L'Enfant

Jacques Vingtras #1

by Jules Vallès, Bertrand Louët (notes, questionnaires et dossier)

The Child is a story about growing up that is comparable in humor and humanity to Great Expectations, even as its unflinching exposure of violence and hypocrisy foreshadows the nightmare realsim of Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Jules Vallès, an anarchist and a bohemian, dedicated his book "to all those who were bored stiff at school or reduced to tears at home, who in childhood were bullied by their teachers or thrashed by their parents," and it tells the (autobiographical) tale of a young boy constantly scapegoated and abused, emotionally and physically, by his peasant mother and schoolteacher father, whose greatest concern is to improve their social status. But the young hero learns to stand up to his parents, even to love them, in time, and for all the intense pain the book registers it is anything but dreary. To the contrary, Vallès’s book is one of the funniest in French literature, a triumph of insubordinate comedy over the forces of order and the self-appointed defenders of decency.

Genres: Classics, France, Fiction, French Literature, 19th Century, Roman, Novels

349 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1878

About the author

Jules Vallès est un journaliste, écrivain et homme politique français d'extrême gauche.

Fondateur du journal Le Cri du Peuple, il fait partie des élus lors de la Commune de Paris en 1871. Condamné à mort, il doit s'exiler à Londres de 1871 à 1880.

Reviews

[Wissal H · Rating 4 out of 5]

J’aime bien les romans racontés par les enfants et ses versions angéliques et visions naïves des faits et celui-ci c’est l’un de ces beaux romans ♥️
Le petit Jaques raconte ses journées entre son école et sa maison avec sa petite famille !
Sa façon de décrire les événements et les personnages était avec une douceur incroyable d’un petit ange curieux et plein d’énergie, il ne s’arrête plus de parler et de poser des questions.
Passionné par sa famille, fasciné par ses faits et amoureux de sa maman .. Beaucoup d'amour et plein d'espoir .

J’ai aimé les moments passants pendant cette lecture ♥️

[Fabrice del Dongo · Rating 5 out of 5]

j'ai eu l'impression de me faire supra-trauma dump par une copine rigolote en fin de soirée

(blague à part : méga dur à lire, larmes-tiers, par contre la plume assez légère et pleine d'esprit rend le récit souvent amusant)

[Siv30 · Rating 3 out of 5]

סיפור ילדותו המזעזעת והמוכה של המספר. מתוך ילדות עשוקה שכללה מכות רצח, הרעבה עד כדי התענגות על החוט שקושר את העוף והאבסה בבשר, הלבשה בבגדים שתפורים מבגדים תחתוניים מגוחכים, אישפוז בבית משוגעים, ולפינלה התעללות בבית הספר הצליח לצמוח סופר בעל שיעור קומה הנלחם על זכויות ילדים.

ספר די מזעזע. בכנות. הישבן של המסכן הפך לעור סוליה מרוב הצלפות. לא ברור לי איך שרד את הקטסטרופה הזו.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A great nineteenth-century novel translated into English for the first time.”

So says the back cover of this book, and I have to agree.

I was gripped even from the dedication.

“I dedicate this book all those who were bored stiff at school or reduced to tears at home, who in childhood were bullied by their teachers or thrashed by their parents.”

Jacques, the young hero is thrashed by his parents in the very first chapter. They are unhappy people, concerned only with their social status and advancement, and with no love, no empathy at all for their young son.

I worried that this would be a depressing and distressing read. And at times it was, but it was also something special indeed.

A neighbour saw what was happening and came to the aid of young Jacques. She realised that making a fuss would not help and so she offered to beat the child to save his mother the trouble. But instead of beating him she clapped her hand while he yelled, and gave him candy.

And so Jacques’ spirit was not broken.

His story went on, not with great drama but through the things – day-to-day routine, trips, family events and, of course, school – that make up a childhood.

Like so many children, before and since, Jacques had a strong survival instinct, and he only realised in time that his situation was not usual. He carried on.

He didn’t look to his parents, he looked out at the world, observing everything he saw so closely.

And his perspective is beautifully realised – idiosyncratic, sometimes witty, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, and always utterly believable.

Jacques never received approval from his parents, and so he didn’t look for it from others. Insubordination and independence came to him quite naturally. Particularly at school, which he didn’t care for at all!

I was sorry to have to part company with Jacques when he reached adulthood.

But I won’t forget him, and I’m hoping that the two sequels to this book are translated into English one day. If they aren’t I’m going to have to think about brushing up my French!

[Tarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine faszinierende Lektüre. Erzählt in diesem Teil die Kinder- und Jugendjahre von Jacques Vingtras, der als Sohn einer Bauernmutter, die sich aus ihrer Herkunft befreit hat, und eines Lehrers auf. Ganz viel Grausamkeit im Elternhaus, häufige Umzüge, von Klein- bis Mittel- bis Großstadt. Mit einer unfassbar modernen, direkten, aber atmosphärisch reichen Sprache schildert Jules Vallès diese autobiographisch angehauchte Handlung, reiht verschiedenste Szenen aneinander und erschafft so ein plastisches Bild von Frankreich zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Bis auf die zu große Sprunghaftigkeit und die Tempusprobleme zu Beginn ein grandioses Buch (später erklärt sich der Wechsel zwischen Präsens und Präteritum dadurch, das Jacques die Aufzeichnungen zeitgleich anfertigt, zugleich aber der Erzähler von einem späteren Zeitpunkt auf den Erzählzeitraum blickt. Das ist am Anfang nicht plausibel, weil Jacques zu jung ist).

[sheereen · Rating 3 out of 5]

sooper french (complimentary)

[Chuck LoPresti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not exactly hilarious (but it is funny) or unflinching (yet gripping and fairly brutal at times) but a very enjoyable coming of age read. Somewhere between Farrell's O'Neil saga and Moricz's Be Faithful Until Death in terms of humor and brutality. A young boy's parents demonstrate their lack of social intelligence by attempting to define their social status by their parenting. Beating after beating fails to do anything other than alienate a boy from his studies and his parents. The boy sees the joy and tenderness of members of the non-academic literary classes juxtaposed with the boredom of classical studies and those-who-can't and of course chooses the former.

The violence isn't really unflinching compared to the feral brutality of Platonov e.g. but what is unsettling is the characterization of the people in his life. Not since Farrell's Liz O'Neil have I spent a few hundred pages with such a loathsome creature as the boy's mother. She is vain, bitter, crass and pathetic at the same time. His father isn't much better. But all isn't lost - humor and a love of life keep young Jacques alive and focused on a better day to come.

This is a brisk read that sort of moves like a can kicked down a back alley by a boy too engaged in his thoughts to proceed homeward in any type of linear fashion. Valles' prose is elegantly simple and at times rather beautiful but purple only when bruised. What's being said here has been said many times before but that didn't prevent me from enjoying the experience.

Valles tells a good story and his pages are populated with Krudy-like descriptions of local food and drink that remind us that we are not just who we are and what we eat but rather we are how we eat and how we came to be.

[rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading the autobiographical L'Enfant, I was often reminded of Dickens' Great Expectations – especially earlier on, when the world is seen and described through the eyes of an ingenuous, impressionable, mistreated, poor boy. Yet Vallès' tale, though lacking in intrepid adventures, cold-hearted women and convoluted plots, is far more real, and in this way it also reminded me at times of the Rougon-Macquart series. Everything does not fall into place in orderly Victorian fashion; the body and the peasantry are granted as important a place as the spiritual life of the individual; the protagonist's character truly develops over the course of his childhood and his struggles are far from over when the novel ends. It was with fascination that I realised, once I had finished it, that the narrative perspective evolved as the pseudonymic "Jacques Vingtras" grew older: for example, as a child he sees his parents as figures representing threats or deserving admiration; yet once he is a teenager, they appear as obstacles to his independence, embarrassing and human, deserving pity as well as inspiring annoyance. The novel is filled with endearing episodes of country walks and cousins exchanging kisses, and a great many grotesquely comic occurences. Vallès both idealises and ironises, and ends up drawing a surprisingly modern and intelligent portrait of childhood in the 19th century.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'enfant est le premier volume de la trilogie Jacques Vingtras qui raconte la vie de Jules Valles de sa naissance jusqu'a la chute du commnue de Paris. Il vaut mieux lire les trois (L'enfant etant le premier et l'Insurge etant le dernier) dans leur ordre de parution.

L'Enfant est un récit autobiographique ou l'auteur décrit une enfance penible et pleines d'humiliations. Ce roman fait penser a L'enfance de Gorki. Dans les deux cas, une enfance douleureuse semble avoir pousser l'auteur a un engagement politique radicale dans la vie adulte.

Je recommende ce roman et la trilogie Jacques Vingtras en entire a tout étudiant en histoire car il montre bien le chemin parcouru par un revolutionnaire de métier depuis la naissance jusqu'au tombeau.

[Thodoris Patsatzis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ένα κλασσικό αριστούργημα. Εξαιρετικός ο τρόπος που ο συγγραφέας σε μεταφέρει στα παιδικά του και εφηβικά του χρόνια που οι γονείς του τον έδερναν ανηλεώς. Σε συνεπαίρνει σε ένα ταξίδι μεταδίδοντας άψογα τα συναισθήματά του, τις σκέψεις του την ατμόσφαιρα της εποχής, τις ταξικές διαφορές της κοινωνίας που μεγάλωσε. Σε κάνει να κλαις γοερά για το θάνατο της μικρής Λουϊζέτ, σε κάνει να σιχαθείς τη μικροαστική νοοτροπία καθυστερημένων τμημάτων της εργατικής τάξης, σε κάνει να φωνάξεις μαζί του ότι θα υπερασπιστείς τα δικαιώματα του παιδιού και όπως και οι Κομμουνάροι τα δικαιώματα του ανθρώπου. Στα ελληνικά η αυτοβιογραφία των παιδικών χρόνων του Ζιλ Βαλές έχει εκδοθεί από τις εκδόσεις "Αποσπερίτης" σε μετάφραση Γιούλης Αναστοπούλου.

[Salomé]

J’ai pris beaucoup de plaisir à lire ce roman. La plume de Jules Valles est piquante et ironique à souhait ! C’est un classique qui n’a pas des allures effrayantes et qui se lit facilement.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is an autobiographical reflection by Jules Vallès, as with remarkable detail he recaptures his childhood, writing through the eyes of a child in childlike language, but written by an adult. This combines two genres – reflective autobiography but also novels written by adults aimed at children. Could you write about your childhood in such detail and describe your feelings, activities, and events through the lens you had as a child? This is very challenging, but Vallès pulls this off with aplomb. To the extent that the reader wonders just how strong the memory actually was, or was some of this fiction?

The novel is a noteworthy achievement, in which the author alternates between present and past tenses. Vallès captures well how, as a growing child, he (as protagonist he is named in the book Jacques Vingtras) was mystified and struggled to comprehend the world of grown-ups. He feels guilty when wrongly blamed for causing his father to lacerate his hand when carving a toy cart. Throughout, Jacques goes willingly through all the motions of accepting the parental program, but something in him prevents total adhesion to their plans – he is quietly resistant. He cannot, for example, pray at Mass without dissolving into giggles. This novel has a few scenes of defiant laughter by Jacques in the face of his joy-killing parents, especially his tyrannical, brutal, bullying mother.

The translator, Douglas Parmée (1914–2008) deserves a special mention. He was a lecturer in modern languages at Cambridge and a Lifetime Fellow of Queens' College. What a great job he did! Take one of the many vivacious scenes of the child's view, necessarily fragmented, but intense for all that. This is from page 59 after his mother threatens Jacques with a beating. Jacques is thinking:

“Those bright little spots, those cheerful patches of color, those sounds of toys, those penny trumpets, those sweets wrapped in lace corsets, those sugared almonds looking like drunkards’ noses, those crude hues and delicate flavors, that soldier who oozes, that sugar which melts, those delights for greedy eyes, those tasty tidbits for the tongue, those smells of glue, those scents of vanilla, that debauchery of the nose, that bold brassy blare striking the eardrum, that whiff of madness, that little surge of hot blood – how wonderful it all is, once a year! What a pity my mother’s not deaf!”

There are oases of pleasure amid the deserts and other badlands of a largely brutalized childhood; these are provided by various kindly relatives or neighbours, and offset, but never cancel, the parental cruelty. Jacques everywhere seeks to make something positive out of his miserable context. How did he do this? This is for the reader to ponder.

As Jacques grows up, his sexual awareness develops in ways that many readers will recognize from their pasts. other age. Sex, sensory rapture, and humour fight a running battle with forbidding parents and oppressive school life, in which he is frequently sent to detention. Vallès contrasts this with the boisterous and unruly local pub – all noise, laughing, and deals, just as Vallès contrasts Jacques grim household with the local jail.
There is privilege in Jacques’ life, but he notices it in others – favored at school because of a better class of parent, for example. Themes of power and influence are scattered throughout. Take this extract from page 203:

“Monsieur Larbeau – that’s his name – doesn’t much care about his students: he pampers the sons of anyone who’s influential and handles them gently; he’s become very popular with them because he treats them like big boys, but he’s not very hard on the others, either… As long as you laugh at his jokes – he likes punning and sometimes organizes charades; he’s known as “The Parisian.

I think he sees me as something of a ninny – because I don’t find his jokes funny; in addition, he’s heard from a schoolmate, who’s taking private lessons from him, that I wanted at one time to be a cobbler and that now I’d like to be a blacksmith. He also thinks I’m common; furthermore my mother seems to him vulgar and my father strikes him as a poor devil.”

For Vallès, envy is not some sterile, mean-spirited emotion, but can spring energetically from frustration and a powerful desire for a fuller, more natural life. Usually enviers want to hoard for themselves: Vallès to spread the good things of life round anybody denied them. Jacques likes sweets only when he has a surplus windfall and rationing is no longer imposed on him. When he earns or wins some money, he feels guilt and either returns it or asks his mother to keep it for him.

Toward the end of the book, it becomes clear that Jacques mother does love him, despite the beatings for no good reason and her vetoing of all occasions for pleasure. Another contrast is of a little girl being systematically beaten to death by her ‘rationalist’ father – when Jacques takes some memory of her with him, his mother cruelly seizes it. It was bad for Jacques, but it could have been worse.

I want to acknowledge a review of this book by the late Walter Redfern, emeritus professor of French literature at Reading University, where he was a top scholar of French literature and who has died in 2014 aged 78. This review gave me greater insight into Douglas Parmée’s translation as well as into Vallès story.

Finally, a note on context that reads will want to know, “A left-wing activist, journalist, and novelist, Vallès (1832-85) wrote most of his great three-part fictionalized autobiography, Jacques Vingtras (1879-86), while in exile in London. Volume 1 of that work, The Child, was issued pseudonymously and is here translated into English for the first time. Volume 3, Insurrectionist, appeared in English in 1971 (translated by Sandy Petrey), exactly a hundred years after the Paris Commune it stirringly depicts. Volume 2, The Graduate (1881), remains untranslated, depriving non-Francophones of access to the complete work, which is a literary classic and one of the 19th century's most forward-looking texts (both Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Albert Camus acknowledged its influence on their work).” I gleaned this from an article in Choice (volume 44); December 2006, p. 4.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Bildungsroman I've ever read besides The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Denton Welch's incomparable In Youth is Pleasure. It is also one of the funniest novels I've ever read. He is funny in the way that Woody Allen is funny--but it is more funny than he. An obvious influence on Celine.

The book reminded me of the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore in its impossible balance of complete absurdity and very particular tenderness. Somehow the hilarity of the exaggeration does not undermine the reality and subtlety required for the experiences of the child to be moving.

God bless the 19th century, when novels had to be about something, when they had to entertain, when they were, essentially, what movies are to us now.

[myriam kisfaludi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Très beau livre. Heureusement que l'on n'élève et n'éduque plus les enfants comme du temps de Jules Valles! c'est une grande preuve d'émotion de savoir retransmettre ses douleurs et ses souffrances avec autant d'humour.

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

sortie brutale du livre comme on sort de l'enfance.
grand, fort, libre, avec quelques larmes jolies et grises.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jules Vallès est un insurgé, un révolutionnaire, un rebelle. Difficile de faire la part du récit de l'enfant, et de la réécriture de la légende personnelle de l'adulte dans ce récit.

Ce livre décrit comment de son enfance malheureuse, battue ; de l'observation de son entourage, se dégage ce qui deviendra sa philosophie. Par exemple, il oppose volontiers son oncle, travailleur manuel, s'attablant pour faire bonne chère et boisson, bon vivant ; à son père, bachelier, qui semble mener une existence grise. Sa mère, avec laquelle il entretient une relation ambigüe - on sent qu'il devrait la détester mais ne peut s'y résoudre - est malgré elle un ressort comique quand elle sort ou qu'elle va au restaurant (par ses manières, sa pingrerie, ses origines paysannes auvergnates qui ressortent aux moments les plus incongrus).

L'humour est bien présent dans ce livre car Vallès a un regard caustique sur le monde qui l'entoure, sa famille et lui-même. Cependant le drame n'est jamais loin. Ce livre est une lecture intéressante pour quiconque s'intéresse au milieu du XIXème siècle. Il décrit de façon vivante, non seulement la ville, la nourriture, mais également la dureté de la vie des gens (comme cette petite fille battue à mort par ses parents ou sa cousine qui se fait bonne soeur apparemment pas de gaité de coeur).

Malgré la première scène qui est d'une grande virtuosité, j'ai eu un peu de mal à accrocher au début du livre qui n'est qu'une juxtaposition de réminiscences de son enfance. J'ai mieux aimé après le première tiers, car la narration devenait moins décousue.

Quelques citations : "Ce professorat a fait de moi une vieille bête qui a besoin d'avoir l'air méchant, et qui le devient, à force de faire le croquemitaine et les yeux creux..."

"
"Tu as vendu tes livres de prix, Jacques !..."
Pourquoi pas ? Si quelque chose est à moi, c'est bien ces bouquins, il me semble ! Je les aurais gardé, si j'avais trouvé dedans ce que coûte le pain et comment on le gagne. Je n'y ai trouvé que des choses de l'autre monde !
"

"C'est que dans la face de ce laveur de guenille plus blanc que son mouchoir mal lavé, j'avais lu sa vie !
Ce livre me disait qu'il avait été écolier aussi, lauréat peut-être. Je m'étais rappelé tout d'un coup toute l'existence de mon père, les proviseurs bêtes, les élèves cruels, l'inspecteur lâche, et le professeur toujours humilié, malheureux, menacé de disgrâce !"

"je ne suis plus l'enfant qui arrivait du Puy tout craintif et tout simple. Je n'avais lu que le catéchisme et je croyais aux revenants. Je n'avais peur que de ce que je voyais pas, du bon Dieu, du diable ; j'ai peur aujourd'hui de ce que je vois : peur des maîtres méchants, des mères jalouses et des pères désespérés. J'ai touché la vie de mes doigts pleins d'encre. J'ai eu à pleurer sous des coups injustes et à rire des sottises et des mensonges que les grandes personnes disaient."

[Cristian-Dan Grecu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiind deja pe la jumătatea celui de-al treilea volum, înțeleg povestea personajului principal - mai degrabă, a autorului - ceea ce-mi oferă posibilitatea unei viziuni în perspectivă asupra primului volum. Ar fi multe de spus despre această carte, dar, ce poate fi văzut drept ideea cheie este fix ceea se perpetuează și-n zi de astăzi. O lume grea, într-o societate blocată între „ce se spune că trebuie făcut” și realitatea dureroasă a vieții de zi cu zi.

O lume unde, reiese din acest volum, tot greul acumulat de adulți se răsfrânge asupra copilului. Unde primează frustrările existențiale, neîmplinirea, deformările sinelui ambilor părinți, ale învățătorilor, profesorilor, unchilor, mătușilor, a tuturora care populează lumea imediată și încă restrânsă a celor încă prea tineri ca să-și asume un anume grad de autonomie sau de libertate.

Viața lui Jacques este una grea și, în ciuda bătăilor primite și nedreptăților pe care le resimte zi de zi, încearcă constant să-și câștige un gram de libertate și demnitate. Lumea nu-i permite să devină ceea ce își dorește, existând un antagonism constant între sine și restul, care reprezintă diverse forme de autoritate, într-un stat care parcă doar ieri se întâmplase Revoluția și într-un stat în care tumultul social nu contenea să se oprească.

Nu aș da exemple clare, pentru că este la latitudinea fiecăruia dintre noi să alegem ceea ce ne este apropiat, cu ce putem empatiza și cu ce rămânem în urma unui text citit. La urma urmei, este o carte a cărei acțiune se petrece în urmă cu peste 170 de ani.

Dar, cel puțin pentru mine, citind acest volum, m-a readus pe căile și drumurile pe care le-am străbătut eu la vârstele pe care le avusese autorul. Multe noutăți nu am aflat, le știam deja de la mine sau de la cunoscuți de-ai mei. Cu ce am rămas este că, în ciuda multor schimbări în toți acești 180-170 de ani, unele lucruri nu se schimbă, iar cele ce sunt neschimbate sunt cauze ce duc la aceleași concluzii, aceleași efecte individuale și colective, dar într-un alt cadru, al timp, al spațiu.

Pe scurt, volumul I a fost preludiul celui de-al doilea (normal, nu?), care volumul 2 este, mai degrabă, ceea ce trăim mulți dintre noi acuma, la vârstele pe care le avem: greutatea de a ne găsi un loc în lume, un loc care să ne asigure fidelitatea față de noi înșine, autonomia socială, economică și o viață cel puțin decentă.

(această recenzie deloc îndetaliată este scrisă atât pentru a-mi exersa scrisul, cât și pentru a încerca, pe cât posibil, promovarea literaturii sociale - socialiste - de secol XIX)

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's really sad to see how Jacques internalises all the violence and abuse in his childhood. His parents were simply cruel and hit him every day of his life, and yet he was convinced that he deserved all of it. I really enjoyed how simplistic this novel's writing was, as it's in a child's point of view, which furthermore underlined the horrors of Jacques' coming of age. Knowing that this novel is autobiographical made me feel even more sorry for Jules Vallès.
However, even though L'Enfant was extremely impactful, it did feel repetitive and slow at times. I was often counting how many pages were left in a chapter, and the number of characters could also be difficult to follow.

[Tim Palfreman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book.

It is an autobiographical novel, reminiscent of David Copperfield, though with a lighter touch and less melodrama. It tells the story of Jacques, growing up in provincial France in the mid 1800’s. His mother is a peasant with little education, his father is a school master. They both physically and mentally abuse Jacques when he is a small boy. His misery and confusion is difficult to read about. As he grows he starts to portray his parents as sad and comical figures. His humorous account of them is his revenge and his means of survival and therapy. We follow Jacques to boarding school in Paris, then back home to Nantes for a moving finale. It’s beautifully translated, with lots of pathos, humour and irony.

Day 5 of my 2024 Advent Calendar of Books. A worthy inclusion!

[iness farrah · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'enfant was really a great book for me, the child Jacques Vintgras narrated his life really amazingly. Jacques is in reality Jules Valles, so whenever I read about the hard life he's gone through, I think; all of this has made him a great man.
The most important character in my opinion is the mother and she always used to say 'Il ne faut pas gater les enfants'. She's somehow right about it because this way children will never dare to mistreat their parents when they grow up.
And the most part that I liked was when Jacques's friend told him about the way his mother was bringing him oranges( which were so expensive) to school and that she's never beaten him before; so Jacques said that his mother is not a good mother and that she doesn't deserve the love her son gives her.

[Anastasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'ai beaucoup aimé le début: un personnage drole, mais qui faisait pitié et la description d'une epoque radicalement différente de la mienne. J'ai eu beaucoup de mal à finir par contre parce que je trouve que tous les problemes deviennent redondants, encore et encore la meme chose, avec la mere qui l'aime donc le bat etc.

Le style de Jules Vallès reste impressionant: "A tous ceux qio creverent d'ennui au college ou qu'on fit pleurer dans la famille, furent tyrannisés par leurs maitres ou rossés par leurs parents je dédie ce livre."

[Jacques · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful insight into the early life of the writer. The tableau of the era is really enjoyable with an attention given to details, and the construction of the characters often gives a good laugh (especially the mother). A great read, it only lacks another layer of serving a stylistic and aesthetic purpose

[Alba M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An "age conscious" novel, the story is told by a child protagonist who recognizes his age as the reason for his oppression. "As long as I'm still a boy, my father can make me cry and bleed; I've got to obey and respect him". Similar in this aspect to "Boy" by James Hanley but much less depressing despite the subject matter.

[ジュリアン Len · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jules Valles et son style très marqué classique littérature française nous livre ici une histoire assez émouvante, parfois drôle, sur la vie d'un enfant et de sa famille.
Le style est descriptif, mais très bien écrit je n'ai pas trouvé la lecture lourde même si parfois c'est assez dense.
Ce roman fait partie d'une trilogie que je compte également découvrir.

[Alberto Stracuzzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romanzo di formazione, primo di una trilogia, scritta da un militante della Comune di Parigi: un urlo contro l'autoritarismo paterno e materno, una pietra tombale su quell'orrida istituzione della famiglia.

[Bruno · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai tout aimé dans ce livre, le ton, les tableaux dépeints par Vallès, la tendresse pour la campagne, l'immersion dans la vie de l'époque. C'est attendrissant et bucolique, poignant et révoltant, à lire absolument !

[Anna Tuche · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai beaucoup aimé ce livre même si j'ai été contrainte à le le lire (HLP). Il nous partage la vie intéressante d'un enfant. La vision que nous donne l'auteur de sa manière de pensée est très intéressante. Et ce dans le contexte particulier de la Révolution...

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good

[Noor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it

[Ines Ziane · Rating 5 out of 5]

je veux être enterrée avec cette dinguerie