The Rich Man  

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Le Riche Homme (1970) is a 'roman dur' by Georges Simenon. It tells the story of Victor Lecoin, a powerful and rich man in the mussels and oysters trade in a small seaside village falls in love with Alice, his 16-year old maid. While away for one night because of the funeral of his wife's sister, Alice cheats on Victor and Doudou-le-muet, Victor's deaf-mute servant kills her.

Contents

Summary

Victor Lecoin, nicknamed "the rich man," owned a large bouchot in the village of Marsilly (Charente-Maritime), where his physical strength, size, and prosperity gave him an authority that the envy and mockery of some cannot alter. At his service and serving him like his shadow, Doudou-le-muet is a simple man who is attached to him by an almost animal devotion. To help him with the accounting of his business, Lecoin can count on his wife, a former schoolteacher with whom he had an excellent relationship, more professional than marital. Victor Lecoin, for his sexual needs, used other relationships of which he made no secret.

The arrival of a new maid, who had come from a neighboring town where she had almost fallen victim to a farmer's schemes, turns his life upside down. He, so insensitive, begins to appreciate the presence of Alice, a graceless, indifferent and somewhat secretive teenager (as in Sunday. At first troubled by this youth, Lecoin soon falls sincerely in love with her. The affection he feels will lead to a carnal intimacy during the few days Jeanne Lecoin is away, called to the bedside of her sister who is dying of cancer. When Victor Lecoin returns from his sister-in-law's funeral, he finds Alice strangled in her room. Suspicion immediately falls on Doudou. Doudou, who has his own way of communicating with his boss by gestures, reveals the truth: Théo, a villager and Lecoin's enemy, has taken advantage of the young maid while the master was away. To avenge the honor of the master, Doudou executed the culprit and was preparing to do the same to his accomplice; but the police intervened in time. He will be interned in an asylum. As for the "rich man", he is devastated and mourns his only love.

Special aspects of the novel

The police plot is mixed with the psychological analysis of a late love lived in tenderness by the hero, and all the more unexpected as it is based on a fundamental contrast in the characters' situation.

Data sheet of the work

Space and time frame

Space

Marsilly, near La Rochelle.

Time

Contemporary era.

Characters

Main character

Victor Lecoin. Boucholeur (mussel farmer - regional term). Married, no children. In his fifties.

Other characters

  • Jeanne Lecoin, his wife, age 50
  • Alice, an orphan, a servant in the Lecoin household, 16 years old
  • Doudou-le-muet, Victor Lecoin's valet
  • Théo Porchet, tinsmith.

Adaptations

  • 1988 : Le Riche Homme, episode 9 of the French L'Heure Simenon, directed by Jan Keja


Adaptations




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Rich Man" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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