The Girl at the Lion D'or
Encyclopedia
The Girl at the Lion d'Or by Sebastian Faulks
, was the author's second novel. Set in the tiny French village of Janvilliers
in 1936. Together with Birdsong
and Charlotte Gray
, it makes up Faulks' France Trilogy. The character Charles Hartmann is common to all three books.
The politics are rendered to us through the characters'
every day conversation- they rely on newspapers for information-
which means that the history lesson aspect of the book arises organically
in the narrative.
Written in the third person using a conventional omniscient narrator the internal motivations and viewpoints of various characters are aired. The narrative tone is at times ironic and the author uses unfussy language in telling the tale with economy. The vast majority of the scenes in the novel are set indoors which gives it a domestic and claustrophobic feel. There are no descriptions of physical violence but there is trauma and angst while in the character of 'Mattlin' Faulks
creates a villain with a truly vicious mentality.
The mood is down beat- in fact mock Gothic in the Poe
inspired sub-plot involving the renovation of the Manor House- and the book is shot through with mordant wit but there are also lighter moments of tenderness and near slapstick.
On its publication, The Girl at the Lion d'Or was lauded in reviews for Faulks' ability to evoke a sense of time and place and for his adroitness in creating engaging characters.
She gets to know the staff- the formidable Madame Concierge, the drunken Cook, the sex-starved Porter- and to meet the mysterious Patron.
Then there are the customers: the evil Mattlin and the sensitive Hartmann most prominent among them.
A generation older than she, the cultured, rich and married Hartmann begins an affair with Anne. She reveals her secrets, her fears and her hopes to him trusting in their mutual love. His wife, Christine, knows him better and in the end its no real contest for her to keep her husband and see off her latest rival. Although Faulks writes the love story with commitment, the nature of the novel determines that it can only end badly for Anne. An historical novel
in which history is treated seriously, The Girl at the Lion d'Or is tragic drama and its real subject is France
herself. A happy fairy-tale ending would be incongruous: it did not happen for the French Third Republic
therefore it could not happen for Anne.
Anne's childhood has been blighted by the First World War. Her father was shot on a charge of mutiny while serving in the trenches at Verdun
and her mother, harassed and victimised because of his fate, driven to suicide. Anne then endured a wandering hand to mouth existence with her uncle Louvert whose name she adopts.
Louvert, vainglorious and empty dispenser of fine sounding phrases- 'Courage is the only thing that counts'-, joined a right wing revolutionary organisation with the aim of 'making France great again' but deserted both Anne and France for a new life in America. Anne later invests her emotions in Hartmann and although devastated by his rejection she does not allow it to destroy her. She intuitively turns away from suicide and the last line of the novel leads us to believe that she will, though there will be dark days ahead, overcome her situation.
The battle of Verdun
and the French army mutinies
a year later were momentous events for the French nation. That the battle and a charge of mutiny played such a major part in Anne's personal history suggests a metaphorical link between her and France. The fact that the prologue to the narrative dedicates the story to Anne, 'an unknown girl' rather than the 'important public' figures of the time also points to the character being representational of something larger than an individual. The use of the adjective 'unknown', in the context of this novel, is loaded with meaning as it brings to mind the Unknown Soldier
.
By making Anne a homeless, friendless,orphaned young woman Faulks is pushing the limits of melodrama
in his wish to create a character which is the opposite of those in the male dominated world of political power. She is the victim of political decisions and human spite but does not embrace victimhood. Instead she embodies most of the virtues and a certain defiance. More importantly she is vital: she makes decisions and acts on them. The polemic
thrust of the book, backed-up by references to newspaper stories of political crises and scandal at home and mounting threat of war from abroad, is that the period's political leaders were, at best, inert.
The setting of the story is also much removed from the centre of power and influence in the political sense if not geographically. In fact the author is shy of saying where in France the town of Janvilliers is. The descriptions of the seasons in the book and that Hartmann walks on a beach near his house from which 'the sea has disappeared' puts it somewhere on the north coast. Imprecise as this is, it rules out the real Janvilliers
being the location though its name may have been used because of that town's proximity to Verdun
. Geographical imprecision serves the function of making the fictional Janvilliers a French "everytown" where the attitudes and experiences of its inhabitants typify those of towns throughout France of the period. Choosing 'Lion d'Or', a common and therefore typical name for French inns, as the name of the town hotel is meant to strengthen the idea of this representational aspect of Janvilliers. A war monument in the town centre commemorating the dead of the First World War could be found in any town in the country.
Similarly, 'M. Bouin', a woman bereaved of her menfolk by the war and finding solace in religion, would be a familiar character in 1930's France. 'M. le Patron' typifies the defeatist mindset among many of the time while the odious 'Mattlin' is the town's future fifth columnist and collaborator
.
'Hartmann' is the ineffectual liberal
. His failure to confront 'Mattlin', whose slanders are undermining 'Hartmann's' reputation just as surely as the builder hired to renovate his house undermines it's foundations, can be read as a metaphor of the centre-left
government's failure to confront fascism
either at home or abroad.
Charles Hartmann: Jewish veteran of First World War. A successful lawyer he lives at the Manor with wife Christine. Has affair with Anne. Hopes to Redeem the horrors of her childhood Puts her up in a flat. Ultimately he Gets entangled in the coils of his own conscience Politically aware, the national situation is reported to us through his conversations with other characters.
Mattlin: A vile and disgusting Uriah Heep
-like character with racism added.
Christine Hartmann: Wronged wife.
Mme Bouin: Manageress of the Lion d'Or. Initially unsympathetic, her true nature is later revealed. Devoted to 'M. the Patron'.
M. the Patron: Owner of the Lion d'Or. Agoraphobic due to experiences in the war. Pessimistic and angry about future. Caring.
Bruno: Chef at the Lion d. Involved in the novel's overtly comic scenes.
Roland: Porter at Lion d. Bored, idiotic youth. Voyeur.
Antoine: Friend of Hartmann's since the war. Now a senior civil servant whose minister is involved in a scandal. Asks Hartmann to give legal advice.
Louvert: Anne's Guardian after her mother's suicide. Not an active character in the narrative he is reported to us by the narrator and through Anne's memories of him. Considered himself a philosopher. Tells Anne that that all emotional suffering is caused by abandonment. He abandons Anne for America when she refused to be his mistress. A member of a Crypto-Nazi French league, he is depicted mockingly in the text.
Anne's mother and historical Minister Roger Salengro
commit suicide. Alexandre Stavisky
's death was officially pronounced as suicide. Anne rejects taking her own life. A conversation between Hartmann and his civil servant friend, Antoine, likens the casualties suffered by France in the 1st World War to a kind of national suicide (France which "should be one of the most civilized Nations on Earth" is being governed by incompetents because the best of the generation were "buried under the battlefields of the Western Front")
The continuing destructive influence of the war on people and State is one of the themes which binds the personal to the political in the novel.
The false allegation of desertion made against the Minister Salengro
, the poison-pen campaign carried out against Anne Louvert's mother and the anti-Semitic lies spread about Hartmann are dark currents running through the book.
became premier of France in the summer of 1936. Minister Salengro killed himself in November 1936. Given these two events, the action of the novel can be dated from late winter to late autumn of that year.
The Paris riots referred to in the book took place in 1934, the same year as the Stavisky
Affair broke.
are historical fiction
novels largely set in France and collectively covering the periods 1936, 1910–1918 and 1942–1944.
The Girl at the Lion d'Or is the only one of the three books set exclusively in France and with an all French cast of characters. Although published before the other novels, it is the middle section of the trilogy's narrative.
Sebastian Faulks
-Early life:Faulks was born on 20 April 1953 in Donnington, Berkshire to Peter Faulks and Pamela . Edward Faulks, Baron Faulks, is his older brother. He was educated at Elstree School, Reading and went on to Wellington College, Berkshire...
, was the author's second novel. Set in the tiny French village of Janvilliers
Janvilliers
Janvilliers is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.It is the setting for Sebastian Faulks' 1989 novel The Girl at the Lion d'Or....
in 1936. Together with Birdsong
Birdsong (novel)
Birdsong is a 1993 war novel by the English author Sebastian Faulks. Faulks' fourth novel, it tells of a man called Stephen Wraysford at different stages of his life both before and during World War I...
and Charlotte Gray
Charlotte Gray (novel)
Charlotte Gray is a 1999 book by Sebastian Faulks and completes his loose trilogy of books about France with an account of the adventures of a young Scotswoman who becomes involved with the French resistance during the Second World War. It is set in Vichy France during World War II...
, it makes up Faulks' France Trilogy. The character Charles Hartmann is common to all three books.
Plot introduction
An unsigned prologue introduces the reader to 1930's France and sets-up the fiction that the novel tells the true story behind an actual newspaper report of the time. This is imagined as being a passionate adulterous love-affair between the book's two central characters with the nation's unstable political scene as its backdrop.The politics are rendered to us through the characters'
every day conversation- they rely on newspapers for information-
which means that the history lesson aspect of the book arises organically
in the narrative.
Written in the third person using a conventional omniscient narrator the internal motivations and viewpoints of various characters are aired. The narrative tone is at times ironic and the author uses unfussy language in telling the tale with economy. The vast majority of the scenes in the novel are set indoors which gives it a domestic and claustrophobic feel. There are no descriptions of physical violence but there is trauma and angst while in the character of 'Mattlin' Faulks
Faulks
Faulks may refer to:*Beverly Faulks, American actress*Edward Faulks, QC, brother of Sebastian Faulks*John Faulks, Australian Deputy Chief Justice*Sebastian Faulks , British novelist and journalist...
creates a villain with a truly vicious mentality.
The mood is down beat- in fact mock Gothic in the Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
inspired sub-plot involving the renovation of the Manor House- and the book is shot through with mordant wit but there are also lighter moments of tenderness and near slapstick.
On its publication, The Girl at the Lion d'Or was lauded in reviews for Faulks' ability to evoke a sense of time and place and for his adroitness in creating engaging characters.
Plot summary
A wet and dark winter night sees young and beautiful Anne Louvert arrive in Janvilliers from Paris to take up a lowly position at the village inn, 'The Lion d'Or'.She gets to know the staff- the formidable Madame Concierge, the drunken Cook, the sex-starved Porter- and to meet the mysterious Patron.
Then there are the customers: the evil Mattlin and the sensitive Hartmann most prominent among them.
A generation older than she, the cultured, rich and married Hartmann begins an affair with Anne. She reveals her secrets, her fears and her hopes to him trusting in their mutual love. His wife, Christine, knows him better and in the end its no real contest for her to keep her husband and see off her latest rival. Although Faulks writes the love story with commitment, the nature of the novel determines that it can only end badly for Anne. An historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
in which history is treated seriously, The Girl at the Lion d'Or is tragic drama and its real subject is France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
herself. A happy fairy-tale ending would be incongruous: it did not happen for the French Third Republic
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
therefore it could not happen for Anne.
Anne's childhood has been blighted by the First World War. Her father was shot on a charge of mutiny while serving in the trenches at Verdun
Verdun
Verdun is a city in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital of the department is the slightly smaller city of Bar-le-Duc.- History :...
and her mother, harassed and victimised because of his fate, driven to suicide. Anne then endured a wandering hand to mouth existence with her uncle Louvert whose name she adopts.
Louvert, vainglorious and empty dispenser of fine sounding phrases- 'Courage is the only thing that counts'-, joined a right wing revolutionary organisation with the aim of 'making France great again' but deserted both Anne and France for a new life in America. Anne later invests her emotions in Hartmann and although devastated by his rejection she does not allow it to destroy her. She intuitively turns away from suicide and the last line of the novel leads us to believe that she will, though there will be dark days ahead, overcome her situation.
The battle of Verdun
Verdun
Verdun is a city in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital of the department is the slightly smaller city of Bar-le-Duc.- History :...
and the French army mutinies
French Army Mutinies (1917)
The French Army Mutinies of 1917 took place amongst the French troops on the Western Front in Northern France. They started just after the conclusion of the disastrous Second Battle of the Aisne, the main action in the Nivelle Offensive, and involved, to various degrees, nearly half of the French...
a year later were momentous events for the French nation. That the battle and a charge of mutiny played such a major part in Anne's personal history suggests a metaphorical link between her and France. The fact that the prologue to the narrative dedicates the story to Anne, 'an unknown girl' rather than the 'important public' figures of the time also points to the character being representational of something larger than an individual. The use of the adjective 'unknown', in the context of this novel, is loaded with meaning as it brings to mind the Unknown Soldier
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier refers to a grave in which the unidentifiable remains of a soldier are interred. Such tombs can be found in many nations and are usually high-profile national monuments. Throughout history, many soldiers have died in wars without their remains being identified...
.
By making Anne a homeless, friendless,orphaned young woman Faulks is pushing the limits of melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
in his wish to create a character which is the opposite of those in the male dominated world of political power. She is the victim of political decisions and human spite but does not embrace victimhood. Instead she embodies most of the virtues and a certain defiance. More importantly she is vital: she makes decisions and acts on them. The polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
thrust of the book, backed-up by references to newspaper stories of political crises and scandal at home and mounting threat of war from abroad, is that the period's political leaders were, at best, inert.
The setting of the story is also much removed from the centre of power and influence in the political sense if not geographically. In fact the author is shy of saying where in France the town of Janvilliers is. The descriptions of the seasons in the book and that Hartmann walks on a beach near his house from which 'the sea has disappeared' puts it somewhere on the north coast. Imprecise as this is, it rules out the real Janvilliers
Janvilliers
Janvilliers is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.It is the setting for Sebastian Faulks' 1989 novel The Girl at the Lion d'Or....
being the location though its name may have been used because of that town's proximity to Verdun
Verdun
Verdun is a city in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital of the department is the slightly smaller city of Bar-le-Duc.- History :...
. Geographical imprecision serves the function of making the fictional Janvilliers a French "everytown" where the attitudes and experiences of its inhabitants typify those of towns throughout France of the period. Choosing 'Lion d'Or', a common and therefore typical name for French inns, as the name of the town hotel is meant to strengthen the idea of this representational aspect of Janvilliers. A war monument in the town centre commemorating the dead of the First World War could be found in any town in the country.
Similarly, 'M. Bouin', a woman bereaved of her menfolk by the war and finding solace in religion, would be a familiar character in 1930's France. 'M. le Patron' typifies the defeatist mindset among many of the time while the odious 'Mattlin' is the town's future fifth columnist and collaborator
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
.
'Hartmann' is the ineffectual liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
. His failure to confront 'Mattlin', whose slanders are undermining 'Hartmann's' reputation just as surely as the builder hired to renovate his house undermines it's foundations, can be read as a metaphor of the centre-left
Centre-left
Centre-left is a political term that describes individuals, political parties or organisations such as think tanks whose ideology lies between the centre and the left on the left-right spectrum...
government's failure to confront fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
either at home or abroad.
Characters
Anne Louvert: The 'Girl' in the title of the novel. Indigent. Tragic past. Traumatised by loss, she equates abandonment with unbearable tragedy. Descends into a psychological hell of her own making....by her blinding love for the wrong man. according to Maggie Galehouse writing in the New York Times, 16 January 2000- a rather harsh tough love judgment. Honest, brave and humane Anne is allowed to hope at the end of the book.Charles Hartmann: Jewish veteran of First World War. A successful lawyer he lives at the Manor with wife Christine. Has affair with Anne. Hopes to Redeem the horrors of her childhood Puts her up in a flat. Ultimately he Gets entangled in the coils of his own conscience Politically aware, the national situation is reported to us through his conversations with other characters.
Mattlin: A vile and disgusting Uriah Heep
Uriah Heep
Uriah Heep is a fictional character created by Charles Dickens in his novel David Copperfield.The character is notable for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own "'umbleness". His name has become synonymous with being a yes man...
-like character with racism added.
Christine Hartmann: Wronged wife.
Mme Bouin: Manageress of the Lion d'Or. Initially unsympathetic, her true nature is later revealed. Devoted to 'M. the Patron'.
M. the Patron: Owner of the Lion d'Or. Agoraphobic due to experiences in the war. Pessimistic and angry about future. Caring.
Bruno: Chef at the Lion d. Involved in the novel's overtly comic scenes.
Roland: Porter at Lion d. Bored, idiotic youth. Voyeur.
Antoine: Friend of Hartmann's since the war. Now a senior civil servant whose minister is involved in a scandal. Asks Hartmann to give legal advice.
Louvert: Anne's Guardian after her mother's suicide. Not an active character in the narrative he is reported to us by the narrator and through Anne's memories of him. Considered himself a philosopher. Tells Anne that that all emotional suffering is caused by abandonment. He abandons Anne for America when she refused to be his mistress. A member of a Crypto-Nazi French league, he is depicted mockingly in the text.
Major themes
- Suicide.
Anne's mother and historical Minister Roger Salengro
Roger Salengro
Roger Henri Charles Salengro was a French politician. He achieved fame as Minister of the Interior during the Popular Front government in 1936...
commit suicide. Alexandre Stavisky
Alexandre Stavisky
Serge Alexandre Stavisky was a French financier and embezzler whose actions created a political scandal that became known as the Stavisky Affair....
's death was officially pronounced as suicide. Anne rejects taking her own life. A conversation between Hartmann and his civil servant friend, Antoine, likens the casualties suffered by France in the 1st World War to a kind of national suicide (France which "should be one of the most civilized Nations on Earth" is being governed by incompetents because the best of the generation were "buried under the battlefields of the Western Front")
- World War I.
The continuing destructive influence of the war on people and State is one of the themes which binds the personal to the political in the novel.
- Slander.
The false allegation of desertion made against the Minister Salengro
Roger Salengro
Roger Henri Charles Salengro was a French politician. He achieved fame as Minister of the Interior during the Popular Front government in 1936...
, the poison-pen campaign carried out against Anne Louvert's mother and the anti-Semitic lies spread about Hartmann are dark currents running through the book.
Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
Léon BlumLéon Blum
André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
became premier of France in the summer of 1936. Minister Salengro killed himself in November 1936. Given these two events, the action of the novel can be dated from late winter to late autumn of that year.
The Paris riots referred to in the book took place in 1934, the same year as the Stavisky
Stavisky
Stavisky... is a 1974 French film drama based on the life of the financier and embezzler Alexandre Stavisky and the circumstances leading to his mysterious death in 1934. This gave rise to a political scandal known as the Stavisky Affair, which led to fatal riots in Paris, the resignation of two...
Affair broke.
The France Trilogy
The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and Charlotte GrayCharlotte Gray (novel)
Charlotte Gray is a 1999 book by Sebastian Faulks and completes his loose trilogy of books about France with an account of the adventures of a young Scotswoman who becomes involved with the French resistance during the Second World War. It is set in Vichy France during World War II...
are historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
novels largely set in France and collectively covering the periods 1936, 1910–1918 and 1942–1944.
The Girl at the Lion d'Or is the only one of the three books set exclusively in France and with an all French cast of characters. Although published before the other novels, it is the middle section of the trilogy's narrative.
See also
- Paths of GloryPaths of GloryPaths of Glory is a 1957 American anti-war film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb. Set during World War I, the film stars Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, the commanding officer of French soldiers who refused to continue a suicidal attack...
by Humphrey CobbHumphrey CobbHumphrey Cobb was a screenwriter and novelist. He is best known for writing the novel Paths of Glory, which was made into an acclaimed 1957 movie by Stanley Kubrick. Cobb was also the lead screenwriter on the 1937 movie San Quentin, starring Humphrey Bogart.Cobb was born in Siena, Italy... - The Remains of the DayThe Remains of the DayThe Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's third published novel. One of the most highly-regarded post-war British novels, the work was awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1989...
by Kazuo IshiguroKazuo IshiguroKazuo Ishiguro OBE or ; born 8 November 1954) is a Japanese–English novelist. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and his family moved to England in 1960. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor's degree from University of Kent in 1978 and his Master's from the University of East Anglia's creative writing... - Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
- The Road to Verdun by Ian Ousby