Novel
The Blue Hussar
Le Hussard bleu
Roger Nimier · 1950
Synopsis
In 1945, a platoon of French hussars enters Germany with the victorious armies, then remains there among the occupation troops. Soldiers and officers each tell in turn what they live through in this strange campaign; their voices, cynical or sentimental, take over from one another. Among them, Sanders and the young Saint-Anne share, without knowing it, the same German mistress.
Context
The novel appeared from Gallimard on 28 September 1950 and made its author famous at the age of twenty-five. Two years later, the critic Bernard Frank published in Modern Times an article, Grognards et Hussards, which took from this book the name of a group of young novelists. Several of those he named rejected the label, and some even denied the existence of the group. In English, the novel was translated as early as 1952.
Who it is for
A novel with several voices, which alternate from chapter to chapter; the tone, insolent, mixes cynicism and sentiment.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English by John Russell and Anthony Rhodes, it appeared in London in 1952 under the title The Blue Hussar.
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