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[MODERN ILLUSTRATES - FRENCH LITERATURE XXth -

GALANTERIE - DON JUANISM - NORMANDY]

JEAN DE LA VARENDE

1887-1959

Jean de La Varende

Jean Mallard de La Varende Agis de Saint-Denis, better known under the short form Jean de La Varende,

born May 24, 1887 in Chamblac (Eure) and died June 8, 1959 in Paris, is a French writer.

Author of twenty novels, ten biographies, various monographs on Normandy,

and more than two hundred short stories, La Varende is above all attached to the evocation of the Norman terroir with its country priests, its peasants, and its squires, while expressing its nostalgia for the Old Regime

and his passion for the sea and sailors.

Nez-de-Cir, gentleman of love

Nez-de-Cuir, gentilhomme d'amour is a novel by Jean de La Varende published in 1936 by Maugard.

It was written between 1930 and 1936, based on the true story of Achille Perrier de La Genevraye, the writer's great-uncle. This novel was adapted to the cinema by Yves Allégret in 1951, under the title leather nose,

with JEAN MARAIS in the lead role.

On the borders of the wild country of Ouche, on the edge of the Perche whose green hills intersect with deep gorges all traversed by flowing waters and springs, stands the castle of Tainchebraye where lived, a century ago, a man of whom the whole of Normandy took care and who survives in the memories

as a great historical disturbance.

Count Roger de Tainchebraye fought in 1814 during the French campaign. Chopped by the sabres of the Cossacks, left for dead then collected, cared for, saved, he will nevertheless keep at the age of love a crushed face which can only be an object of horror and disgust for all and for all . Thus, seriously injured in the face, Roger de Tainchebraye, a JEUNE man of 22, "Don Juan" from his native Normandy, is obliged to wear a mask which conceals his mutilation. Is it his terrible injury that makes him better loved? Mystery of the feminine heart!

We call him Nez-de-Cuir. Cynical at will, he multiplies the conquests and his adventures do not

matter more. Nez-de-Cuir was to be the most formidable Don Juan in the region for fifteen years. And his whole life will be one long frenzy, suffering and proud, which will finally rise towards God as towards the haven ardently and unconsciously sought.

Only one woman resists him, Judith de Rieusses. Roger falls madly in love with her but refuses the marriage.

Judith marries the Marquis de Brives, whose faithful friend the JEUNE man becomes. When the Marquis dies, a violent scene opposes Judith and Roger. He takes off his mask. Not supporting his decline and the pity of Judith, Nez-de-Cuir moves away forever.

Style

This epic novel is not just a deep and searing love story. Jean de La Varende was able to express the truth of a soul and expand a particular destiny to human dimensions.

Character of Roger de Tainchebraye:

Achille Perrier from La Genevraye.

Nez-de-Cuir existed. In the universe of La Varende, it was his great-uncle Marie Louis Achille Périer de La Genevraye, who was also wounded in the French campaign (1814): on March 13 Mars 1814, during the capture of Reims, he “received thirteen terrible wounds and was left for dead on the battlefield”. Born in 1787, he was the son of François Charles Guillaume Périer, Lord of Genevraye, former parish of the diocese of Lisieux (born in 1740, died March 25 Mars 1793), and Marie Madeleine Marguerite Guéroult de Freuville (1760-1833), from Mortagne-au-Perche.

He attached himself to Clarisse de La Haye, who died in 1823. General Councilor of Orne, Knight of the Legion of Honor, he died on July 31, 1853, leaving his property and his seat to his son, Count Louis de la Genevraye (born in 1819, died May 18, 1892). The Château de la Genevraye, near Le Merlerault, then passed into the Gasté family.

La Varende composed his novel with letters from the hero kept in the family archives and by taking up the memories he had left in the region. The Tainchebraye pavilion, in the woods, also exists.

It is called la Gallardière, and is located near Mortagne-au-Perche.

In Beaumesnil, too, we find the memory of Roger de Tainchebraye and Judith de Rieusses.

Beaumesnil, in Nez-de-Cuir, is called “Mesnilroyal”.

"Leather Nose"

gentleman of love

Paris, Marcel Lubineau, 1941 (25 November)

Beautiful book illustrated with many beautiful original compositions

in color, woodcut by

SYLVAIN SAUVAGE

(1897-1976)

Félix Roy, known as SYLVAIN SAUVAGE , born in Baume-les-Messieurs ( jura ) on May 8, 1888

and died in Paris in January 1948 is a French illustrator and book technician.