Aboard the Aquitaine
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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« Il n'y avait pas de drame. Rien que des incidents risibles. Et des hasards successifs !... » |
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Aboard the Aquitaine (1936, original title 45° à l'ombre meaning 45 degrees in the shade) is a 'roman dur' by Georges Simenon.
The action takes place on a ocean liner from Matadi to Bordeaux, via Pointe-Noire, Port-Gentil, Port-Bouet and Tenerife.
The protagonist is Donadieu, a naval surgeon who has had a long career on these ocean liners, uses opium every evening, and who often reminisces about fate.
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Summary
Donadieu, a doctor who has been navigating intercontinental seafaring for years, is assigned to "Aquitaine". His existence, without glamour and without surprise ("There was no drama. Nothing but laughable incidents. And successive coincidences! ..."), is marked by the intrigues between the passengers and the encounters that his job involve. Some of these arouse his curiosity, like two couples among the first-class passengers. On the one hand, the Hurets, who have never been able to adapt to colonial life and who return to Europe without money, with a seriously ill baby; it is the mother who looks after the latter, cloistered in her cabin, while the husband, torn between despair and cynicism, does not hesitate to have fun. On the other hand, the Bassots, whose husband, a former doctor, has gone mad, while his wife leads a happy life with the officers on board. To this are added some usual twists and turns: the recriminations of Lachaux, a type of rich and eternally discontented passenger; the intrigue that develops between Mme Dassonville and an attendant, then between her and Huret; the embarkation of three hundred Annamese, decimated by tropical diseases ...
On arrival in Bordeaux, an ambulance awaits Bassot to take him to the asylum. The Hurets will lead a mediocre existence in France, while Donadieu, still the on-board doctor, will be on the route to India.
Particular aspects of the novel
The setting of the novel as well as the narrative is told from the point of view of the doctor allows the narrator to describe a kind of microcosm of society, and more particularly of colonial society, through some of its representatives.
Data sheet of the book
Spatio-temporal framework
Space
On board the liner "L'Aquitaine", which connects Matadi (mouth of the Congo) to Bordeaux, passing through Pointe-Noire, Port-Gentil , Port-Bouet and Tenerife.
Time
Contemporary period.
The characters
Main character
Donadieu. Doctor. Single. Mature age.
Other characters
- Huret, accountant in Brazzaville, his wife and their six-month-old child, passengers on the boat
- Bassot, a former colonial infantry doctor, and his wife, also passengers.
Translations
English
It was translated in English in the collection African Trio (1979) translated by Paul Auster and Lydia Davis.
Dutch
45 graden in de schaduw, 1966, Wagensveld
See also
