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Mourir à Francfort, ou, Le malentendu
249pages. poche. Poche.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
About the author
Hubert Monteilhet
86 books3 followersHubert Monteilhet, né le 10 juillet 1928 à Paris, est un écrivain français. Il s'impose d'abord comme auteur de romans policiers (Les Mantes religieuses), puis comme auteur de romans historiques (Les Derniers Feux, Néropolis, La Pucelle).
Les commentateurs voient en lui un héritier des romanciers libertins du XVIII siècle. Il se distingue par des intrigues originales, des personnages totalement amoraux, une plume incisive, élégante et parfois licencieuse, une liberté de ton, un humour mordant.
Les commentateurs voient en lui un héritier des romanciers libertins du XVIII siècle. Il se distingue par des intrigues originales, des personnages totalement amoraux, une plume incisive, élégante et parfois licencieuse, une liberté de ton, un humour mordant.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 18, 2020
I didn’t read the original French version - I read the 1976 translation for Doubleday by Barbara Bray (‘Murder at the Frankfurt Book Fair’). However, the Doubleday edition is out of print and GR doesn’t have a thumbnail of it, which I prefer.
The title was intriguing - I came across it whilst randomly researching the 18th-century French author Prévost on the web (famous primarily for Manon Lescaut).
Monteilhet was a professor of history at the Sorbonne who wrote detective & commercial genre fiction in his spare time and achieved considerable success in his day, with a few novels adapted for films both in Hollywood and his native France.
The book is an entertaining read - the first two thirds extremely entertaining. Sadly it rapidly runs out of steam when the characters reach the eponymous Frankfurt.
The lead character is a Sorbonne professor who writes commercial genre fiction under pseudonyms. He argues with his publisher and decides to embarrass him by plagiarising a forgotten Prévost novel - these days Prévost is a one-hit wonder but he actually has an extensive oeuvre of unread masterpieces (and even the hit, Manon Lescaut, is only volume 7 of a much longer and unread work).
The twist is, the plagiarised book becomes a major bestseller. But the plagiarist professor’s academic/literary/romantic stalker, a Bibliotheque Nationale spinster librarian named Cecile, discovers the fraud. The professor’s attempts to keep her sweet and square things with his grasping publisher Grouillot form the matter of the book.
Both male characters are fantastically amoral villains and their manipulations of each other, literary Paris, and the charmingly naive/piercingly astute Cecile are hugely funny. Monteilhet‘s satire of literary pretension and the book industry is very sharp. There is also a certain entertainingly performative Frenchness which comes through in the translation - I’m not sure how much of this is due to Bray’s work.
These days right-wingers drone on about ‘cultural marxism’ and post-structuralist philosophy ‘destroying western civilisation’. On the contrary - I’m starting to see how much post-structuralist ideas stimulated writers of the period. Whilst this book is squarely aimed at a mainstream audience, I feel its concerns with authenticity, with the creation of meaning and value in society, with how a text is intended and how it is read, are completely indebted to Roland Barthes’ seminal 1967 essay, ‘The Death of the Author’. Penelope Fitzgerald’s 1977 debut ‘The Golden Child’ is another. Fitzgerald’s attempt comes across as the lumpen, clumping Anglo-Saxon peasant in comparison, Monteilhet‘s as the sprightly, elegant French aristocrat - but the ultimate fruition of this strand of literature is Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’ which transcends genre altogether.
The title was intriguing - I came across it whilst randomly researching the 18th-century French author Prévost on the web (famous primarily for Manon Lescaut).
Monteilhet was a professor of history at the Sorbonne who wrote detective & commercial genre fiction in his spare time and achieved considerable success in his day, with a few novels adapted for films both in Hollywood and his native France.
The book is an entertaining read - the first two thirds extremely entertaining. Sadly it rapidly runs out of steam when the characters reach the eponymous Frankfurt.
The lead character is a Sorbonne professor who writes commercial genre fiction under pseudonyms. He argues with his publisher and decides to embarrass him by plagiarising a forgotten Prévost novel - these days Prévost is a one-hit wonder but he actually has an extensive oeuvre of unread masterpieces (and even the hit, Manon Lescaut, is only volume 7 of a much longer and unread work).
The twist is, the plagiarised book becomes a major bestseller. But the plagiarist professor’s academic/literary/romantic stalker, a Bibliotheque Nationale spinster librarian named Cecile, discovers the fraud. The professor’s attempts to keep her sweet and square things with his grasping publisher Grouillot form the matter of the book.
Both male characters are fantastically amoral villains and their manipulations of each other, literary Paris, and the charmingly naive/piercingly astute Cecile are hugely funny. Monteilhet‘s satire of literary pretension and the book industry is very sharp. There is also a certain entertainingly performative Frenchness which comes through in the translation - I’m not sure how much of this is due to Bray’s work.
These days right-wingers drone on about ‘cultural marxism’ and post-structuralist philosophy ‘destroying western civilisation’. On the contrary - I’m starting to see how much post-structuralist ideas stimulated writers of the period. Whilst this book is squarely aimed at a mainstream audience, I feel its concerns with authenticity, with the creation of meaning and value in society, with how a text is intended and how it is read, are completely indebted to Roland Barthes’ seminal 1967 essay, ‘The Death of the Author’. Penelope Fitzgerald’s 1977 debut ‘The Golden Child’ is another. Fitzgerald’s attempt comes across as the lumpen, clumping Anglo-Saxon peasant in comparison, Monteilhet‘s as the sprightly, elegant French aristocrat - but the ultimate fruition of this strand of literature is Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’ which transcends genre altogether.
January 15, 2024
The story is about the plagiarism of a classic, perpetuated by Professor LL from the Sorbonne, along with the disputes he has with his publisher, and the dangerous relationship he develops with a moralist librarian.
The main characters are irritating and unsympathetic. Even the shared thoughts may serve to the attractive French habit of divagating about life and society, it feels a little forced in here. I'm not familiar with the specific context, but the author sounds like he's mocking people he knows.
The narration has three parts. Part One is a long introduction, Part Two is more complex, and the Third is more about picaresque situations and easy effects. They work well if you don't pay attention to the title, which is too much of a spoiler. Or you could consider it the result of a story you are about to get explained.
The author offers us to read "documents" to expose the scandal: personal diaries, notes and letters. This resource is effective for some passages, especially the impressions of the main couple about their encounters and doubtful ethics, although it may get monotonous. What at first is a comical contrast between the cynicism of the antihero and the romantic ideals of the girl, becomes a flat explanation of their behaviours.
However, the letters related to the editorial environment are fun to read. To me, the best point of the book is the sarcastic depiction of the editorial business and the snobism of the intellectual world.
Ignoring what an actual perspective would tell about the values of the time, I guess the book was thought to be the base for a 1970s black comedy script.
**1/2 stars
The main characters are irritating and unsympathetic. Even the shared thoughts may serve to the attractive French habit of divagating about life and society, it feels a little forced in here. I'm not familiar with the specific context, but the author sounds like he's mocking people he knows.
The narration has three parts. Part One is a long introduction, Part Two is more complex, and the Third is more about picaresque situations and easy effects. They work well if you don't pay attention to the title, which is too much of a spoiler. Or you could consider it the result of a story you are about to get explained.
The author offers us to read "documents" to expose the scandal: personal diaries, notes and letters. This resource is effective for some passages, especially the impressions of the main couple about their encounters and doubtful ethics, although it may get monotonous. What at first is a comical contrast between the cynicism of the antihero and the romantic ideals of the girl, becomes a flat explanation of their behaviours.
However, the letters related to the editorial environment are fun to read. To me, the best point of the book is the sarcastic depiction of the editorial business and the snobism of the intellectual world.
Ignoring what an actual perspective would tell about the values of the time, I guess the book was thought to be the base for a 1970s black comedy script.
**1/2 stars
January 11, 2026
Oddly enough, I was "currently reading" Abbè Prévost’s ‘The Greek Girl's Story’ when I came across a review of a book, ‘Murder at the Frankfurt Book Fair’ by Hubert Monteilhet, in which a fictional author, Dominique Labattut-Largaud, plagiarises Prévost's novel to the last word, only changing the actual title, and anagramising Prévost's name as the author, to fool his cynical and avaricious publisher.
As he foresees, the publisher is fooled, but what he does not foresee is truly unexpected: his novel (or rather, the Abbé’s novel) goes on to become an international best-seller, and ‘The Greek Girl’s Story' under its new title ‘Equivocations' is the recipient of France's prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt, under LL’s pseudonym, BP Veroste. Publishers and major production houses flock to secure translation rights and movie rights in all conceivable languages.
But a second complication arises, and one that is totally unforeseen: a young librarian at the Sorbonne who has a crush on LL, recognises Abbe Prévost's novel in ‘Equivocations’.
Although described as a satire, the style is heavy-handed, slow and at times tortuous. And as though he himself were bored by it all, Monteilhet finishes the brief action in a page and a half at the very end. This is no fault of the translator, Barbara Bray. Undoubtedly in the original, the light touch of a satirist is present. But humour in one language can rarely repeat its essence in another.
As he foresees, the publisher is fooled, but what he does not foresee is truly unexpected: his novel (or rather, the Abbé’s novel) goes on to become an international best-seller, and ‘The Greek Girl’s Story' under its new title ‘Equivocations' is the recipient of France's prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt, under LL’s pseudonym, BP Veroste. Publishers and major production houses flock to secure translation rights and movie rights in all conceivable languages.
But a second complication arises, and one that is totally unforeseen: a young librarian at the Sorbonne who has a crush on LL, recognises Abbe Prévost's novel in ‘Equivocations’.
Although described as a satire, the style is heavy-handed, slow and at times tortuous. And as though he himself were bored by it all, Monteilhet finishes the brief action in a page and a half at the very end. This is no fault of the translator, Barbara Bray. Undoubtedly in the original, the light touch of a satirist is present. But humour in one language can rarely repeat its essence in another.
August 29, 2025
2.68
no review, just moving on
no review, just moving on
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews