Un épisode Sous La Terreur
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''Un épisode sous la Terreur'' ( English "An Episode during the Terror") is a
short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
by
Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 â€“ 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...
, published in 1830. Originally titled ''Une messe en 1793'' ''(A Mass in 1793)'', the text took its final title in the Chlendowski edition of 1845. The work appears in ''Scènes de la vie politique'' ''(Scenes from Political Life)'', which is a part of the series of works that make up ''
La Comédie humaine (; English: ''The Human Comedy'') is Honoré de Balzac's 1829–48 multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and stories depicting French society in the period of the Restoration (1815–30) and the July Monarchy (1830–48). ''La Comà ...
'' ''(The Human Comedy)'', Balzac's multi-volume collection of interlinked stories. The later edition is dedicated to Monsieur Guyonnet-Merville, under whom Balzac had done his apprenticeship and studied the foundations of law.


Plot summary

An elderly woman buys a package from a bakery on 22 January 1793, and suspects she is being followed. She asks for protection from the baker, but when he sees the stranger following her he refuses. She returns home alone, and it is revealed that she is an ex-
Carmelite The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...
nun in hiding with another nun and a priest. All are elderly, and the box she bought contains communion wafers. The stranger comes up to their room, and asks the priest to say a mass for the recently executed King
Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
. He returns later to attend the mass. He also says that he will come back in a year for another mass for the king, and promises that they will be safe from any danger. He leaves a blood stained handkerchief with royal insignia as a present. The next year the stranger returns for the mass. Later, the priest visits a shop owned by some Royalist friends of his, and notices a tumbril passing by with the executioner and his victims. The priest faints when he recognises that the executioner is the stranger who has been helping them, and realises that the handerkerchief was the king's.


Historical background

The story takes place during the
Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...
, from 1793 to 1794. It starts the day after the execution of King Louis XVI. The story is fictional, but it features an historical figure,
Charles-Henri Sanson Charles-Henri Sanson, full title ''Chevalier Charles-Henri Sanson de Longval'' (; 15 February 1739 – 4 July 1806), was the royal executioner of France during the reign of King Louis XVI, as well as high executioner of the First French Republic. ...
, who was the High Executioner, and conducted the execution of Louis XVI. However the story does not give his name. The Reign of Terror was a period during which there was a process of Dechristianisation occurring in France. The nuns and priest in the story are in hiding because of this.


Inspiration

The idea of writing the story was most likely born after Balzac's meeting with Sanson's son, Henri-Nicolas-Charles Sanson, also an executioner. Perhaps the son's stories about his father— an extremely religious man despite his work—inspired Balzac to write a story that is not based on actual facts, but on the human aspect of a real life character, and on alternate events that could have taken place. ''An Episode Under the Terror'' is also a clear proof of the influence of
Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...
on Balzac's work, and is evident in the general atmosphere of the story and its structure (the mystery of the main character and the drama of the final scene).


References


External links


"An Episode under the Terror", translation (by Clara Bell) at Project Gutenberg (full text)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Episode Sous La Terreur 1830 short stories French short stories Books of La Comédie humaine Short stories by Honoré de Balzac fr:Un épisode sous la Terreur