 First edition | |
| Author | Marc Dugain |
|---|---|
| Original title | La chambre des officiers |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre | War novel |
| Published | 1998 by JC Lattès |
Published in English | 1999 |
| Pages | 172 p. |
| ISBN | 978-2-7096-1903-5 |
| OCLC | 40167608 |
| 840 | |
| LC Class | PQ2664.U3479 |
The Officers' Ward (French, La chambre des officiers), is a novel by Marc Dugain, published in 1998 (1999 in English). It is supposedly based on the experiences of one of the author's own ancestors during World War I. [1]
Adrien Fournier, a handsome lieutenant in the Engineers, is the narrator and main protagonist. [2] Adrien is wounded on a simple reconnaissance mission on the first day of French involvement in the Great War. He is hit by a stray shell, which kills his fellow officers and his horse, and destroys the centre of Adrien's face. Devastated and permanently disfigured, he spends the rest of the war in a hospital, in a maxillofacial unit, with a small group of others who have similar injuries—including a woman, Marguerite, who has been wounded while nursing at the Western Front. Adrien's palate and jaw are gradually reconstructed by pioneering plastic surgeons.
The novel follows the experiences of the group in the aftermath of the war and their subsequent lives, right up to World War II and beyond.
The novel won eighteen literary prizes [3] and was made into a film in 2001, directed by François Dupeyron and starring Eric Caravaca as the central character.
Literature about World War I is generally thought to include poems, novels and drama; diaries, letters, and memoirs are often included in this category as well. Although the canon continues to be challenged, the texts most frequently taught in schools and universities are lyrics by Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen; poems by Ivor Gurney, Edward Thomas, Charles Sorley, David Jones and Isaac Rosenberg are also widely anthologized. Many of the works during and about the war were written by men because of the war's intense demand on the young men of that generation; however, a number of women created literature about the war, often observing the effects of the war on soldiers, domestic spaces, and the home front more generally.
The Prix des Deux Magots is a major French literary prize. It is presented to new works, and is generally awarded to works that are more off-beat and less conventional than those that receive the more mainstream Prix Goncourt.
The Revue des deux Mondes is a monthly French-language literary, cultural and current affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829.
Marc Dugain is a French novelist and film director, best known for La Chambre des Officiers (1999), a novel set in World War I.
The Officers' Ward, is a 2001 French film, directed by François Dupeyron and starring Eric Caravaca as the central character. It was based on the novel by Marc Dugain, which in turn was based on the experiences of one of the author's own ancestors during World War I. The film received nine nominations at the 27th César Awards, winning Best Supporting Actor for André Dussollier and Best Cinematography for Tetsuo Nagata.
The Roger Nimier Prize is a French literature award. It is supposed to go to "a young author whose spirit is in line with the literary works of Roger Nimier". Nimier (1925–1962) was a novelist and a leading member of the Hussards movement. The prize was established in 1963 at the initiative of André Parinaud and Denis Huisman and is handed out annually during the second half of May. It comes with a sum of 5000 euro.
Geoffroy Velten, or Godfried Velten was a French brewer, newspaper proprietor and politician who became a member of the Senate of France.
Joseph Marie Philippe Thierry was a French lawyer and politician. He was deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône from 1898 to 1918. He was Minister of Public Works in 1913 and Minister of Finance in 1917. As Minister of Finance he introduced reforms that made the newly introduced income tax more progressive.
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Julia Billet is a French writer, novelist, author of short stories and poetry.
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Small Country is a novel set in Burundi by the Franco-Rwandan rapper, songwriter and novelist, Gaël Faye. It was first published in France in August 2016 by Grasset, and has since been translated into 36 languages.
Camille Bourniquel was a French poet, novelist and painter.
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Adrien Paul Alexandre Chrétien was a French general who participated in World War I. He spent the war commanding the 30th Army Corps at throughout several battles of the Western Front.
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