Les mariés de l’an 9: deux destins dans la Grande Guerre par Colette et François Dijoux (review)

Reviews 219 thèmes tragiques (la déception du quotidien, la mort, l’amour impossible, l’incapacité de communiquer avec autrui) traduisent une tristesse et un désespoir profonds. Eastern Illinois University Kathryn M. Bulver Dijoux, Colette et François. Les mariés de l’an 9: deux destins dans la Grande Guerre. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2014. ISBN 978-2-343-03331-0. Pp. 256. 22 a. The remembrance of World War One a hundred years after its outbreak was not overlooked in the publishing business.Among the numerous French publications, this family chronicle is a remarkable tribute to the grandparents of Colette Dijoux. It is based on authentic source material, the diary or carnet de marche of Hippolyte Carbonneau (1883–1947), a lieutenant in the 15th Army Corps, 55th Infantry Regiment. He is sent to the front on 7 August 1914, and is withdrawn from the battlefield after his fourth injury, shortly before the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918. Almost two years later, in June of 1920, he receives the Croix de Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and the Médaille commémorative de la Grande Guerre. At the end of 1921, he is promoted to captain, and more medals follow. However, his war injuries soon start to haunt him and cause extended hospitalization. He eventually settles with his wife Rose née Eyguesier (1883–1971) in Ventabren near Aix-en-Provence and dedicates his final years to cultural and social projects.Although it is not really a novel, the publisher has placed the book by the Dijoux couple into the series Romans historiques, XXe siècle. For the most part, it is a historical document, the history of a French couple married in 1909 in Aix-en-Provence, the bride’s hometown. Because most of the wife’s letters were lost, the author or chronologist recurs to descriptions of her reactions and sometimes creates a dialogue scenario, whereas the diary entries of the officer, who is fighting at the war front, often focus on weather, geographic data, lists of other soldiers, food, and the daily grind of war in the infamous trenches.Whenever justified, Carbonneau does not hesitate to report that the enemy behaved correctly toward the civilian population, as well as toward prisoners of war. Dijoux, who acts both as author in his own right and as editor of historic material, adds letters written to Carbonneau by other soldiers to give a more precise overview of the war experience. On the lighter side are the linguistic and historic excursions that Dijoux, born on the island of La Réunion,undertakes into the Creole environment—the father of Hippolyte Carbonneau was a correction officer in Cayenne, the capital of French Guyana, and his mother was a native beauty. The author applies a certain irony to the description of nineteenthcentury colonial life,which almost appears idyllic as documented by examples of Creole folklore. Les mariés de l’an 9 is a noteworthy contribution both to the commemorative literature of World War One and to the local historiography of Aix-en-Provence. Ocean County College, NJ, emeritus Gert Niers ...