''The Counterfeiters'' (french: Les Faux-monnayeurs) is a 1925 novel by French author , first published in . With many characters and crisscrossing plotlines, its main theme is that of the original and the copy, and what differentiates them – both in the external plot of the counterfeit

gold coin A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia, Canadian Maple Leaf, and American Buffa ...

s and in the portrayal of the characters' feelings and their relationships. ''The Counterfeiters'' is a novel-within-a-novel, with (the alter ego of ) intending to write a book of the same title. Other stylistic devices are also used, such as an

omniscient narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

who sometimes addresses the reader directly, weighs in on the characters' motivations or discusses alternate realities. Therefore, the book has been seen as a precursor of the . The structure of the novel was written to mirror "

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

", in that it interweaves between several different plots and portrays multiple points of view. The novel features a considerable number of

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

male characters – the adolescent and at least to a certain unacknowledged degree his friend , in all likelihood their schoolfellows and , and finally the adult writers the (who represents an evil and corrupting force) and the (more benevolent) . An important part of the plot is its depiction of various possibilities of positive and negative homoerotic or homosexual relationships. Initially received coldly on its appearance, perhaps because of its homosexual themes and its unusual composition, ''The Counterfeiters'' has gained reputation in the intervening years and is now generally counted among the

Western canon The Western canon is the body of high culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly valued in the West; works that have achieved the status of classics. However, not all these works originate in the Western world, and ...

of literature. The making of the novel, with letters, newspaper clippings and other supporting material, was documented by in his 1927 ''Journal of The Counterfeiters''.

Plot summary

The plot revolves around – a schoolfriend of 's who is preparing for his – discovering he is a

bastard Bastard may refer to: Parentage * Illegitimate child, a child born to unmarried parents ** Bastard (law of England and Wales), illegitimacy in English law People People with the name * Bastard (surname), including a list of people with that na ...

and taking this as a welcome pretext for running away from home. He spends a night in 's bed (where describes a recent visit to a prostitute and how he did not find the experience very enjoyable). After steals the suitcase belonging to , 's uncle, and the ensuing complications, he is made 's

secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...

. is jealous and ends up in the hands of the cynical and downright diabolical , who travels with him to the

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. Eventually, and decide they do not fit as well together as anticipated, and leaves to take a job at a school, then finally decides to return to his father's home. is now made 's secretary, and after an eventful evening on which he embarrasses himself grossly, ends up in bed together with , finally fulfilling the attraction they have felt for each other all along but were unable to express. Other plotlines are woven around these elements, such as 's younger brother and his involvement with a ring of counterfeiters, or his older brother and his relationship with , a married woman, with whom he has a child. Perhaps the most suspenseful scene in the book revolves around Boris, another illegitimate child and the grandson of , who commits suicide in front of the assembled class when dared by , another of 's cohorts. In some regards, such as the way in which the adolescents act and speak in a way beyond their years and the incompetence of the adults (especially the fathers), as well as its motives of developing and confused adolescent sexuality, the novel has common ground with

Frank Wedekind Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 – March 9, 1918) was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the de ...

's (at the time scandalous) 1891 drama '' Spring Awakening''. ''The Counterfeiters'' also shares with that play the vision of homosexual relationships as under certain conditions being "better" than heterosexual ones, with the latter ones leading inevitably to destructive outcomes in both works.

The characters and their relationships

As the novel unfolds, many different characters and plotlines intertwine. This

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

graph shows how the most important characters in ''The Counterfeiters'' are related to each other: Counterfeiters - Character Network

Relationship to ''The Thibaults''

Some of the situations in the novel closely parallel those of the major novel of 's good friend, , ''

The Thibaults ''The Thibaults'' () is a multi-volume ''roman-fleuve'' (French, novel sequence) by Roger Martin du Gard, which follows the fortunes of two brothers, Antoine and Jacques Thibault, from their upbringing in a prosperous Catholic bourgeois family to ...

'', which was published in installments beginning in 1922. Both novels center around two adolescent boys who have an intense (although apparently non-erotic) relationship and artistic or literary aspirations; both begin with one boy () or both boys () running away from home; both delve into the lives of the boys' siblings, including an older brother who is, at the beginning of the narrative, in training to be a physician; in both novels one of the boys becomes the protégé of an older man regarded as being of questionable character and edits a magazine under his direction; and in both novels there is a banquet scene in a public restaurant that corresponds to a falling out between the boy and his mentor. In manner there is little resemblance between the two novels, and in the later parts of 's sequence (not completed until 1940) the correspondences are less notable. The two authors read each other parts of their respective manuscripts prior to publication, and remained on good terms thereafter, so it appears that neither felt wronged in any way by the similarities. Gide acknowledged the influence of 's novel in a letter to the author dated July 8, 1925.

Possible identification of characters with real-life persons

Besides bearing the character traits of himself, some of his characters have also been identified with actual persons: in this view, is seen as alluding to , to , and to 's cousin and eventual wife . According to the historian of psychoanalysis Elizabeth Roudinesco, the character of is based on , with whom had been in analysis in 1921. is also present in the party scene under his real name and his is mentioned, meaning that the plot must be set between 1896 (the premiere of ) and 1907 ('s death). 's journal entry in chapter 12 of the third part, which makes mention of a 1904 vintage wine, seems to confirm this supposition with a more specific range of time in which the novel is likely to be set. The setting must take place at least after 1898, the year in which the shipwreck of occurred.

2010 film adaptation

In 2010, a French TV film based on the novel was directed by , starring as , as , and Dolores Chaplin as Lady Lilian Griffith.

References

External links

*
"Gide's Rhetoric of Acceptance in ''Les Faux-monnayeurs''" by Eric Mader"Gide's Fictional Technique" by Justin O'Brien
* * **Second page
Archived
from the original on October 13, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Counterfeiters, The 1925 French novels Novels by André Gide French LGBT novels Metafictional novels Novels with gay themes 1920s LGBT novels Works about money forgery Éditions Gallimard books French novels adapted into films Modernist novels Novels set in Paris