A life

a life is the first novel of Guy of Maupassant published in serial then in volume in 1883, which presents a table of the female condition to. a life brings back the events affecting the destiny of Jeanne, young aristocrat. This history shows us in detail the successive stages of its forfeiture, between 1819 and 1848. All around it is exhausted little by little, in a universe without hope. A pessimistic vision, world and of a company marked by the Civil code and the inequality of the sexes. A reflection on the walk of the History which falls under the line of historical fictions, very widespread with.

Summary

A life recalls the existence of Jeanne Perthuis of Vauds, only daughter Norman small landed proprietors. The work, whose action proceeds under the Restoration and the Monarchy of July, follows the sentimental route of heroin from its exit of the convent until the ripe age. Having married Julien de Lamarre, brutal seducer, Jeanne will go from disillusions in disillusions: she will discover the inaccuracies of her husband, the weakness of her parents, a family secrecy which will carry out it at the edge of the suicide; she will know the jealousy, the despair of the ridiculed wife, the widowhood and the ingratitude of her only son Paul, who will forsake it at the time when she will need it most.

At 17 years, Jeanne leaves the convent of Rouen where she saw cloîtrée since the 12 years age. His/her father, the baron Perthuis of Vauds, has a property on the coast Norman (People) where Jeanne passed her childhood.

It finds this place with pleasure and, while dreaming of the prince charming, makes the meeting of the Viscount Julien de Lamare. Believer to also quickly find that until it waited, it believes to fall in love from there, and the marriage is done quickly, after the agreement of the father. The wedding night makes us discover Julien under another aspect that of a Viscount to the good mannerss to appear to us under that of one man to brutal sexuality. They leave for Corsica for their honeymoon where Jeanne will then feel for Julien the love which it did not find, and which it will not find any more. With the return, the Viscount of Lamare seems miserly quickly, and takes the head of the family which accommodates it.

With the time which passes, Jeanne accepts her new monotonous life, and undergoes her husband, who lets it more and more often only sleep. The absences of his/her parents reinforce his loneliness. Its Rosalie, servant and former foster sister, are confined. Furious, Julien wishes to drive out it house, but Jeanne opposes it firmly. The baron decides to find a husband to him and to offer a farm to him where they will be able to settle. That particularly irritates the Viscount who sees his heritage being wasted.

One evening, she discovers her servant, Rosalie, in the bed of her husband. Lend to commit suicide, dark Jeanne in a deep state of prostration. A doctor come to consult it teaches him whereas it awaits a child. Its pregnancy proceeds sadly and it is confined in terrible sufferings; disappointed by the marriage, Jeanne testifies an excessive love with her son, Paul.

His/her parents condemn the attitude of Julien, but the priest asks the baron: " Do not have not same is made you the same thing? " , it in what the baron can only acquiéser, which disturbs Jeanne still more. Her husband is again in the arms of another woman, which Jeanne all the more feels as a treason that this one was his/her friend: the countess of Fourville.

With died of her mother, Jeanne finds in papers of late letters proving that his/her mother maintained an adulterous relation with a family friend. Paul, knows serious health issues to him and Jeanne fearing to only find itself would like another child. Her husband not wishing it, because of the cost that would generate, it manages to play a turn to him to be pregnant.

The count de Fourville, being given an account of the relation which his wife with Julien maintained, kills them both. Jeanne is confined of a dead girl born.

Paul, his only consolation, grows, liked of all, and continues very poor studies. He escapes from his college to gain Paris, then London and is satisfied to write with his/her mother by promising her return regularly to him and while profiting to require money of him.

Jeanne spends then her fortune, and ends up being dealt with by Rosalie, her old servant, who will have had finally more chance than it. Rosalie and Jeanne gather then, and Rosalie deals with the financial management of Jeanne, in particular forcing it to sell the family residence and to refuse money with her son, always invisible, who announces his nearest marriage with a woman, whose Jeanne feels a major jealousy.

Cloîtrée in its loneliness, Jeanne re-sifts her old memories continuously. One day, learning that the woman of Paul is seriously sick, Jeanne agrees to take care of their little girl on whom it pours all her affection so a long time selected.

The book is concluded by a quotation from a letter from Flaubert to Maupassant: “ the life, you, that see is never so good nor so bad that one believes. ”

Exposure of the main characters

  • Jeanne : Main character of the history, it probably represents the vision which Maupassant of the women had at the time. Up to 12 years, she lives with her parents on the coast Norman, then is locked up until her 17 years in a convent held there severely locked up, cloîtrée, been unaware of and ignorant of the human things . . Its exit of the convent is for it a true resurrection, during all these years of ignorance, it made only dream of its future life. However, last its bridal night, disillusions start then. Its life is not consequently any more that one long sad and dull fall; as the novel progresses, Jeanne is turned over more and more towards her past. She is passive, rêveuse and fatalistic. Oui it was finished waiting. Then more nothing to make, today, neither tomorrow, nor never. It tries until the end of the novel to deny its present to be able to exist: And sometimes it forgot that it was old, that there was nothing any more in front of it… Its behavior can be summarized like misfit with reality, just like is that of Mrs. Bovary in the novel of the same name written by the literary guide of Maupassant.

  • Paul : After her birth, Jeanne defers on him all the love that Julien refused to him and becomes a mother surprotectrice. It was given very whole to his/her son Of the blow, Paul becomes a tyrant obtaining what it wishes when it wishes it and sees itself hated by its parent to have stolen the center of general interest. Its taste pronounced for the festivals and the play causes increasingly important debts to him and it leaves to settle in Paris with the great despair of his mother with whom it will keep only one epistolary contact. It soft and is impassioned, passion which is worth to him to begin in companies insane and unfruitful which will accelerate the family forfeiture. Maupassant nevertheless leaves us a glimmer of hope as for the future of the family when Paul bequeaths his daughter to Jeanne.

  • Rosalie : It is the foster sister and the maidservant of Jeanne. After having surprised his/her husband misleading it with Rosalie, Jeanne and her family move away Rosalie from the family residence. It will return there after 25 years of absence. Rosalie then became “stronger” than her mistress and appears authoritative to us, activates, rigorous and especially, it lives in reality, all that is lacking with Jeanne. It is it which will quote, in the last sentence of the novel after having brought back the girl of Paul: the life, you see, that is never so good nor so bad that it is believed It is the only positive character of the novel, and who is not criticized too much by the author; whereas the noble ones are unable to benefit from their life, Rosalie sees his improving following her departure of the house of the baron, thanks to the work which it provides.

  • the Viscount of Lamare : It is the seducer. The man who manages to take Jeanne for wife, who seeks to gain a maximum of money and to benefit from the life as much as possible. It sleeps with Rosalie whom it puts pregnant, then with the countess of Fourville. One imagines certainly other adventures to him. He dies after the count de Fourville discovers the two lovers.

Supporting characters

  • parents of Jeanne : The baron and the baroness represent a couple as there could be in any area of France at that time. A life without history, rich person but not too, goods - alive, altruistic, and proud of their child. They seek to offer the best possible life to him, but fail of course in this company. The baroness is frightened by medicine, patient all along the novel. One learns with the wire from the novel that each one of them had maintained the extra-marital relations, which ruins the memory of Jeanne, which saw in his parents of the perfect beings.

  • the Church : The church is represented by the abbots of the village. First is catch, lenient for the adultery which is secondary and does not prevent a couple from getting along well. Second rigorous, is horrified at the things concerning the sex, almost more severe with the victims than with the culprits.

  • Aunt Lison : Character in withdrawal. Old maid, described like always forgotten, absent with the eyes of the others. It is about the sister of the baroness.

Adaptations

In film of Alexandre Astruc, which is completed by the death of Julien (1st part of the novel), Maria Schell interprets the role of Jeanne with much of conviction.

External bonds

  • Full text of a Life, literary comments of extracts and files on the main themes of the novel

Random links:Pattenrond | Forest Law | Radio operator Silk worker | Estía | MSTRKRFT | Delbrück_maximum