Les gardiennes: Le roman du film de Xavier Beauvois

by Ernest Pérochon

Avec le dpart des hommes pour la Grande Guerre, la grande Hortense, Francine, La et Solange se font les gardiennes de leur milieu rural, charges de prserver leur patrimoine en attendant la paix. Ces femmes au quotidien extraordinaire doivent s'organiser, se mobiliser et se battre pour faire vivre les fermes. Ernest Prochon illustre sa manire le long combat des femmes pour leur mancipation, avec ses succs mais aussi ses checs cruels.

341 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

Ernest Pérochon (1885, Courlay, Deux-Sèvres - 1942) was a French writer who received the Prix Goncourt in 1920 for his book Nêne. He taught elementary school before giving it up to write full time in 1921. His works include poetry, novels (in genres ranging from realism to science fiction) and children's literature.

Reviews

[Susan Steggall]

Ernest Pérochon, 'Les Guardiennes', Métive, La Crèche, France, 2017.
In the Morzine Library, the table of recent releases is always my first destination. Fascinated by the idea that the women whom the men left behind when they went to fight in the Great War, became the 'gardiennes' of their rural way of life, I picked up Pérochon's book. It was a surprise to find it was originally published in 1920, now reprinted to accompany a film starring Nathalie Baye as the doyenne of a family that threatens to break apart. With few able-bodied men to help them the women struggled - some efficiently and willingly, some reluctantly and lazily - not only to keep their heritage but also to produce foodstuffs for the army at the Front.
Written so soon after the end of World War I, the many story strands have an immediacy and a freshness that has not diminished over the century since. Misunderstandings, petty jealousies, courage and fortitude all work to create a powerful image of women living in a country at war, against a landscape of waterways, canals and marshes.

[Tillamook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Justice pour Francine en fait!!