by JeanVautrin (Author)
Horace Grondin, deputy head of the Surete, is in fact Charles Bassicousse, sentenced sixteen years earlier for a murder he did not commit and obsessed with wreaking his revenge on Antoine Tarpagnan, the man he believes did commit the crime. Tarpagnan, an army captain, has fallen in love with Gabriella Pucci, the mistress of Paris's greatest villain. As Tarpagnan searches the underworld for Gabriella, unknown to him, Grondin is searching for him. Reminiscent of Victor Hugo's LES MISERABLES, with the zest for characterisation of Dickens, Vautrin's novel revels in the chaos and passion of the period culminating in the savage repression of the Commune. The final climactic moments between Grondin and Tarpagnan take place on the barricades as Paris descends into a fury of bloodletting and panic. Fiction on a grand scale, Vautrin's multi-peopled novel exuberantly recreates the moment.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 481
Edition: illustrated edition
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Published: 11 Apr 2002
ISBN 10: 1861591748
ISBN 13: 9781861591746
Book Overview: A major novel from one of France's most distinguished writers 'Through the many adventures in his novel, the love affairs, the political intrigues, the linguistic fireworks, Jean Vautrin lets us hear in its fullness the cry of the people, springing from the depths of helplessness and despair, a cry of hate and of love inextricably entwined.' Le Monde Sold over 97,000 copies on publication in France