Novel
Histoire d'une Marie
Not translated into English
André Baillon · 1921
Opening lines
Devant sa porte : — Bonsoir, mère. — Bonsoir, Marie. Les autres dormaient déjà. Elle tenait une bougie allumée.
At her door: “Good night, mother.” “Good night, Marie.” The others were already asleep. She was holding a lighted candle.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
Marie, a farmers' daughter, leaves for Brussels to go into service. Young, credulous and kind, she lets herself be taken advantage of by everyone she meets, from the master who seduces her to Vladimir, who takes her to London where she walks the streets, then to a pimp who pockets what she earns and whom she flees to return to Brussels. The second part turns to Henry Boulant, a neurasthenic writer who lives in Forest, near Brussels: he marries Marie, takes her to the countryside where they raise chickens, and spares her candour no more than the others did.
Context
Written during the First World War, the novel appeared in Paris from Rieder in 1921, with a preface by Charles Vildrac. It follows the life of Marie Vandenberghe, whom the author had married in 1902, and the writer of the second part is his double: Henry Boulant, under that name or others, is found in almost all his work. Maria Chiara Gnocchi sees in it, after Frans Denissen, the “trunk” from which En sabots and Zonzon Pépette grew, which amplify episodes from it. Britannica ranks it, with the latter, among his realist studies of prostitution.
Who it is for
A novel of three hundred pages, written directly in French, in a simple language that keeps up its tone of naivety from beginning to end; reissued in paperback.
Prizes and reception
Well received by critics when it appeared, and presented by its modern publishers as a masterpiece; translated into Dutch in 2024.
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