Cinq-Mars

by Alfred de Vigny

1640 : un procès de sorcellerie. Un bûcher. Un complot. Louis XIII défaillant d'amour, de culpabilité et de haine devant son jeune et gracieux favori. Richelieu remontant le Rhône dans un bateau tapissé de velours cramoisi qui traîne derrière lui l'embarcation où Cinq-Mars et de Thou enchaînés sont conduits au supplice : leur mort signifiera la fin de la vieille noblesse écrasée par le pouvoir et la raison d'État. Dans la foulée de Walter Scott et en attendant Dumas, Cinq-Mars est le premier en date, le plus dramatique et sans doute le plus réussi des romans historiques français.

Genres: Historical Fiction, French Literature, Classics, France, Fiction, Romanticism, 17th Century

608 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1826

About the author

Alfred Victor de Vigny (1797-1863) was born in Loches (a town to which he never returned) into an aristocratic family. His father was an aged veteran of the Seven Years' War who died before Vigny's 20th birthday; his mother, twenty years younger, was a strong-willed woman who was inspired by Rousseau and took responsibility herself for Vigny's early education.

As was the case for every noble family, the French Revolution diminished the family's circumstances considerably. After Napoléon's defeat at Waterloo, a Bourbon, Louis XVIII, the brother of Louis XVI, was restored to power. In 1814, Vigny enrolled in one of the privileged aristocratic companies of the Maison du Roi.

Always attracted to letters and versed in French history and in knowledge of the Bible, he began to write poetry. He published his first poem in 1820, published an ambitious narrative poem entitled Eloa in 1824 on the popular romantic theme of the redemption of Satan, and collected his recent works in January 1826 in Poèmes antiques et modernes. Three months later, he published a substantial historical novel, Cinq-Mars; with the success of these two volumes, Vigny seemed to be the rising star of the burgeoning Romantic movement, though this role would soon be usurped by one of Vigny's best friends, Victor Hugo. Prolonging successive leaves from the army, he settled in Paris with his young English bride, Lydia Bunbury, whom he married in Pau in 1825.

An English theater troupe visiting Paris in 1827 having revived French interest in Shakespeare, Vigny worked with Emile Deschamps on a translation of Romeo and Juliet (1827). Increasingly attracted to liberalism, he was more relieved than anguished at the overthrow of Charles X in the July Revolution of 1830. In 1831, he presented his first original play, La Maréchale d'Ancre, a historical drama recounting the events leading up to the reign of King Louis XIII. Frequenting the theater, he met the great actress Marie Dorval, his mistress until 1838. (Vigny's wife had become a near invalid and never learned to speak French fluently; they had no children, and Vigny was also disappointed when his father-in-law's remarriage deprived the couple of an anticipated inheritance.)

In 1835, he produced a drama titled Chatterton, based on the life of Thomas Chatterton, and in which Marie Dorval starred as Kitty Bell. Chatterton is considered to be one of the best of the French romantic dramas and is still performed regularly. The story of Chatterton had inspired one of the three episodes of Vigny's luminous philosophical novel Stello (1832), in which Vigny examines the relation of poetry to society and concludes that the poet, doomed to be regarded with suspicion in every social order, must remain somewhat aloof and apart from the social order. Servitude et grandeur militaires (1835) was a similar tripartite meditation on the condition of the soldier.

Although Alfred de Vigny gained success as a writer, his personal life was not happy. His marriage was a disappointment; his relationship with Marie Dorval was plagued by jealousy; and his literary talent was eclipsed by the achievements of others. He grew embittered. After the death of his mother in 1838 he inherited the property of Maine-Giraud, near Angoulême, where it was said that he had withdrawn to his 'ivory tower' (an expression Sainte-Beuve coined with reference to Vigny). There Vigny wrote some of his most famous poems, including La Mort du loup and La Maison du berger. (Proust regarded La Maison du berger as the greatest French poem of the 19th century.) In 1845, after several unsuccessful attempts to be elected, Vigny became a member of the Académie française.

In later years, Vigny ceased to publish. He continued to write, however, and his Journal is considered by modern scholars to be a great work in its own right. Vigny considered himself a thinker as well as a literary author; he was, for example, one of the first French writers to take a s

Reviews

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first historical novel, and one of the first Romantic novels, in French literature, obviously imitating the style of Sir Walther Scott, this is the story of the (actual) conspiracy of the Marquis de Cinq-Mars against Cardinal Richelieu. Like the other earlier Romantics (other than Stendhal) such as Novalis and Lamartine, de Vigny is a Royalist who idealizes the feudalism of the Middle Ages, and thus sees the conspiracies of the suppressed feudal nobles as a good thing, and the centralizing tendencies of Richelieu as totally wrong and evil, as leading to the undermining of the monarchy itself and eventually the French Revolution. Which they did, and of course that was progressive, despite the many admittedly evil things that Richelieu did -- like any politician of the time. De Vigny's version of the politics of the period influenced the less serious but much more popular novels of Alexandre Dumas, such as Les trois mousquetaires and its sequels (although in his last, unfinished novel, Le Sphinx rouge, Dumas reverses this and treats Richelieu as the hero and the Queen and the duc d'Orleans as the villains, probably a more historically accurate version.) De Vigny changes some of the facts and of course makes a love story the basic motivation for the conspiracy; but the novel is well-written and more worth reading than Novalis or Lamartine.

The version I read, the eleventh edition printed in 1855 (during de Vigny's lifetime) contains his "Reflexions sur la verite de l'art" as a preface and his reception discourse when he was elected to the Academie as an appendix; it also has his notes to the book. There is no preface or introduction or other material by anyone else.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the precursor to all those French historical romances like the Three Musketeers! (... which is exactly why I picked up, to be clear.)

Vigny was reportedly more of a royalist, so here we have a version of the 17th century where Cardinal Richelieu is the most evil man to ever evil, ever. There he is, twirling his mustache with evil glee. There he goes, cackling maniacally while his adorable cats play in front of him. (I do like that Vigny preserved Richelieu's love of cats, that was nice.)

The story revolves around the titular Cinq-Mars (silent q, silent s, so it's pronounced "Saint Mar"), a young nobleman who witnesses the cruelty of Richelieu's reign when he journeys past the town of Loudun. There, he sees the witch trial of Urbain Grandier (tldr: he's a Catholic priest who (a) took advantage of some young female parishioners of his, not cool at all, (b) defied Richelieu's attempts to take away regional power, and (c) was ultimately burned at the stake in a horrific death that, at last for what they charged him with, he probably didn't deserve).

Anyway, Cinq-Mars sees this whole debacle (highly romanticized by Vigny) and then heads up to meet the king, whose favorite he quickly becomes. He decides he's going to be ambitious and pursue power (much to the chagrin of his forever-friend, de Thou, a/k/a the man who consistently tells Cinq-Mars how much he loves him, and to whom Cinq-Mars consistently replied "aw buddy, that's nice, you're my best friend too :)") (bold of Vigny to give us an explicitly Orestes-Pylades pairing where Pylades is trying to get out of the friend zone). And by the end, Cinq-Mars is heading up a coup to rid France of the cardinal and force the king to reclaim his rightful authority.

... It does not go well.

What I didn't love was Vigny's storytelling, to be honest. I thought his view of the historical conflict was too simple, too geared on a good vs evil binary (with maybe some neutral but ultimately selfish opportunists thrown for good measure). Vigny is here to say: nobility is where it's at, because a strong nobility means the king has equals who can help him reign, as opposed to a king with strong centralized power that can topple over at the first hint of weakness. This is the core of his beef with Cardinal Richelieu, whose influence did, in fact, help centralize the king's power. Vigny ignores a lot of the reasons behind that political strategy--namely, Louis XIII's brother and step-brothers and a few other nobles kept trying to overthrow him... kind of worth a mention, but what do I know? (And I haven't even covered Louis XIII's reasons for teaming up with Cardinal Richelieu, or how the two men mutually kept each other alive and could not survive without the other, especially at the start when they cooperated to get rid of Louis's mother, Marie de' Medici.)

Basically, I didn't love how Vigny adapted the politics to serve his plot. I know Alexandre Dumas does this, but where Dumas does a good job of portraying his royals, nobility, and ministers as "at the end of the day, their petty squabbles are for their own benefit, and they hold the lives of many innocent people in their hands like so many pawns on a chessboard," it feels like Vigny wants me to actually root for one side or the other. And I just don't feel like rooting for either side. So I found myself rooting for de Thou, and even he felt oddly devoid of agency, going along with Cinq-Mars despite being audibly upset with him and his terribly thought-out political plans.

What I did like was the ending! (No, not because it ended, I swear.) At the end, Cinq-Mars is trying to convince his beloved fiancee that he did all of these things for her, betrayed France to Spain for her, etc. and as he swears these things, he realizes he isn't certain of what compelled him to act. He realizes his ambition may have been the motivation all along, and not, as he initially claimed, the means to his more virtuous end of restoring power to the king by killing off the cardinal. And at the same time, there's an interesting situation with his fiancee, who realizes that she doesn't know this supposedly virtuous young man very well, and marrying him would not only be a huge mesalliance by social standards, but also a bad move overall. (Queen Anne of Austria steps in to say this quite a lot. I really liked those scenes, despite their being a little on the side of "jaded but well-meaning woman talks young girl out of running away with the love of her life").

Overall, I'm glad I read it, even if it was pretty slow-going. It reminded me of how much heavy lifting Vigny must have done with this book, laying out the foundation upon which Alexandre Dumas, 20 years later, would build his incredible Musketeer trilogy.

Recommended for fans of French history, 19th century historical takes on the 17th century, and Musketeer enthusiasts (given that this happens in more or less the same period, vaguely between the end of the The Three Musketeers but before Twenty Years After).

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 1826 and is about a young man Cinq Mars who was lived in the 1630’s during the reign of Louis XIII, during the time of Cardinal Richelieu. The book is hard to follow, very romantic with exquisite detail of settings, and satire of the pomposity of uniforms and supposed prestige of ranks. Cinq Mars is in love with a young princess befriended by his family, he must go prove himself and Richelieu sets him up to be favored by Louis XIII thinking he can control him. Mars has a joie de vivre and great courage, does well in battle and in duels. Eventually he tries to do a deal with Spain to disempower Richelieu, but people turn on each other, and he is sacrificed. His dear friend goes to death with him, claiming it is for God. All are principled and all end in tragedy with no one being loyal except Cinq Mars. It is an very interesting read, for the style and history, and to capture a romantic reality. But I didn’t like any of the characters, and it was very sad, and most betrayed Cinq Mars and he was a willing victim to his destiny.

[Boban · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. De Vigny has some nice style. It starts off very intriguing, like an introduction to a great Romanticism book, however it dwells more into politics after the first 60-100 pages, mostly about Cardinal Richelieu, and it kinda loses it's touch. Well worth it to read it once, but not a great of a book for sure.

[Laura]

Tome 1 of 2
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

Tome 2 of 2
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

[Armin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Balzacs Verlorene Illusionen sieht sich der junge Dichter Lucien de Rubempré, der mit vielen Hoffnungen und seinen historischen Roman Der Bogenschütze Karls IX. in Paris eintrifft, ganz schnell mit der Tatsache konfrontiert, dass man die Hauptstadt mit historischen Romanen im Stil von Walter Scott tapezieren könnte.
Die erhaltenen Vertreter der Gattung sind durchaus lesenswert, Victor Hugos Notre Dame de Paris markiert sicher den späten Gipfel, zumal der Autor auch überragende Dramatiker-Gene in seinen Anlagen hat. Die andere Doppelbegabung für Epos und Bühne war Alexandre Dumas, dessen Drei Musketiere den Kardinal Richelieu als Gegenspieler populär gemacht haben.
Alfred de Vigny hatte sich schon als Lyriker einen Namen gemacht, ehe er sich auf Scotts Spuren an die Schattenseiten des Kardinals wagte und bei seiner Behandlung der Schlussphase der Doppelherrschaft Louis Treize/Richelieu dafür sorgte, dass Dumas Zwanzig Jahre danach
wieder einsetzen musste und in die ersten Kapitel der Fortsetzung auch allerlei Bezüge auf die Ereignisse und Personal von Vignys Roman einbaute.
In Sachen Personal und Konstellationen profitieren auch schon die ersten Streiche von d'Artagnon, Athos, Porthos und Aramis vom früher entstandenen Roman des Romantikers, aber das sind eher literaturwissenschaftliche Themen, vor dem Start in Zwanzig Jahre danach würde ich aber unbedingt zum Abstecher in Vignys Roman raten, der ein deutlich düstereres Bild vom Kardinal und der Schlussphase von dessen Schreckensherrschaft zeichnet. Dabei auch besser das Verhältnis König/Kardinal beleuchtet, alles Faktoren, die sich Dumas sparen konnte, da er allenfalls das Personal noch ein wenig plastischer hingekriegt hätte.

Kurze Inhaltsangabe Spoilergefahr

Gleich zu Beginn richtet sich der Zorn des Kardinals gegen den Altvorderen Bassompiere, einen Doppelgänger von Heinrich IV., der sich für den guten König ruiniert hat. Der Titelheld und spätere Attentäter gerät erst mal in den Hexenprozess von Loudon, nachdem die Befreiung des alten Adelsmanns an dessen Bereitschaft für ein paar Tage in die Bastille zu gehen, gescheitert ist.
Tatsächlich wurden 14 Jahre daraus, liefert die Anmerkung ein paar Fakten nach.
Die Hexenprozesse von Loudon werden von Richelieu angefacht, der den schönen Pfarrer als Verfasser einer Hasspostille verfolgt, die sich über den Kardinal lustig macht und seine Herkunft in den Schmutz zieht. Selbige wird vom Umfeld von Königin Anna von Österreich gesponsort und unter die Leute gebracht. Der alte Pfarrer, der seinen früheren Schützling Cinq-Mars auf Stand bringt ist ein typischer Sonderling à la Scott, sonst gibt es wenig Bezüge zum Starter der Gattung der historischen Romane, sondern ganz großes Drama.
Der öffentliche Prozess gegen den schönen Geistlichen gerät schnell zur Farce, da sich die verschmähte Oberin (bei AdV nicht verwachsen wie bei Huxley) selbst als falsche Zeugin anklagt und Cinq-Mars den Schwindel mit dem zurück gestoßenen Kruzifix entlarvt und das heiße Eisen dem Chefankläger auf die Stirn drückt. Besonders eindrucksvoll: ein Kind verfolgt aus hoher Warte die Folter und muss der Gemeinde berichten.
Vigny kontrastiert das große Spektakel mit einer Innenansicht des Intriganten Kardinals, Richelieu rächt sich für jeden Rückschlag, fördert aber auch nicht die Interessen seiner getreuesten Werkzeuge, konterkariert sogar die Ambitionen des Paters Joseph, der sich für keine Schandtat zu schade ist, weil er endlich Kardinal werden will. Der mobile Amtssitz des Kardinals ist eine Sänfte von der Größe eines Zimmers, bei der die Träger jede Stunden gewechselt werden und schon mal halbe Ortschaften eingerissen, wenn der Weg zu eng ist.
Cinq-Mars ist zwar von hohem Adel, aber anfangs ebenso naiv wie später d'Artagnan, der bei der Belagerung von Perpignan schon als Routinier dabei ist. Ein kriegerischer Abbé, der endlich seinen schwarzen Rock los werden will, zettelt ein Duell nach dem anderen an, dabei wird man wegen bewaffneter Ehrenhändel gehängt. Da ihm die Sekundanten ausgegangen sind, hält er sich an den Neuankömmling Cinq-Mars, doch das Duell mit Richelieus Leuten gerät zum Heldenstück, da Cinq-Mars dabei den Zugang zur spanischen Zitadelle entdeckt und diese mit ein paar versprengten Musketieren einnimmt.
tbc

[Hugues · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quelques bons passages dans une mise en scène théâtrale qui entache de ridicule les personnages dont pour certains les trajectoires sont souvent inexpliquées ou inexplicables.

[Rémy]

« J'ai quelque chose de sauvage au fond du cœur, que l'éducation n'a poli qu'à la surface. »

[John Thibaud · Rating 3 out of 5]

kinda good.

[Bernardo Mora]

"Qué ridículo, ser tirano estando debajo de un señor".

[Dmitry Rusakov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Господи, как же тяжело читается. Может любителям исторических романов и будет интересно. Но я еле осилил

[Meyka Thai]

It must be good. This one.

[Philippe V d’Espagne · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this book its so funny there is this spaniard on the book who says very ridiculous stuff and then descartes appears out of nowhere

[Czarny Pies · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai eu beaucoup de mal à savoir à quoi j'avais affaire en lisant "Cinq Mars". Il raconte l'histoire d'une conjuration montée dans le but d'ecarter du pouvoir le Cardinal Richelieu qui dirigeait l'état francais à la place du médiocre Louis XIII qui manquait très visiblement les moyens de remplir le role de monarque. La conjuration rate de facon risible et le protagoniste qui en est le chef paie de sa tete
Publié en 1826, quand la carrière de Walter Scott tirait à sa fin et les grandes romans s'approchaient à grand pas, "Cinq Mars" semble etre à première vue un roman cap et épée. Cependant, il n'est pas un. Il y a un absence complète d'humour dans cette oeuvre. Cinq-Mars , le héros est un escrimeur et batailleur compétent mais tres ordinaire. En plus, contrairement a D'Artagnan, Cinq-Mars est plutot antipathique. Son projet de coup de palais est douteux et fort mal mené. Les conséquences pour le héros et ses proches seront néfastes.
Enfin, "Cinq Mars" n'est pas un roman cap et épée parcequ'il est tout simplement trop sombre. Enfin, c'est roman historique avec un fort empreinte du Romantisme allemand. Cinq Mars est un héros de l'école Sturm und Drang. Poussé par des mauvais mobiles, il se lance dans un projet qui n'a rien de bon. Si vraiment on veut suivre l'histoire des tendances dans la littérature francaise, Cinq Mars offre plein de bons moments. Neanmoins, sa lecture est loin d'etre une experience joyeuse.

[Val’ · Rating 4 out of 5]

J’écris ça un an et demi après mais ce livre a été ma révélation quant aux lectures scolaires. C’est la première fois que j’ai vraiment aimé un texte pour les cours, et ça m’a fait découvrir mon amour pour les fictions historiques. Apprendre l’histoire via le roman est tellement plus passionnant qu’une longue et fade explication académique. Une très bonne introduction à la fresque historique en somme.

[Fé · Rating 3 out of 5]

if you love french literature and history of France you should read this although it's not de Vigny's finest piece of work

[Ingrida Lisauskiene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mėgstantiems Prancūzijos istoriją ir A. Diuma romanus