The Girl in His Past  

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"Laisse-moi puisque je suis quand même une chienne en rut ! Est-ce que c'est toi qui vas me donner ce dont j'ai besoin ? Est-ce que c'est un seul homme qui est capable de me le donner?" --Fernande

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Le Temps d'Anaïs (1951) is a 'roman dur' by Belgian writer Georges Simenon.

Contents

Summary

Albert Bauche, stranded in the forest of Orleans, calls the police, accuses himself of a murder and turns himself in. We learn from the various interrogations that he was working for the victim, Serge Nicolas, but Bauche was unaware that this job had been given to him by his wife, who was Nicolas' mistress. Bauche makes no contact with the investigators and his statements reflect only his personal truth. However, he feels at ease when he talks to the psychiatrist, who is interested in the evolution of his thoughts and insists on the sexual side of the problem. Bauche is then happy to explain himself: Anaïs, an easy girl in his village, marked his sensitivity as a shy adolescent. She was like an animal. All the men would find her on the beach or near the canal. Her father even, once... In turn, he got to know her, but it was as if he was taking revenge for something.

Later, when he came to Paris to find work, it was again the image of Anaïs that made him seek the company of Fernande, a nymphomaniac, who has since become his wife. He is aware that he is indispensable to her, for he is her confidant and support; he loves her, forgives her everything and is even happy with her.

On the other hand, he does not like the brighter life that Nicholas has given him, because, although he now has confidence in himself, he cannot stand the contempt of this repulsive being. From the day he learned that he was only a front for a crooked company and that he was considered a "pretentious fool", he could not bear it any longer. From that moment on, he knew he would kill Nicolas, who represents everything that he himself will never be: a virile, successful man. Bauche is eager to talk with the psychiatrist and decides to have himself considered insane, so he can see him more often. His madness is deemed real and he is committed. It is true that the lawyer Houart, a former friend of his father, had intervened for this purpose.

Special aspects of the novel

A story that, for the most part, reconstructs the past of a man who committed a crime that he considered fatal and necessary. The dialogues take on the aspect first of an interrogation, then of a psychological analysis; they shed light on the behavior of a character out of the ordinary, aspiring to escape the feeling of humiliation that has always conditioned his mediocrity.

Work description

Space and time frame

Space

Ingrannes (Sologne) and Vitry-aux-Loges (Loiret), Orleans, Paris. References to Montpellier, Nîmes and Grau-du-Roi (Gard).

Time

Contemporary time, around the year 1936 (11+7 years after the 1918 armistice).

The characters

Main character

Albert Bauche. Director of a film company. Married for five years. 27 years old.

Other characters

  • Fernande Bauche, Albert's wife
  • Serge Nicolas, Albert's employer.


Adaptations

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Girl in His Past" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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