Tuesday books - Ivan Garcia
In Sand castles, A clueless narrator befriends the ghost of Louis XVI and attempts to rehabilitate this controversial historical figure. A picaresque tale that establishes a dialogue between the French present and past.
Louis-Henri de La Rochefoucauld. A very aristocratic name, no doubt evoking, for our dear contemporaries, the author of the Maxims, a classic of 17th-century moralist literatureth century! However, it's not the same La Rochefoucauld who will be the subject of this article, but one of his distant descendants, the writer and literary critic Louis-Henri de La Rochefoucauld.
For the start of the 2021 literary season, the author of The French Revolution (Gallimard, 2013) has published his ninth novel, entitled Sand castles (Robert Laffont). The narrator-character, also known as Louis-Henri de La Rochefoucauld, struggles to lead a life worthy of his rank. Descended from a noble family deposed after the revolution of 1789, the Louis-Henri of the XXIth siècle juggles his poorly paid job as a journalist, his wife Hortense who wants him to earn more money and his daughter Isaure, a real bundle of energy, as well as his claim to write books. Quite a program!
Then, one evening, while walking through Paris, the protagonist stumbles upon a clandestine bar frequented by royalists and run by the eloquent Lemoine, a former officer in the Foreign Legion wishing to restore the monarchy and founder of the «RPR» (Rassemblement pour le roi) party. In this disreputable tavern, Louis-Henri meets a certain Robinson who is, in reality, the ghost of Louis XVI, who asks him to become his «negro» and write his biography to restore his image.
- While you're forcing it, and if you accept, I've got a mission for you.
- Which one?
- Be my nigger.
- I beg your pardon?
- As a ghost king, I need a ghost writer. Not to brag, but I'm not satisfied with what's been written about me so far. I once had this to say to my loyal Malesherbes, who preceded you to me: «I prefer to let my silences be interpreted rather than my words...».»
The seventeen chapters that make up this picaresque tale are full of laughter and adventure. So is a healthy dose of self-mockery from the hero, who is lucid about his less-than-stellar condition and, at the same time, touching in the face of adversity. Through his character, the author delivers an alternative reading of French history from the point of view of the «losers» of the French Revolution, namely the nobles. The event depicted loses its romanticism to become an enormous bloody slaughter orchestrated by ambitious young men and disreputable little people. Some people, such as the radical Lemoine, saw the revolution as a «religious war» and wanted to wipe the slate clean of this catastrophic event.
While writing his work on Louis XVI, whom he affectionately nicknamed «Obélix de Bourbon», Louis-Henri meditated on his genealogy and on the Revolution, notably by reading the essay The Ancien Régime and the Revolution by Alexis de Tocqueville, and explores the personalities of other players in this major historical event, such as Marie-Antoinette (also alive and well in the book!).
There's so much to write about this story, so rich in historical anecdotes and humor, that it proves to be a gateway to a different approach to French history. Louis-Henri's adventure as the king's historiographer provides a welcome escape from his gloomy daily routine, and gives him a new lease on life. Ultimately, perhaps this is what the author (and his character) wish to convey to readers, notably through the title Sand castles, moments of reverie.
Write to the author: ivan.garcia@leregardlibre.com
Photo credit: © Jaime Spaniol on Unsplash
Louis-Henri de La Rochefoucauld
Sand castles
Editions Robert Laffont
2021
243 pages
French 
German 
English