The Heart of a Man (Simenon novel)  

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Les Volets verts (1950, English: The Heart of a Man) is a 'roman dur' by Georges Simenon. The story of the final days of an actor.

Contents

Summary

Emile Maugin, who feels exhausted, learns from the doctor who examines him that he has not long to live. This revelation leads him to take a look at himself: a fulfilled actor, he reigns tyrannically over those around him who live at his expense. Having reached the height of his fame, he likes to recall his miserable childhood in the Vendée marshes, in the bosom of a disgusting family. This is part of his legend, which he maintains by his rudeness, his brusqueness and his penchant for drink. However, he too dreams confusedly, as did his first wife, of a house with green shutters, a symbol of material success, but also of the peaceful security that he has always lacked.

Only one person can save him: Alice, a sincere and disinterested young woman. A former extra, she was pregnant when Maugin met her and made her his wife. But they seem unable to form a real couple.

Refusing the happiness that is offered to him, Maugin discovers a reason to suffer, when chance puts him in the presence of Alice's former lover, father of Baba, her little boy. Seeking rest, the actor takes a leave of absence and moves with his family to the South of France, but this change solves nothing. Idle, given over to derisory hobbies, he continues to get drunk.

In Paris, where he returns to visit an old companion from his youth who is dying in poverty, he has to be hospitalized for a gangrenous ankle injury. Far from his family, Maugin enters death without explaining the meaning of his life: what was he pursuing? What was he running away from?

Special aspects of the novel

Without any real plot, the novel unfolds the existence of an extraordinary character, encumbered by the hazards of his profession and the consequences of his past. The duration of the story extends over the few months that precede the end of the hero. This is detailed in the last chapter where it is captured through the description of a comatose state: from there a double shot where the syncopated perception of the immediate reality and the vision of a kind of judgment that scrolls the witnesses, close or distant, of a life suddenly relived.

Data sheet of the work

Space and time frame

Space

Paris. French Riviera: Antibes.

Time

Contemporary time.

The characters

Main character

Emile Maugin. Actor of theater and cinema. Married three times, one natural son.

Other characters

  • Alice, wife of Maugin, 22 years old
  • Emile Cadot, natural son of Maugin, married, five children
  • Juliette Cadot, mother of Emile Cadot
  • Adrien Jouve, the secretary.

See also





Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Heart of a Man (Simenon novel)" 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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