Colette Baudoche

by Maurice Barrès

Quand le traité de Francfort eut donné à l'Allemagne en 1871 l’Alsace et la Lorraine, nombreux sont ceux qui abandonnèrent leur terre natale. Les autres se résignèrent à subir cette mauvaise fortune des armes qui changeait leur nationalité. Mais un trait de plume au bas d'un parchemin peut-il aussi changer les coeurs ? Oui, disaient les vainqueurs, en laissant faire le temps. Trente-sept ans d'occupation allemande ont passé sur Metz quand, le jeune professeur Frédéric Asmus, frais émoulu de l'université de Koenigsberg, vient se loger chez Mme Baudoche et sa petite-fille Colette. A travers elles, il découvre la civilisation française si différente de celle d'outre-Rhin dont il est le représentant typique et c'est finalement le vainqueur qui a le coeur changé.
Colette la moqueuse est touchée par cette métamorphose et serait à son tour bien prés de l'aimer. Quand Frédéric Asmus la demande en mariage, elle a un instant d'hésitation. Mais ce qui eût été posé en d'autres temps ne l'est plus alors que L’Allemagne occupe notre sol et que les tombes de nos soldats vaincus jonchent la campagne. L'attitude morale de Colette la Lorraine, avant 1914, préfigure celle de tous les résistants français après 1940..

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1909

About the author

Auguste-Maurice Barrès (19 August 1862 – 4 December 1923) was a French novelist, journalist and politician. Spending some time in Italy, he became a figure in French literature with the release of his work The Cult of the Self in 1888. In politics, he was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1889 as a Boulangist and would play a prominent political role for the rest of his life.

Barrès was associated in his literary works with Symbolism, a movement which had equivalence with British Aestheticism and Italian Decadentism, indeed he was a close associate of Gabriele d'Annunzio representing the latter. As the name of his trilogy suggests, his works glorified a humanistic love of the self and he also flirted with occult mysticisms in his youth. The Dreyfus affair saw an ideological shift and he was a leading anti-Dreyfusard, popularising the term nationalisme to describe his views. He stood on a platform of "Nationalism, Protectionism and Socialism."

Politically, he became involved with various groups such as the Ligue des Patriotes of Paul Déroulède, which he became the leader of in 1914. Barrès was close to Charles Maurras founder of Action Française, a monarchist party. Despite the fact that he remained a republican, Barrès would have a strong influence on various following French monarchists, as well as various other figures. During the First World War, he was a strong supporter of the Union Sacrée. In later life, Barrès returned to the Catholic faith and was involved in a campaign to restore French church buildings and helped establish 24 June as a national day of remembrance for St. Joan of Arc.

Reviews

[aslan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tié vrmt pas un tigre

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read an English edition published during world war one. It feels a bit mild for a revanchist novel published by a Boulangist. It isn't set right after the occupation of Alsace-Lorraine like the blurp states but 35 years after the siege of Metz. The Prussian is depicted as naively wanting to 'elevate' the French but learns to appreciate the culture.

[Mila]

Narodna prosveta, Beograd