Weekend in Zuidcoote

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Merle (1964)

Weekend in Zuidcoote ( French : Week-end à Zuydcoote ) is the title of a novel by the French writer Robert Merle from 1949. The work deals with the experiences of a group of French soldiers during the Battle of Dunkirk in World War II . Robert Merle himself fought during the battle in 1940 and was taken prisoner by Germany, from which he did not return until 1943. He processed his experiences from this time in this novel.

The first German edition of the novel was published in 1950 by Biederstein Verlag with a translation from the French by H. Foerster.

action

During the French retreat after the Battle of Dunkirk , dispersed British and French troops gather near the city. While most of the Allied troops are evacuated by Operation Dynamo , some French soldiers remain in the dunes of Zuydcoote . Among them are the soldiers Julien Maillat, Alexandre, Dhéry and the priest Pierson.

Maillat wants to go to England. He repeatedly tries to get on one of the evacuation ships, but is regularly turned away by the British. During the weekend he met the girl Jeanne, with whom he would like to escape together.

Maillat and Jeanne, whom he had recently rescued from being raped by French soldiers, eventually die in a bomb attack on Jeanne's house.

reception

The book received largely positive reviews, as Der Spiegel judged in retrospect:

""A good book." With a few nuances. Individual critics were offended by the fact that Merle was too lovingly diligent in the nudity of language and actions, that there were too many dialogues. Too much is cursed, and in the face of defeat and death people reveal themselves too clearly! A good book, but probably not a great work. But they all agree on one thing: There is no wrong note in the book. Like almost all successful books of the last few years, which were also literary successes, "Weekend à Zuidcoote" draws impulses from a drastic war experience: the disaster in Dunkirk. "

- Der Spiegel, 43/1950, page 41

For Weekend in Zuidcoote , Merle won his first award in 1949, the Prix ​​Goncourt literary prize , awarded by the Académie Goncourt for the best French-language work of the current year. From the first edition 235,000 pieces were sold in France.

The book resulted in a legal dispute with a former comrade Merles, whom the latter allowed to appear as a marginal figure in the work. Merle reproduced the descriptions of the married man's love affairs almost unchanged in his novel.

filming

The novel was filmed in 1964 as Dunkirk, June 2, 1940 under the direction of Henri Verneuil with Jean-Paul Belmondo , Catherine Spaak , Georges Géret , Jean-Pierre Marielle , Pierre Mondy and Marie Dubois in the lead roles.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Merle at histo-couch.de. Retrieved January 10, 2010 (German).
  2. ^ Der Spiegel, October 25, 1950, p. 41
  3. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 50/1951, PRIX GONCOURT. Tense boredom. Retrieved January 10, 2010 (German).
  4. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 43/1950, people without a bottom. Retrieved January 10, 2010 (German).
  5. ↑ Week-end à Zuydcoote (1964) on imdb.com. Retrieved January 10, 2010 .