Το σπίτι του λαού

by Louis Guilloux, Λουί Γκιγιού, Κώστας Αλάτσης (Translator)

Η καλύτερη προπαγάνδα είναι αυτή που γίνεται από στόμα σε στόμα, στο εργαστήριο και το εργοτάξιο. Μόνο με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις θα κάνουμε κάτι. Μας χρειάζεται ένα σπίτι...ένα Σπίτι του Λαού, όπου θα στεγάσουμε τα συνδικάτα μας. Αλλά θα χρειαστεί εμείς οι ίδιοι να το χτίσουμε. Στο σπίτι μας, θα είμαστε ελεύθεροι. Θα κάνουμε διαλέξεις για τους εργάτες, για τα παιδιά. Πρέπει να είμαστε μορφωμένοι σαν κι αυτούς. Από εκεί θ' αρχίσουμε την επανάσταση.

129 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Louis Guilloux was a French known for his Social Realist novels describing working class life and political struggles in the mid-twentieth century. His best-known book is Le Sang noir (Black Blood), which has been described as a "prefiguration of Sartre's La Nausée."

Before becoming a professional writer, literary translator and interpreter, Guilloux worked in various trades, including journalism. He was well known for his fluency in the English language. He married in 1924, and published La Maison du Peuple in 1927.

The success of the book led to a long series of novels on socially committed themes, usually based in his native Brittany. His masterpiece Le Sang Noir was notable for its departure from his earlier, more staightforwardly socialist literature, since it contains elements of what was later associated with an existentialist or absurdist vision. It centres on the suicidal thoughts of the anti-hero, Cripure, who feels overwhelming disgust at humanity in the destructive circumstances of militarism during World War I.

Contrasted with the figure of Cripure is the nominal hero, Lucien, who aspires to work for a better future. But the grotesque and self-excoriating visions of Cripure are repeatedly portrayed as more powerful and compelling than Lucien's idealism. The book was translated into English under the title Bitter Victory.

Le Pain des Rêves (Bread of Dreams), which he wrote during the Occupation, won the Prix du roman populiste in 1942. After the liberation of France, Guilloux worked as an interpreter for the American Army of occupation. In "OK Joe!" he explored racial inequalities and injustice in the segregated American army of the time. Guilloux's experiences at this time are described by Alice Kaplan in her 2006 book The Interpreter.

His 1949 novel Le Jeu de Patience (Game of Patience) won the Prix Renaudot. It has been described as his most experimental work, "an intricate text demanding patient reconstitution by the reader. Micro- and macro-history collide: the horrors of war, and anarchist and Popular Front politics or right-wing coups, impinge violently on private dramas. It is a haunted kaleidoscope, often hallucinatory."

Guilloux was also a translator of a number of books, including the novel 'Home to Harlem' written by black American author Claude McKay, published in 1932 under the title Ghetto Noir. He also translated John Steinbeck, Margaret Kennedy, and Robert Didier, and some of the Hornblower series of novels by C.S. Forester. Towards the end of his life he created scripts for television adaptations of literary classics.

Louis Guilloux was friendly with many notable writers. He knew the philosopher Jean Grenier from his teenage years, and was close to Albert Camus. He was also friends with André Malraux and Jean Guéhenno. Camus praised his work highly, and compared his story Compagnons (Companions) to Leo Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich.'

Reviews

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roman racontant l'activité d'une section de la SFIO dans un coin plutôt rural de Bretagne jusqu'à la première guerre mondiale, vue par le fils d'un cordonnier. Arrive à bien retransmettre l'énergie militante les espoirs mais aussi leur illusion (municipalisme) et dénonce l'arrivisme /opportunisme au sein de la SFIO. Si le style littéraire ne m'a pas vraiment marqué je trouve le récit quand même prenant

[Fx Smeets]

(English version further down)



Avec Louis Guilloux, la France a sa Nell Dunn, après tout. Ou plutôt devrais-je dire: avec Nell Dunn, l’Angleterre a son Paul Guilloux. Me voici de nouveau à découvrir des oeuvres 80 ans après leur publication, à m’étonner de leur modernité et à me demander comment elles ont pu tomber dans l’oubli. Ecrivain social et socialiste, à une époque où ce mot avait une force qu’il a perdu, Louis Guilloux a écrit son premier roman avec une sobriété bolchevique. S’étant dépouillé des restes de lyrisme qu’on trouve chez Jules Vallès, échappant encore à la propagande stalinienne, La Maison du peuple est un livre brut, d’une nudité totale. On le dit largement autobiographique, pourtant Guilloux entre dans la tête du père de son narrateur avec le sans gêne et l’aplomb d’un Balzac. On le dit idéologique mais La Maison du peuple parle, avant tout, du racisme d’opinion dont les communistes furent si longtemps victimes en France, et dont ils sont encore souvent victimes au Royaume Uni. Ecrit en 1931, quand les Etats-Unis voyaient arriver William Faulkner et Raymond Chandler, La Maison du peuple rejette absolument le spectaculaire au profit exclusif du quotidien. La force du récit, son exacte connaissance du quotidien et des métiers du peuple, évoquent aussi les romans de B.Traven – mais le style de Guilloux est plus maîtrisé que celui de l’exilé allemand. Si La Maison du peuple doit se comparer à une production anglo-saxonne, alors je ne vois que le Up the Junction de Nell Dunn pour égaler sa puissance d’évocation et son absence de compromis dans son attachement à l’histoire des classes travailleuses.





With Louis Guilloux, France has its Nell Dunn, after all. Rather should I say: with Nell Dunn, England has its Paul Guilloux. Here I am again, discovering works 80 years after their publication, astonished by their modernity and wondering why they have fallen into oblivion. A social and socialist writer, in a time where this word still had a strength it has now lost, Louis Guilloux wrote his first novel with a Bolshevik sobriety. Stripping off the remaining lyricism still found in Jules Vallès novels, not yet corrupted by the Stalinist propaganda, La Maison du peuple is a raw, thoroughly nude novel. It is said to be mostly autobiographical, however Guilloux penetrates inside the narrator’s father’s head with the ease and comfort of a Balzac. It is said to be ideological, however La Maison du peuple mostly talks about the opinion racism which targeted the Communists in France around that time, and still so often targets them in the UK. Written in 1931, when in the United States William Faulkner and Raymond Chandler were emerging writers, La Maison du peuple completely rejects the spectacular to focus exclusively on everyday life. The power of the story, its accurate knowledge of working-class lives and jobs, bring B.Traven in mind – but Guilloux’s style is more controlled than the German exile’s. If La Maison du peuple must be compared with English-written works, then only Nell Dunn’s Up the Junction can match its rendering power, its absence of compromise and its commitment to the story and stories of the working class.

[Lina Gholami · Rating 2 out of 5]

مادر برای ما درباره خانه ی مردم صحبت می کرد. خانه ی مردم سالن بزرگی دارد که بچه ها می توانند در آنجا آواز بخوانند و بازی کنند و بزرگترها می توانند کنفرانس بدهند و مراسم جشن برگزار کنند.
سرم از شادی به دوران افتاد با خودم خیال می کردم که انقلاب همین است، از شادی در پوست خود نمی گنجیدم و فریاد زدم: انقلاب!

[Jan Vilém · Rating 5 out of 5]

Krásné v upřímnosti a přímosti autorovělého záměru zachytit snahy a životy ekonomicky strádajících lidí...
Albert Camus - "Ani jednou nezvedne hlas. A přitom snad nikdo nedočte příběh bez sevřeného hrdla."

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

لوئی گیو یکی از نویسندگان پیشرو فرانسوی زبان در اوایل قرن بیستم میلادی بوده است. آلبر کامو او را ستایش بسیار کرده و بر چاپ های آخری یکی دو اثر گیو، مقدمه ای هم نوشته است. با این همه تنها همین خانه ی مردم از او به فارسی ترجمه شده و البته یکی از مقدمه های آلبر کامو را هم عبدالله توکل ترجمه کرده و همراه یکی از داستان های کوتاهش (همراهان) در مجله ی سخن آن سال ها منتشر شده است (به روایت مقدمه ی مترجم این کتاب، هادی جامعی)
داستان بلند "خانه ی مردم" توسط هادی جامعی به فارسی ترجمه شده و چاپ اول آن توسط کتاب نمونه در سال 1352 و چاپ دوم آن در 1353 توسط انتشارات بهرنگ منتشر شده است.