''Man's Fate'' (French: ''La Condition humaine'', "The Human Condition") is a 1933 novel written by
André Malraux
Georges André Malraux ( , ; 3 November 1901 – 23 November 1976) was a French novelist, art theorist, and Minister of Culture (France), minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel ''La Condition Humaine'' (Man's Fate) (1933) won the Prix Go ...
about the
failed communist insurrection in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
in 1927, and the existential quandaries facing a diverse group of people associated with the revolution. Along with Les Conquérants (1928 – "The Conquerors") and La Voie Royale (1930 – "The Royal Way"), it forms a trilogy on revolution in Asia.
The novel was translated into English twice, both translations appearing in 1934, one by
Haakon Chevalier
Haakon Maurice Chevalier (Lakewood Township, New Jersey, September 10, 1901 – July 4, 1985) was an American writer, translator, and professor of French literature at the University of California, Berkeley best known for his friendship with p ...
under the title ''Man's Fate'', published by Harrison Smith & Robert Haas in New York and republished by Random House as part of their Modern Library from 1936 on, and the other by Alastair MacDonald under the title ''Storm in Shanghai'', published by Methuen in London and republished, still by Methuen, in 1948 as ''Man's Estate'', to become a Penguin pocket in 1961. Currently the Chevalier translation is the only one still in regular print.
In 1958
Hannah Arendt published ''
The Human Condition
''The Human Condition'', first published in 1958, is Hannah Arendt's account of how "human activities" should be and have been understood throughout Western history. Arendt is interested in the ''vita activa'' (active life) as contrasted with ...
'', one of her central theoretical works, whose English name is identical to the French title of Malraux's book; to avoid confusion, Arendt's book was translated in French first as ''Condition de l’homme moderne'' (''The Condition of the Modern Man''), then as ''L'Humaine Condition''.
Plot summary
The novel occurs during a 22-day period mostly in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
,
China and concerns mainly the
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
insurrection
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
ists and others involved in the conflict. The four primary
protagonists
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
are Chen Ta Erh (whose name is spelled Tchen in the French original of the book), Kyoshi ("Kyo") Gisors, the Soviet emissary Katow, and Baron Clappique. Their individual plights are intertwined throughout the book.
Chen Ta Erh is sent to assassinate an authority, succeeds, and is later killed in a failed
suicide bombing attempt on
Chiang Kai-shek. After the assassination, he becomes governed by fatality and desires simply to kill, thereby fulfill his duty as a terrorist, a duty which controls his life. This is largely the result of being so close to death since assassinating a man. He is so haunted by death and his powerlessness over inevitability that he wishes to die, just to end his torment.
Kyo Gisors is the commander of the revolt and believes that every person should choose his own meaning, not be governed by any external forces. He spends most of the story trying to keep power in the hands of the workers rather than the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
army and resolving a conflict between himself and his wife, May. He is eventually captured and, in a final act of self-determination, chooses to take his own life with cyanide.
Katow had faced execution once before, during the
Russian Civil War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Russian Civil War
, partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I
, image =
, caption = Clockwise from top left:
{{flatlist,
*Soldiers ...
and was saved at the last moment, which gives him a feeling of psychological immunity. After witnessing Kyo's death, he watches with a kind of calm detachment as his fellow revolutionaries are taken out one by one, to be thrown alive into the chamber of a steam locomotive waiting outside, intending, when his turn comes, to use his own cyanide capsule. But hearing two young Chinese activists talk with trembling fear of being burned alive, he gives them the cyanide, as there is only enough for two, so that he himself is left to face the more fearsome death. He thus dies in an act of self-sacrifice and solidarity with weaker comrades.
Baron Clappique is a French merchant, smuggler, and obsessive gambler. He helps Kyo get a shipment of guns through and is later told that Kyo will be killed unless he leaves the city in 48 hours. On the way to warn him, he gets involved with gambling and cannot stop. He considers gambling "suicide without dying". Clappique is very good-humored and always cheerful all the time but suffers inwardly. He later escapes the city dressed as a sailor.
Characters
*Chen Ta Erh – the assassin, protagonist
*Kyo Gisors – the leader of the revolt, protagonist
*Baron Clappique – a French merchant and smuggler, protagonist
*Old Gisors – Kyo's father, one-time professor of Sociology at the University of Peking, and an opium addict, acts as a guide for Kyo and Ch’en
*May Gisors – Kyo's wife and a German doctor, born in Shanghai
*Katow – a Russian, one of the organizers of the insurrection, he is burned alive for treason.
*Hemmelrich – a Belgian phonograph-dealer
*Yu Hsuan – his partner
*Kama – a Japanese painter, Old Gisors' brother-in-law
*Ferral – president of the French chamber of commerce and head of the France-Asiatic Consortium; he struggles with his relationship with Valerie because he only wishes to possess her as an object
*Valerie – Ferral's girlfriend.
*Konig – chief of Chiang Kai-shek's police
*Suan – young Chinese terrorist who helped Ch’en, later arrested in the same attack in which Ch'en was killed
*Pei – also helper of Ch’en
Awards and nominations
This book won the
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...
French literature award in 1933, and in 1999 was named number five in
Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century
The 100 Books of the Century (french: Les cent livres du siècle) is a list of the one hundred most memorable books of the 20th century, according to a poll performed during the spring of 1999 by the French retailer Fnac and the Paris newspaper ''L ...
. Since its publication, the novel has an estimated total sale (in French) of 5 million copies, all editions considered, placing the book as a bestseller in the history of the Prix Goncourt.
Critical reception
The journalist
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...
, while noting that Malraux had spent almost no time in China, claimed that the novel "pointed up the increasing weight of Asia in world affairs; it described epic moments of suffering and upheaval, in Shanghai especially (it was nearly filmed by Sergei Eisenstein); and it demonstrated a huge respect for Communism and for Communists while simultaneously evoking the tragedy of a revolution betrayed by Moscow." His biographer Olivier Todd quotes the novel as saying "It was neither true nor false but what was experienced," and remarks that Malraux's China itself was "neither true in its detail nor false overall, but it is nonetheless imaginary," and that it "cannot quite break clear of a conventional idea of China with coolies, bamboo shoots, opium smokers, destitutes, and prostitutes."
A 1972
Penguin edition of the MacDonald translation claims on its back cover that Malraux had been "a member of the revolutionary committee" in Shanghai. This claim is false.
Film adaptations
Four attempts have been made to adapt ''Man's Fate'' as a motion picture, but none came to fruition. The first involved
Fred Zinnemann
Alfred ''Fred'' Zinnemann (April 29, 1907 – March 14, 1997) was an Austrian Empire-born American film director. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and pla ...
, who spent three years preparing his film version of ''
Man's Fate'' before the producing studio,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
, cancelled the production one week before filming was to begin in November 1969. Independent producer
Sidney Beckerman hired
Costa-Gavras
Costa-Gavras (short for Konstantinos Gavras; el, Κωνσταντίνος Γαβράς; born 12 February 1933) is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for films with political and s ...
to adapt the novel and direct in 1979, but the project was abandoned when the
Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China
The Ministry of Culture (MOC) was a ministry of the government of the People's Republic of China which was dissolved on 19 March 2018. The responsibilities of the MOC, which were assumed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, encompassed cultur ...
denied permission to film in the country. The
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
director
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...
proposed adapting the novel in the 1980s to the Chinese government; they preferred his alternative proposal, ''
The Last Emperor
''The Last Emperor'' ( it, L'ultimo imperatore) is a 1987 epic biographical drama film about the life of Puyi, the final Emperor of China. It is directed by Bernardo Bertolucci from a screenplay he co-wrote with Mark Peploe, which was adapted ...
'', a
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
biopic based on the life of the
Chinese Emperor
''Huangdi'' (), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heave ...
Puyi
Aisin-Gioro Puyi (; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on 1 ...
. In 2001, U.S. filmmaker
Michael Cimino
Michael Antonio Cimino ( ; February 3, 1939 – July 2, 2016) was an American filmmaker. One of the " New Hollywood" directors, Cimino achieved fame with ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Bes ...
announced he would create a film version of ''Man's Fate'' but, as of his death, the project remained unrealized.
Selected translations
The
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
listing for Man's Fate lists translations into at least seventeen languages.
Showing all editions of ''Man's Fate''
/ref>
* (Chinese) 人的命运 ''Ren De Mingyun.'' (Chengdu: Sichuan wenyi chu ban she, 1996)
* (English) Haakon Chevalier
Haakon Maurice Chevalier (Lakewood Township, New Jersey, September 10, 1901 – July 4, 1985) was an American writer, translator, and professor of French literature at the University of California, Berkeley best known for his friendship with p ...
. ''Man's Fate.'' (New York: Modern Library, 1934)
* (English) Alistair Macdonald, tr. ''Storm in Shanghai'' Methuen 1934 reissued as ''Man's Estate'', 1948
* (Finnish) Juha Mannerkorpi, tr. ''Sielujen kapina'' he rebellion of souls(Helsinki: Tammi, 1947)
* (Hebrew) Yitzhak Shenhar, tr. חיי אנוש ''Haye-Enosh : Roman.'' (Tel Aviv: Avraham Yosef Shtibel, 1935
* (Korean) 인간의조건 ''Ingan Chokon'' (Seoul: Hongsin Munhwasa, 2012)
* (Polish) Adam Wazyk, tr.. ''Dola Czlowiecza.'' (Wroclaw .a Zaklad Narodowy Im. Ossolinskich, 2001)
* (Spanish) César A. Comet and Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
, tr. ''La Condición Humana.'' (Barcelona: Círculo de Lectores, 2001)
* (Swedish) Axel Claëson, tr. ''Människans lott'' (Stockholm: Tiden, 1934)
* (Turkish) Ali Berktay, tr. ''Insanlik Durumu'' (Istanbul: Iletisim Yayinlari, 2003)
* (Yiddish) Solomon Levadi, tr. דער גורל פון מענטש''Der Goyrl Fun Mentsh.'' (Varshe: Yidishe universal-bibliotek, 2000)
See also
*Shanghai massacre of 1927
The Shanghai massacre of 12 April 1927, the April 12 Purge or the April 12 Incident as it is commonly known in China, was the violent suppression of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations and leftist elements in Shanghai by forces supportin ...
*Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
* ''Le Monde'' 100 Books of the Century
References
{{Authority control
1933 French novels
Works by André Malraux
French historical novels
French philosophical novels
Novels about revolutionaries
Novels set in China
Novels set in the 1920s
Fiction set in 1927
Novels set in Shanghai
Chinese Civil War
History of Shanghai
Prix Goncourt winning works