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A Very Long Engagement
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A Very Long Engagement
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A Very Long
Engagement
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A Very Long Engagement
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Introduction
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Author Biography
Plot Summary
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Characters
Themes
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Historical Context
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Sébastien Japrisot
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1991
A Very Long Engagement
Introduction
War In Children's Literature
Sébastien Japrisot's novel A Very Long Engagement was first
All Quiet On The Western
published in France in 1991 and was translated into English and
Front
published in New York in 1994. Set in France during and after
World War I, the plot revolves around the fate of five French
All Quiet On The Western
Front
soldiers who have been sentenced to death for shooting
themselves in the hand to avoid military service. In January 1917
Good-Bye To All That
the men are marched to a frontline trench on the Somme, near
Settling In: The First Years
Bouchavesnes. They are then pushed unarmed into no-man's-
On The Western Front
land between the French and German lines and abandoned to
their fate. After the war, Mathilde Donnay, the fiancée of Manech,
begins a long investigation into what happened to the five men.
The Rush To War
A Farewell To Arms
She hopes against hope that her fiancé is still alive. Through
correspondence with the wives of the condemned men and with
former military officers, as well as the placing of newspaper
advertisements and the hiring of a private detective, she
eventually discovers the truth about what happened.
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A Very Long Engagement is an antiwar novel that exposes the
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cruelty and horror of trench warfare, and the official lies and
corruption that allowed atrocities to take place. The novel is also a
detective story, as Mathilde unravels the mystery of what
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happened to the five men. Finally, the novel is a moving love story,
which shows that love can endure even when war destroys
NEARBY TERMS
everything else that is valuable.
A Walk In The Clouds
Author Biography
A Walk In The Night
A Walk In The Sun
Jean Baptiste Rossi was born in 1931, in Marseille, France. Under
the pseudonym Sébastien Japrisot, he is a mystery writer, film
director, screenwriter, and translator. He lives in France.
A Walk In The Woods
A Walk On The Moon
A Walk To Remember
Japrisot wrote and published his first novel in 1950, when he was
A Waltz Through The Hills
eighteen years old. His first novel translated into English was The
A Way Of Life
10:30 from Marseilles (1963), which was published in its original
French in 1962. The English translation was later published under
a different title, The Sleeping Car Murders (1997). Drawing on the
techniques of the police procedural novel, the story centers
around a series of murders on a passenger train.
In Japrisot's novel Trap for Cinderella (original French edition
published in 1964; English translation in 1964), two young women
are burned in a house fire. The survivor is disfigured beyond
recognition and suffers from amnesia. The mystery develops
through a complex plot and descriptions of the same events from
different points of view. The novel was awarded the Grand Prix de
la Littérature Policiére.
Japrisot's psychological mystery The Lady in the Car with
Glasses and a Gun (original French edition published in 1966;
English translation in 1967) was awarded the Prix d'Honneur. It
was followed by Goodbye Friend (original French edition
published in 1968; English translation in 1969), in which a doctor
returning from Vietnam is accused of murder. In One Deadly
Summer (original French edition published in 1978; English
translation in 1980), a daughter, conceived through her mother's
rape, vows vengeance against her father, the rapist.
The English translation of The Passion of Women (original French
edition published in 1986; English translation in 1990) was also
published under the title Women in Evidence. It focuses on the
death of a man falsely accused of killing a child. This novel was
followed by A Very Long Engagement (original French publication
in 1991; English translation in 1994), a tale of love and war, which
won the literary Prix Interallia in 1991 and became a bestseller in
France and abroad.
Japrisot's also penned Rider in the Rain (original French edition
published in 1992; English translation in 1999), along with dozens
of screenplays, some of them adaptations of his own novels,
including The Sleeping Car Murders (1965), Trap for Cinderella
(1965), and One Deadly Summer (1983). Negotiations were taking
place in 2002 for a movie version of A Very Long Engagement,
although Japrisot declined the invitation to write the screenplay
himself.
Plot Summary
Saturday Evening
A Very Long Engagement begins in January 1917, during World
War I. Five French soldiers are being marched to the battlefront
on the Somme. They are prisoners, having been condemned to
death for shooting themselves in the hand to avoid military
service. Their names are Kléber Bouquet (Eskimo), Francis
Gaignard (Six-Sous), Benoît Notre-Dame (That Man), Ange
Bassignano (Common Law or Nino), and Jean Etchervery
(Manech, also known as Cornflower).
Bingo Crépuscule
In August 1919, Manech's fiancée Mathilde visits Daniel
Esperanza, a former army sergeant who is dying in a hospital. He
tells Mathilde everything he knows about what happened to the
condemned men. He was in charge of escorting them to the
frontline trench called Bingo Crépuscule. His orders were that the
men were to be thrown over the trench, with their hands tied, into
the no-man's-land between the French and German trenches. He
arranged for the condemned men to send letters to their loved
ones. Then they were sent over the trench. Esperanza does not
know exactly what happened after that, since he was transferred
to another regiment, but he heard that all five prisoners were
killed.
The White Widow
The wheelchair-bound Mathilde studies the information that
Esperanza left her. She reads the copies he made of the men's
letters and also reads a letter from Captain Favourier to
Esperanza dated Sunday, January 7, which says the five men are
still alive and he hopes to receive an order to bring them back at
nightfall. Mathilde tries to piece the puzzle together. From Aristide
Pommier she gleans some information about Manech as he was
awaiting trial. She sees Esperanza again and suspects he is
withholding information from her. She suspects That Man's letter is
not what it appears.
The Good Old Days
Mathilde writes to the wives of the dead prisoners. She meets SixSous's wife and receives letters from the village priest in That
Man's town and Madame Conte, who is Tina Lombardi's
godmother. Conte says Tina received official notice that Common
Law was killed in action January 7, 1917. Mathilde visits the bar
owned by Little Louis, a friend of the Eskimo, who tells of how his
friend was also declared killed in action. Louis tells of a quarrel
between the Eskimo and his girlfriend Veronique Passavant, and
between the Eskimo and one of his closest friends, a man known
as Biscuit. Mathilde wants to believe that the Eskimo, a tough
character, protected Manech and saved his life.
Queen Victoria's Tuppence
Pierre-Marie Rouviàre has at Mathilde's request discovered more
information. A casualty list dated Monday, January 8, 1917, lists
all five men as dead. But there is no evidence they were killed in
the manner Esperanza says, and the lawyer knows that there was
an official pardon for the men on January 2. Even though PierreMarie tries to convince Mathilde that Manech is dead, she is not
convinced. She publishes an advertisement in the newspapers,
asking for information. She believes that a casualty list can be
altered and that at dawn on Sunday, January 7, all five men were
still alive.
The Mahogany Box
Mathilde receives a letter from Veronique Passavant, saying that
she believes the Eskimo is still alive, although she has no
evidence. The mother of Urbain Chardolet tells Mathilde that when
her son saw the five men lying in the snow, one or perhaps two
were not the person or persons he expected to find. This gives
Mathilde hope. Benjamin Gordes's wife Elodie writes to say that
Gordes was killed January 8, 1917, in a bombardment. Mathilde
learns that Gordes is the man named Biscuit and that in 1916,
Gordes and the Eskimo quarreled over a woman. Mathilde
suspects that Gordes later had some influence on his former
friend's fate.
The Woman on Loan
Elodie Gordes explains what happened between herself, her
husband, and Eskimo in 1916. The war was hard on Benjamin
Gordes. He told his wife that if they could have another child,
making six in all, he would be discharged from the army. But
alcohol had made him impotent. He suggested that she allow his
friend Kléber, the Eskimo, to make love to her when he came
home on leave. After Elodie and Kléber did this, the two men
quarreled. Mathilde also guesses that Veronique Passavant, who
was living with Kléber, walked out on him because of his affair
with Elodie. Mathilde also learns from Pire, her private detective,
that the five men were buried by British soldiers and then interred
two months later at a cemetery in Picardy.
The Mimosas of Hossegor
Mathilde and Manech first met in June 1910, when Mathilde was
ten years old and Manech thirteen. Their love grew steadily, and
Manech scratched the letters MMM in a poplar tree near the lake
where they swam together. The letters stand for Manech's
Marrying Mathilde.
In 1921, Mathilde buys the land on the shore of the lake, where
her father builds her a large villa. The family makes a pilgrimage
to Manech's grave. Mathilde receives an anonymous letter saying
that Célestin Poux is dead.
The Terror of the Armies
Poux is convinced Manech was killed by machine-gun fire from a
German plane, although he did not witness it personally. He
describes the fates of the other men and the battle that took place
that weekend. He asserts that the letter That Man wrote to his wife
is in code, something Mathilde has suspected. They discuss
Chardolet's comment that one or possibly two of the bodies were
not who he expected. Poux believes that if any of them survived, it
would have been That Man.
The Other Side of No-Man's-Land
Mathilde visits the former battlefield, which is now a huge freshly
mowed field. At dinner, she meets Heidi Weiss, whose brother, a
German soldier, was killed at the same trench at the same time as
Manech. Weiss confirms that from what she was told, Manech
was killed by fire from a German plane. Mathilde also hears via a
newspaper report that Tina Lombardi has been executed for
killing French military officers.
The Lovers of Belle de Mai
Mathilde receives a letter from Tina, written from Tina's prison cell.
Tina explains that she killed the officers because they harmed her
lover Nino. Like Mathilde, Tina had been searching for the truth of
what happened to her lover. She provides information that fuels
Mathilde's hope that Manech may still be alive.
The Sunflowers at the End of the World
With more information from Weiss, Mathilde is close to solving the
mystery. She cracks the code That Man used in the letter he wrote
to his wife. She finally finds That Man in a village called Bernay.
He explains everything that happened, including how he
managed to survive. He helped Manech away from the battlefield
and thinks there is a good chance he survived.
Lieutenant-General Byng at Twilight
Mathilde learns that Manech is still alive, living under the name of
Jean Desrochelles. He has amnesia and can remember nothing
of the war. He lives with the mother of a soldier named Jean
Desrochelles, who was killed in the war. The identity discs of the
two men were switched. Desrochelles's mother went along with
the deception, since her real son was dead and she needed
someone to care for. Mathilde meets Manech, and although he
does not recognize her, there are hints their romance will flourish
again.
Monday Morning
Ten soldiers from Newfoundland arrive at the Bingo trench on
Monday, January 8, 1917. They find the five dead soldiers and
bury them.
Characters
Ange Bassignano
Ange Bassignano, also known as Common Law, is one of the five
condemned French prisoners. He is twenty-six years old and
handsome, but not of good character. He is regarded as sly,
deceitful, and quarrelsome, and he has no occupation other than
as a pimp. However, his girlfriend, the prostitute Tina Lombardi, is
devoted to him. He was serving a five-year sentence for assault
when he was plucked from prison and made to join the army. He
is in the army for three months before he is condemned to death.
Bénédicte
Bénédicte is the wife of Sylvain. She helps to take care of
Mathilde.
Biscuit
See Benjamin Gordes
Kléber Bouquet
Kléber Bouquet, nicknamed the Eskimo because he once went
adventuring in Alaska, is the oldest of the five condemned French
prisoners. He is thirty-seven and a carpenter from Paris. He was
falsely accused of self-mutilation and has thus been condemned
to death for something he did not do. He is close friends with
Little Louis and Corporal Gordes, although he and Gordes quarrel
fiercely because Kléber has an affair with Gordes's wife, which
Gordes himself encouraged him to do. At Bingo, the Eskimo is
killed by machine-gun fire from an enemy plane, but not before he
brings the plane down with a grenade.
Urbain Chardolet
Urbain Chardolet is a corporal in the French army who escorts the
condemned prisoners. He dies from injuries he receives in July
1918 in a battle at Champagne.
Common Law
See Ange Bassignano
Madame Veuve Paolo Conte
Madame Conte is Tina Lombardi's unofficial godmother and has
known her since she was a baby. Madame Conte is just over fifty
years old and not in good health. She writes to Mathilde from her
home in Marseilles, telling of what she knows about Tina, whose
whereabouts are unknown. She dies in 1923.
Cornflower
See Jean Etchervery
Jean Desrochelles
Jean Desrochelles is a corporal in the army who is killed at Bingo.
Manech assumes Desrochelles's identity following the war.
Mathieu Donnay
Mathieu Donnay is Mathilde's rich father.
Mathilde Donnay
Mathilde Donnay was paralyzed by a fall at the age of three. She
meets Manech when she is ten years old and their love blooms
immediately. Mathilde comes from a wealthy family; she spends
much of her time at her parents' vacation home in Capbreton,
where she is cared for by Bénédicte and Sylvain. She is sixteen
years old when Manech goes off to war, and seventeen when
Manech faces his ordeal in no-man's-land. During the war, she
teaches the children from a nearby town whose teacher has
joined the army.
Mathilde is also a talented artist. She paints huge canvases of
flowers, which after the war are exhibited in galleries across
France. She loves cats and owns six of them.
After the war, Mathilde clings to the hope that Manech survived,
even though all the evidence seems to suggest he did not. She is
a resourceful woman and never gives up on her quest to find out
what really happened that day. Like many women who lost their
fiancés during World War I, Mathilde wants to marry Manech
posthumously, although this feat proves impossible since Manech
was too young to get married on his own.
Paul Donnay
Paul Donnay is Mathilde's older brother, for whom she has little
affection.
The Eskimo
See Kléber Bouquet
Daniel Esperanza
Daniel Esperanza, a sergeant in the French army, was in charge
of the five prisoners as they were taken to the front. He ends the
war as a regimental sergeant-major and is awarded the Croix de
Guerre. After the war, he contracts Spanish influenza. When
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