Novel
Les Déracinés
Not translated into English
Maurice Barrès · 1897
Opening lines
En octobre 1879, à la rentrée, la classe de philosophie du lycée de Nancy fut violemment émue. Le professeur, M. Paul Bouteiller, était nouveau et son aspect, le son de sa voix, ses paroles dépassaient ce que chacun de ces enfants avait imaginé jamais de plus noble et de plus impérieux.
In October 1879, at the start of the school year, the philosophy class at the lycée in Nancy was violently stirred. The teacher, M. Paul Bouteiller, was new, and his appearance, the sound of his voice and his words surpassed the noblest and most commanding things any of these children had ever imagined.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from fr.wikisource.org
Synopsis
In Nancy, seven schoolboys attend the lessons of their philosophy teacher, Paul Bouteiller, a young graduate of the École normale and a fervent follower of Kant, then leave for Paris in his wake. Their paths diverge there: one studies medicine, another law, and the aristocrat Saint-Phlin goes back to Lorraine. Several of them meet again to found a newspaper, La Vraie République, directed by Racadot. For lack of experience, the venture heads for ruin.
Context
The book opens Le Roman de l'énergie nationale, a trilogy completed by L'Appel au soldat (1900) and Leurs figures (1902). The professor is modelled on Auguste Burdeau, whose pupil the author had been at the lycée in Nancy from 1877 to 1880. A novel of apprenticeship and a novel with a thesis, in which the narrator steps in to pass judgement, it reproaches the university for tearing young men from their roots and sets against abstract principles an attachment to the native soil and to inherited traditions.
Who it is for
Nearly five hundred pages in nineteen chapters; the development of ideas often takes precedence over the plot.
Prizes and reception
First part of a nationalist trilogy, the novel found a strong echo during the Dreyfus affair and the interwar period.
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