The Inn of the Guardian angel

the Inn of the Guardian angel is a novel for children written by the Comtesse of Ségur in 1863, and dedicated with its small sons, Louis and Gaston de Malaret.

Synopsis

Two lost children, Jacques and Paul, are collected by a honest soldier, Moutier. They stop with the inn of the Guardian angel, held by excellent Mrs. Blidot and her Elfy sister who adopt them while Moutier returns at his place. The war bursts and Moutier, which remained is attached to its protected and their adoptive mothers, engages in the zouaves. On its return, thanks to the generosity of the Dourakine general to which it saved the life and which wants to testify its recognition to him, it is able to ask for the hand of Elfy.

Historical context

Perhaps because he addresses himself to boys, the novel is held with in backdrop the Crimean War, well-known of the European public thanks to the recent development of the Photographie. This makes it possible the countess of Ségur to evoke while passing the cholera epidemic of Gallipoli, which made millers deaths, the battle of the Alma, the Siège of Sébastopol, the battles of Balaklava, Inkerman and Malakoff, one of these blazing combat, where each soldier is a hero according to the modest Moutier sergeant, heroic so expensive figure of zouave to the Parisian ones.

The novel defends the military thing by no means. The battle of Balaklava had remained in the memories like an useless butchery (see the Charge of the light brigade). The father of small the Jacques and Paul, who reappears miraculeusement at the end of the novel, has on the contrary the appearance of a victim of the Conscription in spite of a drawing lot which seemed to him favorable. Deserter, it is stopped by the gendarmes in front of his terrified children. Moutier returns from the Crimea covered of medals but always too poor to marry.

With the character of Moutier, the countess of Ségur tries to reconcile the heroic popular figures as those of the soldiers of year II with the Christian ideal of which it was inspired in the Actes by apostles .

Literary context

the Inn of the guardian angel appears in 1863, one year after the Poor wretches . One finds there characters and situations which are not without pointing out the novel of Victor Hugo, in particular these figures of abandoned children. Orphan Torchonnet , that his/her mother entrusted to a not very scrupulous landlord who treats it as a slave, evokes the character of Cosette to the hands of the Thénardier. Like Cosette delivered by Jean Valjean, it is torn off with its martyr and is entrusted to the good priest of the village.

The character falstaffien of the Dourakine General brings a comic counterpoint to these pathetic figures. This juxtaposition is a process running to Dickens which the countess had remembered in a good Little devil.

Quotations

  • the ideal library of the good housewife:
it looked at the books: Imitation of Jesus-Christ, New Testament, Perfect Cook, Handbook of the housewives, Memories of a troupier. Moutier smiles: " Per good hour! here are books which I like to see at a good cleaning lady! "
  • friendship:
me, when I love people, I make them work. There is not only I hate as people who do not do anything, which leaves you you échiner without to only offering the end of the finger you to help you.
  • women's rights in Russia to the XIXe century:
    LE GENERAL. - I am your husband, you are my wife, I have the right to beat you, to make you burst hunger, of cold, misery.
    MADAME BLIDOT, " riant". - are And I, which my rights?
    LE GENERAL. - to cry, shout, to insult me, beat people, to tear your effects, to put fire at the house even in the desperate cases
    .

Internal bonds

external bonds

The novel on wikisource

Random links:Louis Alméras | Lisa Martino | Christian Henson | Alexandre Von Sivers | Kolob (mormonism) | Détour_Matador