La Becquée () by René Boylesve is a novel of manners in the French tradition. The novel is largely autobiographical and was first published in book form in 1901, following its serialization the previous year.
The narrator, a young child, provides a detailed account of the lives and occasionally complex relationships of members of a family gathered around his great-aunt Félicie on a vast estate in southern Touraine during the post-Franco-Prussian War period of 1870. The elderly woman's entourage exploits her hospitality, receiving "la becquée" (handouts) in the form of lodging, sustenance, and other benefits. The aunt willingly supports this arrangement, despite her awareness of her own deteriorating health and impending demise. She perceives that her relatives' emotional response to this imminent loss is less profound than their practical concerns. Félicie instills in young Riquet a deep appreciation for the land that sustains them and equips him with the knowledge and skills to manage the estate, with the hope of ensuring its continued prosperity after his adulthood.
The regional and realistic setting of the work ultimately holds little significance, as the novel could be set in any region. The setting provides the author with an opportunity to explore character studies, with Aunt Félicie as the central figure, who lives solely by and for her land. Additionally, the book offers an analysis, which is occasionally satirical, of the morals of the petite bourgeoisie of the time. The choice of a five-year-old child as the narrator, who describes without interpreting, provides greater depth to this study and encourages the reader to take on a more active role.
A sequel to the novel, entitled L'Enfant à la balustrade, was published in 1903.
Summary The epigraph to the first chapter, which is a quote from Jacques Amyot, provides the reader with an explanation of the novel's title.Epigraph of the first chapter of La Becquée:
In southern Touraine, towards the conclusion of the 1870 war—the novel is set between January 1871 and June 1876—after the death of his mother, Henri Nadaud, nicknamed Riquet, relocates to the expansive Courance farmstead. His father, preoccupied with his notary practice, maintains his residence in the nearby town. In this environment, the young child observes and recounts the activities of his family, which is dominated by the strong personality of his great-aunt Félicie, who owns the 400-hectare estate centered around the main farm. Félicie introduces her grandnephew to the management of the estate through long walks, during which they frequently stop by a dolmen. However, this "inheritance aunt" is afflicted with a terminal illness, which causes concern among the numerous dependents she supports, who have become reliant on her financial assistance and have been shaped by her guidance. Furthermore, her brother-in-law Casimir displays an inability to effectively manage financial assets. He exhibits a troubling tendency to engage in risky investments and financial missteps. For example, he asserts that he can purchase and oversee the management of a mill and surrounding lands in the vicinity of Courance, which Félicie had previously been unable to obtain. This venture is likely to prove similarly unsuccessful for him. Casimir's son, Philibert, an artist and idealist who makes a meagre living in Paris, lives with a milliner and has a daughter with her. When the family's concerns become more explicit, focusing on their future rather than Félicie's health, and when discussions on dividing the anticipated inheritance begin openly, Félicie cuts them short, stating, "You will have food."
Moreover, Riquet's father contemplates remarrying a Creole woman, a Catholic but a friend of Protestant Americans, which serves only to exacerbate the tensions within the family. Félicie, inclined to adhere to traditional values and reluctant to acknowledge Philibert's daughter because she was born out of wedlock, cannot accept her nephew's plans. For her, as for her sister, the mother of Me Nadaud, marriages must take place within the same social class and, if possible, among people of the same geographical origin. She espouses the prevailing attitudes of the time, which regarded Creole women as "women who spend their lives in hammocks, smoke, are unclean, and don't know how to run a household."
Only when Félicie becomes aware of the gravity of her condition she begins to display affectionate behavior that had previously been concealed. She dies shortly thereafter, followed closely by her husband, whose attachment to his wife was not previously apparent. Additionally, he had a daughter with one of their tenant farmers. Unable to cope with Félicie's demise, despite their contrasting personalities, he takes his own life with a shotgun. Riquet becomes the sole heir to the estate, with the obligation for his father, the usufructuary, to provide an annuity for each family member. Courance is thus safeguarded from any risk of division, at least until the child reaches adulthood, and all of Félicie's dependents "will have food."
L'Enfant à la balustrade, published in 1903, constitutes a sequel to La Becquée.
Main characters and traits In his writing, Boyle does not provide a comprehensive physical description of his characters. Instead, he employs a technique similar to that used by Prosper Mérimée, whereby he introduces hints about each character's appearance throughout the text, allowing the reader to gradually construct an understanding of their physical characteristics. Similarly, Boyle does not offer an explicit analysis of his characters. Instead, he presents the reader with elements they can use to draw their conclusions.
The narrator, Henri "Riquet" Nadaud, is identified with René Boylesve at the same age. He plays a minimal role in the action and is primarily a passive observer of the events he describes. However, his perspective does emerge intermittently, particularly in the novel's second part, as the child matures and develops a more nuanced understanding of the world.
Félicie Planté, Riquet's great-aunt and the proprietress of Courance, oversees the estate with an iron fist and is the novel's central figure, inextricably linked to the estate itself, which could also be considered a "main character." Everything in the novel revolves around her; it's through her that the family gathered at Courance exists, and thanks to her they can survive. Her attachment to material wealth is accompanied by a certain skepticism toward religious dogma.
Casimir Fantin, Félicie's brother-in-law and Riquet's grandfather, is an "adventurer" who is wholly unlike his sister-in-law. His cheerful disposition and perpetual carefreeness imbue the family with a certain levity, counterbalancing the otherwise austere tone of their lives. In , the character Adolphe, Casimir's counterpart, is described by Boylesve as an "unstoppable clumsy man, incorrigible powder-inventor, brilliant fool", traits that bear resemblance to those of René Boylesve's grandfather.
Me Nadaud, Riquet's father and a notary, plays a relatively minor role in the novel, making only sporadic appearances. Riquet even refers to him as "the notary" when describing him at work. Nevertheless, his plan to remarry after his wife's death represents one of the novel's significant societal shifts.
Philibert Fantin, the son of Casimir and an idealistic artist with a heart of gold, exemplifies a profound sense of familial obligation by expressing a desire to marry his child's mother. This is a stark contrast to the more calculated values espoused by the other characters, who label him a "deviant." However, Félicie, at a later stage in life, develops a closer bond with him, even attempting to persuade him, with limited success, to assume a role in the leadership of Courance.
M. Laballue, a distant relative and friend of Félicie who arouses jealousy in her husband, is a former lawyer. Nicknamed "Sugar Candy", a sobriquet identical to that of M. Bréchard, his model, he acquired this epithet due to his ability to tolerate Félicie's demeanor with equanimity in all situations. He exerts a profound influence over her; she places unreserved trust in him, even delegating her autonomy to him.
Long gestation
In the early 1890s, René Boylesve was encouraged by his friend Hugues Rebell to publish a book based on his childhood experiences in southern Touraine. This resulted in the publication of two books: La Becquée, followed by L'Enfant à la balustrade.
In 1899, Boylesve submitted the second version of his novel, , to Louis Ganderax, the director of La Revue de Paris. The novel was based on the author's early childhood memories. The original manuscript of the first version is believed to be lost. The text was rejected by the publisher, who expressed interest but criticized Boylesve's style as too loose and the plot as too short. The novel concluded with the medical verdict for Aunt Félicie and was written in an impersonal style.
Following the completion of Mademoiselle Cloque, Boylesve revised his manuscript, condensing it by a third while extending the narrative to encompass a three-year period up until Félicie's demise. This revised version was subsequently published under the title La Becquée. In the revised version, the young Henri assumes the role of the narrator, while Aunt Félicie remains the central character. The majority of character names, including that of the narrator, underwent alteration. The style is more direct, with shorter sentences. Another minor but notable change for readers was the correction and neutralization of the heavy dialectal speech of some characters in Les Bonnets de dentelle, which made the text more accessible to a broader audience. The text was then accepted by Ganderax, to whom Boylesve dedicated the novel.
La Becquée represents the advent of an "autobiographical" phase in Boylesve's oeuvre, wherein he situates himself within the narrative, in contrast to Mademoiselle Cloque, which is set in the milieu where Boylesve resided during his adolescence. While Mademoiselle Cloque also inaugurates a "new style" that the author maintained, and which appears to bridge the gap between Gustave Flaubert and Marcel Proust, it is possible to observe, through Les Bonnets de dentelle and La Becquée, the evolution of Boylesve's writing on the same subject. Pierre Joulia even posits that Ganderax's demands prompted Boylesve to gravitate towards a more classical style, one that was more aligned with his innate writing proclivities.
Similarly, characters such as the Marquis d'Aubrebie in Mademoiselle Cloque or the Baron de Chemillé in can be regarded as representatives of the author. In a similar manner, Mr. Laballue, Félicie's friend, on occasion, articulates René Boylesve's perspectives in La Becquée. Consequently, the author personifies two distinct figures: the child who narrates, and describes, yet refrains from judgment, and the mature man whose opinions are anticipated and respected by other characters, despite their reservations.
A seemingly regionalist novel