Tufan Erbartran
‘wrong’, the first novel the author wrote when he was 23 years old. Work, rene nemirovsky with Michel Epstein It begins with the couple meeting on a beach in the southwest of France, and continues between war veteran Yves Harteloup and Denise Jessaint, who has always lived a comfortable life.
The novel interestingly reflects the natural beauties that resemble heaven in the very first pages. These natural beauties will soon turn into hell…
While fictionalizing these two characters, the author introduces them and explains the social developments of the period. The two characters have their own unique personalities. Yves admires nature and silence. This is an attempt to forget what they experienced in World War I.
“The weather is beautiful,” Yves said out loud to himself, as if he were still in secondary school. “As if I were a child and all pleasure and worry depended on the weather.” (p.2)
He loved living in the bohemian Paris of the period. He has fun with women, goes to nightclubs and tries to forget his past. In fact, this is just an escape from himself… Even if he doesn’t have much money in his pocket, he doesn’t care. However, after a while, when he is left penniless, he begins to realize that what he did was wrong.
One day, Yves Harteloup meets Jessaint. While the two friends are talking about the old days, Jessaint’s wife (Mrs Denise) also joins the conversation. This rapprochement soon turns into a passionate love. Denise meets Yves during her husband’s frequent travels. A strong emotional attraction has begun between them.
While at the resort, Denise suddenly disappears. Yves gets worried and starts looking for him. “He used all his willpower to calm himself down and stood there, embarrassed, dazed, shaking from head to toe.” (p.27)
Denise appears as suddenly as she disappeared and the love story continues where she left off.
Denise Mark is a somewhat frivolous woman who thinks she can buy whatever she wants with the economic power of her wealth. “When Denise appeared in the hotel hall in the mornings with her low-cut dress and the diamonds around her neck, the stares of the men on the beach did not make her uneasy at all.” (p.35)
Denise’s high self-confidence, exposing her body and taking pleasure in it appear throughout the novel. The only wealth she can show is either her husband’s financial power or the beauty of her body. Apart from this, it has no features. While the two lovers sneak around Paris, Denise always enjoys wild and erotic sensations. Even if Yves joins him, sometimes he has to retreat. His economic power is incomparably lower than his own, and this causes him pain. They turn Paris upside down; They compete like crazy. Denise is this happy for the first time. His mother, Madame Francheville, realized that he was in love with someone else; comments on this:
“You’ve had no worries since the morning other than choosing the dress she’ll like the most, but she’s troubled, tired, bored, angry after sweating all day to earn her bread… And you’re sorry you can’t understand!”
The author explains, through Madame Francheville’s words, that these two live in two different worlds. Like a typical young girl, Denise likes to dress luxuriously and wants to travel and spend money all the time. Yves, on the other hand, has to steal because there is not much left from his family. There is a huge difference between people’s economic earnings. Moreover, their social statuses are too different to come together.
Over time, relations between the two become estranged and a coldness begins to set in. Yves becomes disgusted even with himself when he sees the degeneracy in society. He is now fed up with women dressing abnormally, wearing unnecessary expensive jewelry, and walking around half-naked to please their bodies. He realized that coming together could lead to unnecessary and dangerous consequences. Moreover, he seduced his friend’s wife. This gives him an intense feeling of guilt. The magnificent nightlife of Paris and the erotic joke-filled conversations of men and women at my command are not for him. He is a former soldier and cannot handle such a life any longer. Denise is not aware of anything. Thanks to the economic power provided by her husband, she helps Yves a little, but she also makes him realize that this is for the continuation of her relationship with him. It is enough to take his arm, sit in the cafes of Paris, drink coffee, kiss passionately under the trees, and sing songs together. He has such an understanding of life. He only thinks about his own pleasure. He plucks and uses whatever makes him happy.
Rène Nèmirovsky reflects the layers of society by bringing such a duo together. It implies a virtual reality with the jealousies, secret loves, night entertainments and kissing under trees in Paris’s social life.
How could Nèmirovsky know that, while reflecting on these social layers, she and her husband would soon lose their lives in those deadly camps…
ERROR
rene nemirovsky
Translated by Berna Günen
Bankas Culture Publications
Novel, 2023,133 pages
