Draft:Un Dilemme
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| Author | Joris-Karl Huysmans |
|---|---|
Publication date | 1887 |
Une Dilemme (translated A Dilemma) is an 1888 novella by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans. It is a pessimistic, satiric story about the cruelty and greed of the bourgeoisie, Huysmans's "most direct attack on bourgeois values."[1]
Plot summary
[edit]Maître Le Ponsart, a widower and the notary of Beauchamp, and his son-in-law Monsieur Lambois, also a widower and a retired businessman who aspires to elected office, meet over dinner to discuss how to recoup the assets of Lambois's son Jules, who died from typhoid fever without leaving a will. Lambois explains to Le Ponsart that before Jules's death, when Lambois went to visit his ailing son in his Paris apartment, he found Jules living with and being cared for by an unsophisticated young woman named Sophie. Jules maintained that Sophie was merely his maid, and Lambois, though disbelieving, did not contest the claim. Later, after Jules's death, Lambois receives a letter from Sophie, still living in Paris, declaring that she is pregnant with Jules's child and asking for money to support herself and the baby. Lambois and Le Ponsart devise a plan to prevent Sophie from inheriting any of Jules's money, instead splitting his assets between themselves.
Le Ponsart travels to Paris, where he finds Sophie still living in the apartment she shared with Jules. After rifling through his grandson's papers and interrogating Sophie about whether Jules signed a lease for the apartment or made out a will, Le Ponsart declares that he plans to give notice on the apartment and pay Sophie only a pittance, under the pretense that she was in fact Jules's maid and is owed a few weeks of wages for the time elapsed since Jules's death. When Sophie pleads that she was Jules's lover and is carrying his child, Le Ponsart argues that in that case, she is entitled to nothing at all, as they were not married and the child's paternity cannot be established with certainty. He gives her until noon the next day to decide whether to accept the small sum entitled to her as Jules's maid, or nothing at all.
Sophie seeks help from Madame Champagne, the owner of a stationery shop and a self-appointed defender of poor and needy women. Madame Champagne, outraged by Sophie's shoddy treatment at the hands of Maître Le Ponsart, takes Sophie's case to her lawyer, Monsieur Ballot, who unsympathetically informs the women that legally there is nothing to be done. Madame Champagne decides to confront Le Ponsart herself. Meanwhile, Le Ponsart has an unsatisfying encounter with a prostitute; she slowly coaxes money from him before rebuffing him when he moves to finally bed her.
The next day, Le Ponsart returns to Jules's apartment, where Sophie and Madame Champagne wait for him. Madame Champagne begs him to help provide for Sophie, but he is unyielding. As movers pack up Jules's furniture to be transported back to Beauchamp and Sophie gathers her belongings, Madame Champagne attempts to blackmail Le Ponsart by threatening to bring the child to Beauchamp, causing a scandal; he counters by producing a summons from the police commissioner and threatening to have both her and Sophie jailed. Defeated, Sophie signs the receipt, accepting the maid's wages and attesting she is owed nothing further.
A week later, Monsieur Lambois receives a letter from Madame Champagne concerning Sophie, which he reads to Maître Le Ponsart. As a result of the stress of finding herself homeless and penniless, Sophie has had a miscarriage and died, along with her child. Madame Champagne, having pawned her valuables to pay for Sophie's medical care, asks Lambois for money so that Sophie can receive a proper burial. Le Ponsart and Lambois burn the letter. They agree that while Sophie's death is unfortunate, it may not be altogether without benefit, for she may have gone on to cause trouble for another respectable family.
External links
[edit]- Un Dilemme at Project Gutenberg