Novel
Great Fear on the Mountain
La Grande Peur dans la montagne
Charles Ferdinand Ramuz · 1926
Synopsis
Against the advice of the elders, the village council decides to take the cattle back up to Sasseneire, a high-altitude pasture abandoned for some twenty years after a misfortune that is not spoken of. Volunteers are few: seven men go up with the herd, among them old Barthélemy, who knew the earlier tragedy, and young Joseph, who wants to earn enough to marry Victorine. Up there, noises at night and shadows unsettle the men; then a disease strikes the animals, which the vet cannot explain, since nothing of the kind affects the valley.
Context
The novel first appeared in six instalments in La Revue hebdomadaire, in Paris, then in book form from Grasset in 1926. It explores collective fear in an isolated mountain community, and the way it spreads from the individual to the group. L'Infolio reissued it in 2018 with an afterword by Stéphane Pétermann. It has been adapted twice, by Pierre Cardinal in 1966 and by Claudio Tonetti in 2006.
Who it is for
A short novel with a deliberately off-kilter syntax. Reading it requires accepting this language.
Prizes and reception
Translated into German as early as 1927, and twice into English, by Milton Stansbury in 1967 and by Bill Johnston in 2024.
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