Le grand jamais

by Elsa Triolet

Le héros de ce roman est un mort. De son vivant, Régis Lalande a été un historien qui ne croyait pas à la vérité historique. Après sa mort, avec la gloire posthume, il se trouve qu'il devient lui-même une démonstration de sa thèse : en effet, avait-il des yeux noirs ou bleus ? Avait-il la foi ou non ? Ses écrits relevaient-ils de l'Histoire ou du roman ? Qui a raison, de sa femme, la fidèle infidèle qui défend sa mémoire, ou de ceux qui lisent son oeuvre à leur manière ?

344 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1977

About the author

Elsa Yur'evna Triolet (September 24 1896 - June 16, 1970) was a French writer.

Born Ella Kagan (Russian: Элла Каган) into a Jewish family of a lawyer and a music teacher in Moscow, she and her sister, Lilya Brik received excellent educations; they were able to speak fluent German and French and play the piano. Elsa graduated from the Moscow Institute of Architecture.

Elsa enjoyed poetry and in 1915 befriended the aspiring futurist poet and graphic artist Vladimir Mayakovsky. When she invited him home, the poet fell madly in love with her older sister Lilya, who was married to Osip Brik. Elsa was the first to translate Mayakovsky's poetry (as well as volumes of other Russian-language poetry) to French.

In 1918, at the outset of Russian Civil War, Elsa married the French cavalry officer André Triolet and emigrated to France, but for years in her letters to Lilya Elsa admitted to being heartbroken. Later she divorced Triolet.

In the early 1920s, Elsa described her visit to Tahiti in her letters to Victor Shklovsky, who subsequently showed them to Maxim Gorky. Gorky suggested that the author should consider a literary career. The 1925 book In Tahiti, written in Russian, was based on these letters.

In 1928 Elsa met French writer Louis Aragon. They married and stayed together for 42 years. She influenced Aragon to join the French Communist Party. Triolet and Aragon fought in the French Resistance.

In 1944 Triolet was the first woman to be awarded the Prix Goncourt.

She died, aged 73, in Moulin de Villeneuve, Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines, France of a heart attack.

In 2010, La Poste, the French post office, issued three stamps honoring Triolet.

Reviews

[yelenska · Rating 4 out of 5]

plutôt un 3.5*
un très bon livre, mais ça s'est un peu trop éternisé et je suis un peu dubitative quant à la fin du livre. pourquoi s'étendre pour montrer ça en plus ? était-ce nécessaire ? je trouvais qu'il y en avait déjà assez, et je dis ça alors que j'ai adoré suivre Madeleine tout le long du livre.
des réflexions intéressantes sur l'Histoire et ses falsifications, toujours et toujours. quelques conclusions avec lesquelles je suis d'accord, d'autres non.
une très bonne idée de livre, je pense qu'on peut dire que c'est presque un "roman à thèse" ?

[Pascale · Rating 3 out of 5]

As clever as it is old-fashioned. The story starts with Régis Lalande, a history teacher, commenting on what's happening at his own funeral. What Lalande had never imagined is that he would become famous posthumously, in large part due to the efforts of his "disciple" Bernard, who starts to see traces of a spiritual quest in Lalande's work, and finds many readers only too keen to believe in his interpretation. Initially attracted to Bernard, Lalande's beautiful young widow becomes more and more disturbed by what she sees as a betrayal of Lalande and a misappropriation of his legacy. Although she makes every effort to set the record straight, Madeleine finds that her word as a widow, and what's more, one with no intellectual credentials (she works for a wall-paper company) doesn't count for much when all sorts of factions have vested interest in claiming Lalande for their own camp. Eventually she has a short affair with Destaing, the sculptor chosen to erect a statue to Lalande, and the book ends with a brilliant description of Madeleine's visit to the monument. The numerous interventions in the author's voice make the book feel dated because meta fiction of this kind is no longer seen as new and daring. Nonetheless there's much that's of interest here and I do expect this novel, and possibly Triolet's entire œuvre, to be re-appraised sooner or later. Being half of one of the most celebrated literary couples of her day, Triolet knew a great deal about how literary reputations are made, and what she has to say on the subject is fascinating. I wish she had been even more specific about the ideological fights that are the background of this story, but maybe she didn't want to anchor it too narrowly in the Paris of the 1950s and 60s. This novel is also remarkable for its many passages about the nature of time and truth, which are sometimes as good as what you find in Proust.

[Pauline · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

Enterrement de son mari dans le premier chapitre, nous suivons Madeleine sur les traces de son mari, auteur historique. J’ai eu du mal à suivre parfois (ou bien est ce que le début ne m’intéressait pas ?) mais j’ai aimé les passages sur l’histoire et surtout les biographies. Comment bien retranscrire une vérité historique quand chacun a sa vérité ? Est ce que cette vérité historique existe vraiment et peut être écrite ? Qu’est ce que la vérité historique ? (Et puis.. ce voyage en Bavière auprès des châteaux de Louis II <3)

[Rumimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

propos sur l'histoire que je ne peux pas accepter (la vérité historique existe, les faits existent, le métier d'historien est scientifique). mais écriture de Triolet délicieuse, personnage féminin à son habitude merveille de subtilité et d'ambivalences.

[Kristina Yordanova · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good start but after that it was cycling around the same thing

[Maude Genter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Triolet rate jamais son coup et je rampe à ses pieds clairement
Un roman sur la vérité historique avec un perso feminin complexe ET des réflexions sur le temps, le vide, la perception ??? Incroyable
C'est l'histoire d'un historien, qui ne croit pas à la vérité historique et qui fait écrire des faux papiers d'histoire à sa femme, qui meurt dès le début. On suit sa femme dans son combat pour qu'on ne récupère pas ses textes et les interprètes n'importe comment. Il est devenu la réalisation de sa propre thèse.