Gaston Cherpillod

Le Chêne brûlé

«On voit bien que du côté de chez Swann on n’a jamais souffert de la faim: on respectait la nourriture, maigre et chèrement acquise, du côté de chez Cherpillod.»

«Théoda», published in 1944, was the first novel of S. Corinna Bille (1912-1979). The daughter of the painter Edmond Bille had been living for a year with her future husband, Maurice Chappaz, following the break-up of her first marriage. In 1939, she had published «Printemps», a collection of poetry. «Théoda» is a sudden leap, both in style and subject matter, into the universe of this author from the Valais region of Switzerland. The novel makes use of short, vibrant phrases to describe the archaic lifestyle of farmers in the canton of Valais. Following the rhythm of the seasons and catholic festivals, they travel from one village to the next, journeying continually between Pragnin in the valley and the high-altitude Terroua. The Romyr family’s two eldest sons each stray from the well-trodden path in their own way. Barnabé marries a «foreigner», the lovely and proud Théoda, who comes from a distant village. Léonard joins the foreign legion and leaves for Algeria then Indochina. Watched by the rural community, the love-affair of an illegitimate couple emerges. The lovers Théoda and Rémi murder Barnabé and are executed in the canton’s capital. The narrative, based on historical facts, is told by Marceline, one of Barnabé’s younger sisters and by Léonard, who was only seven at the time of the fateful marriage. Corinna Bille uses the innocent and observant eyes of the child and the perspective of the young girl on her fascinating and disturbing sister-in-law to create two female characters of rare substance.

(Ruth Gantert, transl. by Andrea Mason Willfratt)

Translation of title: The Burned Oak

L’Aire/Coopérative rencontre, Lausanne 1969

ISBN: 978-2-8251-2497-0