The Accomplices  

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"Il continuait à sentir la douleur dans sa joue gauche mais elle ne méritait plus le nom de douleur, transformée en plaisir, en une sorte de volupté, la première, en somme, qu'il eût connue."

English:

"He continued to feel pain in his left cheek, but it no longer deserved to be called pain, it had been transformed into pleasure, a kind of sensual pleasure, the first such pleasure he had ever experienced."--The Accomplices (1956) by Georges Simenon

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The Accomplices (1956, French: Les Complices) is a novel by Georges Simenon.

There is a 1977 translation by Bernard Frechtman. This story has been compared to the novels of Patricia Highsmith, mainly due to the antipathy of the protagonist.

Contents

Summary

After inspecting one of his construction sites, Joseph Lambert drives home with his secretary, Edmonde Pampin. In Château-Roisin, a summer camp bus carrying forty children tries to avoid Lambert's car, while he, having sex with his passenger (fellatio?), drives in the middle of the road. Th bus makes a swerve against a wall takes fire, all its occupants are charred, except a little girl seriously burned. Edmonde did not flinch at the accident and Lambert, although panic-stricken, continues on his way. Back in Tréfoux, where the event has turned the town upside down, he learns the horror of the tragedy for which he is responsible. His life then begins to be divided in two: on the one hand, the secret that overwhelms him, and on the other, the usual routine shared between the office, the construction sites and the bridge games. At the same time as the police investigation, the private investigation of the bus's insurance company continues, seeking to discover the motorist who caused the accident. Lambert is afraid to be identified. Edmonde is indifferent and has not said anything and will not say anything. One day, however, when her boss wants to take her, as usual, to an isolated corner of the countryside, she feels blocked, apologizes

"I can't..."

In the meantime, Joseph Lambert tries in vain to find some consolation around him: with his wife, with whom he has never had any real contact, and with Léa, an easy-going and kind young woman who is his occasional mistress. But as he cannot really confide in them, his despondency persists, all the more so because after so much effort spent to achieve success, he, who was always believed to be insensitive, suffers like an injustice of fate this misfortune that he did not want. The difficulties he experiences with his brother, co-manager of the family business, only exacerbate his unease. However, if suspicions were to fall on him, he would not shy away, it is decided. But the suspicions pass by him. Unable to survive his torment, Joseph Lambert shoots himself in the head.

Analysis of the novel

The story includes flashbacks to allow the hero to situate himself in relation to the painful event he is experiencing. The complicity that unites the main character and his employee is fortuitous and results from an involuntary drama. It develops in the first one a feeling of remorse based on a guilt which refuses to admit it (see the final message destroyed in extremis): "I am not guilty".

Characters

  • Joseph Lambert, director of a construction company founded by his father. Married, no children. Middle age.


See also




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