prisoner of the defected former bandits. Fulbert is told that the bandit leader will follow suit and that Emmanuel should be sentenced. Fulbert sentenced Emmanuel to death in the presence of all townspeople. When it becomes clear that Emmanuel is the winner of the battle, Fulbert is killed by the vengeful townspeople.

In the epilogue the death of Emmanuel, who dies of appendicitis, is reported.

Trivia

  • Before he became a horse breeder, Emmanuel Comte was a teacher - just like Robert Merle himself.
  • His friend Meyssonnier also has a parallel to Merle. He is a member of the French Communist Party, as Merle was (temporarily).
  • “The Falvine” is the sister of the shoemaker from La Roque, Marcel Falvine. Menou is in turn the cousin of Marcel and thus also of the Falvine. This fact is mentioned with the comment “it will have to be clarified why the two cousins ​​did not know each other”. However, this riddle is not resolved throughout the book. Nor does one learn the first name of the Falvine.
  • You could think that the name is made up of “mal” (French for bad ) and “evil” (English for bad ). However, "Maleville" is also a French family name. Although Malevil is an imaginary name and the castle is just as fictional, the description of the castle's surroundings is not entirely out of thin air:
    • Fulbert pretends to have attended the seminary in Cahors , which corresponds to the situation in southwestern France.
    • Towns with names like La Roque are common in south and south-west France. The place names then refer to a location on or on a rock. In addition to more well-known places such as Rocamadour or Roquefort , reference is made in particular to the compilation under La Roque .
    • A place called Malejac does not exist in France. However, names ending with -ac are very common in south-west France.

reception

Malevil won the prestigious John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1974 .

filming

The book was in 1981 under the direction of de Christian Chalonge with Michel Serrault , Jacques Dutronc , Hanns Zischler and Jean-Louis Trintignant in the lead roles filmed .

literature

plant

  • Robert Merle: Malevil. Editions Gallimard , Paris 1972
  • Robert Merle: Malevil. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin and Weimar 1975

further reading

  • Peter Kuon : Apocalypse and Adventure. To trivialization apocalyptic speech in Robert Merle's novel Malevil or the bomb fell (1972) , in: Gunter E. Grimm / Werner Faulstich / Peter Kuon (ed.), Apocalypse. Doomsday visions in 20th century literature. Suhrkamp Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-518-38567-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ times - Wiktionnaire. Retrieved June 10, 2018 (French).
  2. ↑ evil - Wiktionary. Retrieved June 10, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Maleville: origin of the name Maleville, family name Maleville, genealogy Maleville. Retrieved June 10, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Maleville: Address et numéro de téléphone - PagesBlanches. Retrieved June 10, 2018 (French).
  5. ^ Malevil Award Annals Database. Retrieved December 25, 2009 .
  6. ↑ Malevil (1981) on imdb.com. Retrieved December 25, 2009 .