The Disintegration of JPG
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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L'Évadé (1936) is a 'roman dur' by Georges Simenon, translated in English as The Disintegration of JPG, a tale of man's descent into madness.
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Plot
Jean-Paul Guillaume, known as J.-P. G., is a respectable and respected teacher at the Lycée de La Rochelle, where he has been teaching German for eighteen years, Jean-Paul Guillaume will scandalize his relatives by a strange behavior, which coincides with the arrival in the city of Mado, the new manicurist at the hairdresser's. Put on “sick leave” for three days, Guillaume spends his time drinking pernods in cafes and reminiscing...
In 1905, in Paris, under his real name of Georges Vaillant, he had for friend a prostitute, who is none other than Mado. Chance having deprived them of resources, he committed a murder. Sentenced to ten years of forced labor on Guyana, he escapes prison after two years, thanks to Mado's financial assistance.
This provides him with false papers in the name of Jean-Paul Guillaume. Mado's presence in La Rochelle frightens J.-P. G. and excites him at the same time. To free himself from his past debt, he takes 2,000 francs from the marital account and sends them to Mado. The latter, who has not recognized her former lover, refuses the money. J.-P. G.'s bizarre attitude leads to a family crisis and arouses comments from the town's notables. Thanks to a combination of circumstances, they discover that the identity of J.-P. G. is false. Warned by his son Antoine, the former teacher flees, taking his children's savings. In Paris, he searches in vain for false papers. So he lets himself be won over by madness: he undresses in the middle of a dance hall. Taken by the police, he is taken to the asylum.
Analysis
Novel of marginality camouflaged under the honorable existence of a man whose past leads him to make him cross the gap that leads him to fall.
Details
Time and space
Space
La Rochelle. Paris. Reference to Liège (and the Exposition universelle de 1905).
Time
1930s.
Characters
Protagonist
Georges Vaillant, alias Jean-Paul Guillaume, known as J.-P. G., teacher at the Lycée de La Rochelle (he is a polyglot), after having previously worked for an organization of clandestine games. Married, two children. In his fifties.
Other characters
- Jeanne Lamarck, daughter of a colonel of administration, wife of J.-P. G.
- Hélène, daughter of J.-P. G., 16 years old
- Antoine, son of J.-P. G., of whom he is a student, 15 years old
- Mme Mado, Parisian manicurist, originally from Orleans, around 50 years old.
See also
Liste des œuvres de Georges Simenon
