Le règne de l’esprit malin

by Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz

L’homme arriva vers les sept heures ; il faisait grand jour encore, parce qu’on était en été.
Il était maigre, petit ; il boitait un peu ; il portait sur le dos un sac de grosse toile grise.
Il n’y eut point d’étonnement pourtant parmi les femmes qui causaient entre elles devant les maisons, quand elles le virent venir, et les hommes, occupés dans les granges ou les jardins, à peine s’ils levèrent la tête : sûrement que ça devait être un ouvrier de campagne en quête d’ouvrage, comme on en voit passer tous les jours.
Quelques-uns ont une faux au bout du manche de laquelle ils attachent leur baluchon, d’autres portent leurs bottes pendues autour du cou ; il y en a des vieux, des jeunes, des grands, des petits, des moyens, des gras, des pas gras ; quels qu’ils soient et d’où qu’ils viennent, on sait assez qu’ils ne valent pas cher. Toujours la même mauvaise graine, saoulons, fainéants, querelleurs ; et difficiles avec tout ça, capricieux, portés sur leur bouche : la honte des honnêtes gens.
Un de plus, voilà tout ; il faisait très beau, il faisait tout rose, il y avait ce soir-là, on peut le dire, du contentement dans les cœurs.
Extrait.

Genres: Fiction

157 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

C.F. Ramuz was a French-speaking Swiss writer. Born in Lausanne and educated there he moved to Paris in 1903 where he first published a collection of poems, 'Le petit village.' At the outbreak of WWI in 1914 he returned to Switzerland and devoted his life to writing which included the libretto for Igor Stravinsky's 'Histoire du Soldat' in 1918. He died near his home town. His image now appears on the 200 Swiss Franc note and his foundation awards the quintannual Grand Prix C.F. Ramuz.

Reviews

[Jonathan Bogart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Resuming my reading list after an unplanned two-month break means I've got a lot of catching up to do. This short 1917 novel by Swiss social satirist C.-F. Ramuz was a poker-faced delight, maintaining the fantastic conceit of its premise -- the Devil comes to a small Swiss village, and makes it Hell -- with as patient a parody of pastoral naturalism as I've seen. I cheated myself a bit, because I left off reading months ago, just before the third-act resolution, so the impact of the ending was muted for me, but as an entry in my running tally of great forgotten 1910s novels, it deserves rediscovery.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

On a quiet summer evening in a Swiss mountain village, a stranger arrives and offers his services as a shoemaker. He is generous and helpful and soon deceives pretty much everyone in the community.
In allegorical style Ramuz creates an apocalyptic nightmare way ahead of its time (it was originally published in 1917).
Notable is the behaviour of the inhabitants of the village, seemingly helpless, and prepared to accept their fate. They struggle to comprehend what has happened to them in what essentially is a parody of rural naturalism
There is an interesting overlap between this, and Joan Samson's The Auctioneer. In Samson's novel, published in 1975, Perly Dunsmore is the evil stranger who arrives at a rural backwater and enchants the community. Mayhem, destruction and death follow, as with Ramuz. I suspect the great Swiss writer was an influence on Samson.

Contrary to what Goodreads says, this was first published in 1917, rather than 1946. It has had two translations into English, in 2008 by Wildside Press, and in 2014, by James Whitall. I read the earlier version, on Internet Archive, and the translation isn't great, but did not deter from my enjoyment of the book.

[Tim]

Note: read 1922 Harcourt edition.

[Edward Flaherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provided an historical picture of man's interaction with the Swiss alp landscape.

[Hoekermyb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Очень неясные впечатления. Подступался один раз, прочел половину. Сейчас проглотил за одно лежание в ванной - вроде забавно, приятно и понятно, с другой стороны в послесловии его называют великим. Почему, для меня вопрос. Надо думать. Но прочесть пожалуй стоит, делов часа на три.

[Anton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Жутковатая новелла про злоключения некой швейцарской деревушки. Странным образом напомнило Гоголя и последнюю "Воображаемого друга" Чбоски, но по сравнению с последним как-то более убедительно, не говоря уже о том, что короче.