Narrative
Crainquebille
L'affaire Crainquebille
Anatole France · 1901
Opening lines
La majesté de la justice réside tout entière dans chaque sentence rendue par le juge au nom du peuple souverain. Jérôme Crainquebille, marchand ambulant, connut combien la loi est auguste, quand il fut traduit en police correctionnelle pour outrage à un agent de la force publique.
The majesty of justice resides entirely in each sentence handed down by the judge in the name of the sovereign people. Jérôme Crainquebille, costermonger, learned how august the law is when he was brought before the police court for insulting an officer of the law.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from fr.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Crainquebille, an old costermonger, pushes his cart through the streets of Paris. One day, a cobbler's wife, Mme Bayard, takes a bunch of leeks from him and goes back inside to fetch the money; Constable 64 orders him three times to move on, and he replies that he is waiting to be paid. The constable arrests him, claiming that he shouted “Mort aux vaches!”. In court, the presiding judge dismisses the testimony of a doctor who says the opposite and sentences the merchant to fifteen days in prison and a fine of fifty francs.
Context
The original edition appeared in 1901 from Édouard Pelletan, illustrated with sixty-three compositions by Steinlen engraved on wood by several engravers, among them Deloche, Froment and Gusman. The author drew from it a comedy in three acts, first performed in 1903 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance. The story shows the injustice done to a small tradesman by the police and the court, at the time when the writer, committed to the cause of Dreyfus, was turning towards socialism.
Who it is for
Eight short chapters, of constant irony; the trial scene, at the centre of the book, can also be read on its own.
Prizes and reception
Jacques Feyder made a silent film of it in 1922, Jacques de Baroncelli a sound film in 1934; the story exists in English under the title Crainquebille.
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